Another view on the renting vs. buying debate has been published by the Halifax Building Society in the UK.

Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert said recently on the BBC that too many people overstretch themselves in order to buy, sometimes settling for an interest-only mortgage (see my recent post on that aspect: LINK);  and he commented: “renting is not a dirty word.” However, according to Monday’s copy of The Independent’s budget edition the “i” (by “budget”, I mean 20 pence: that’s what we’re about on this site), the Halifax has published data showing that renting is more expensive than buying, by an average of £120 / month through the UK, with the largest difference (£193) in London.

The “i” report said: “Latest figures from Halifax show that buying a property in the UK is more affordable than renting.”

If I were a cynic, I’d say “the Halifax’s business depends on lending money for house purchases, so they would say that, wouldn’t they?” But I’m no more than averagely cynical, so I wonder what costs were included in the costs of ownership. So I shall investigate.

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Investigation part 1: as you’ll see from the comments in the link below, the “cost of buying” probably (I’m not 100% sure) assumed a very low mortgage interest rate – around 2% is achievable now – but only if you have a very high deposit,  maybe 35-40% of the purchase price, which is out of the question for most people. Certainly out of the question for first time buyers; and that’s the group that would be most interested in the “shall I buy or shall I continue renting” debate.

Memo to self: “investigate further!”

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

For more on the Halifax report, click HERE.  It’s from a regional newspaper : I can’t find the report via the Halifax site.