Buyers with a 10% deposit have been paying about the same per month as renters, research from Hamptons found.
Hamptons Lettings Index revealed that, on average, the monthly mortgage payment for a first-time buyer (FTB) stood at £1,328, compared to an average rent of £1,356.
In regions including London, the South East, South West, and East of England, it remained cheaper to rent than buy each month.
Meanwhile, regions in the North, Midlands, Wales, and Scotland saw buying come out cheaper than renting.
The research also found that the mortgage rate needed to make renting and buying cost the same also depends on the region.
In London, a 4.6% mortgage rate closed the gap, while buyers in the North East would need a 6.9% rate before rent became cheaper than a mortgage.
The data also revealed regional differences, with the average London renter paying £2,255 a month, £115 less than the average mortgage payment.
In the North East, renters paid £836, £146 more than the average mortgage payment.
Additionally, research found that, at typical rates for FTBs with a 10% deposit, it took 16.5 years for mortgage repayments to outweigh the interest.
At the 2023 peak of 6.57%, buyers would take 19.5 years to reach this point, compared to just one year at rates of 2.38% in early 2022.
Furthermore, rental costs for new tenancies increased by 1.5% in the year to March 2025, reaching £1,356 a month.
Growth remained below 2% for three straight months, and was outpaced by general inflation.
Renewing tenants paid £1,250 a month on average, £106 less than new renters, and saw renewal costs rise 4.2%.
London rents for new lets fell 1.7% to £2,255, the lowest in nearly two years.
Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, said: “Since the 1980s, it’s typically taken an economic shock for renting to drop materially below the cost of buying.
“When this happens, it’s almost always driven by the cost of buying rising rapidly, pushed up by mortgage rates jumping for those with smaller deposits who are perceived to be riskier borrowers when prices may fall. But we are now seeing the impact of the inflation shock unwinding.
“Relative to the cost of paying a mortgage, rents tend to be much less volatile. Typically, they’re tightly tied to both wages and inflation.”
Beveridge added: “This means that while they rarely fall, they also tend to rise more slowly unless general inflation escapes its 2% target.
“When this happens, rents are often driven up by the higher costs faced by landlords, like we saw in 2022-2023, ranging from higher mortgage payments to bigger bills from tradesmen.
“Should central banks perceive an emerging trade war as a growing threat to economic growth, it could create room for faster rate cuts.”
She added: “This could translate into falling mortgage rates, potentially cutting the cost of both buying and potentially renting too.
“Given these costs form a large part of official inflation statistics, this would put material downward pressure on the headline inflation figure.”
