Buy vs Rent

The SST reports:

FOR THE first time in years, buying your first home is cheaper than renting. New figures released by interest.co.nz reveal affordability has tipped in favour of buying it now costs slightly less each week to pay the mortgage on a typical first home than to rent a similar property. …

The interest.co.nz figures show that in April it took 23.2% of the typical first-home buyer’s income to pay the mortgage on an entry-level house. Renting that same house would take a fraction more 23.3% of weekly take-home pay.

I’m going to start looking at property to buy in around nine months. I think prices will drop a wee bit further yet.