According to Zoopla, renting is currently more affordable than buying a home.

For the first time since 2010, mortgage rate increases have made renting more affordable than buying a property, according to Zoopla.

According to the real estate website, the average rent in the UK is £1,163 per month, while the average mortgage payment for first-time homebuyers with a 15% down payment is £1,285.

According to Zoopla, the areas with greater mortgage payments compared to rent include London and the South East.

However, purchasing is still more affordable in places like Scotland and northern England.

According to Moneyfacts, a financial information firm, the average two-year fixed-rate mortgage is currently 6.76%. It is 6.24% for a five-year fixed agreement.

Early in 2021, rates for fixed mortgages with terms of two or five years were around 3%.

According to Richard Donnell, head of insights at Zoopla, "ultra low mortgage rates" have made it "much cheaper to buy than rent" during the past ten years.

Despite the fact that rents have also been rapidly increasing, he claimed that this tendency has been reversed.

Rent is, on average, £122 less expensive per month than a mortgage payment.

Based on the average UK home's worth of £263,000 and a first-time buyer's 15% deposit of £39,500, Zoopla made their figure. The average monthly mortgage payment and average rental price were then compared.

The disparity was most noticeable in London, where a typical home costs about $522,000 there. According to Zoopla, the typical monthly rent payment is £493 less than the typical monthly mortgage payment.

As a result of the Bank of England raising benchmark interest rates to combat excessive inflation, which gauges the pace at which prices grow, mortgage rates have increased.

Since December 2021, the Bank has raised interest rates 14 times, most recently from 5% to 5.25%, the highest level in 15 years.

Though financial markets believe rates may be at their high, it is unclear what the Bank will do in the following months.

(Sources: bbc.co.uk, moneyfacts.co.uk)