Zoopla.co.uk: Renting More Expensive Than Buying in 8 out of 10 British Cities

LONDON, June 16, 2011 -

According to Zoopla.co.uk, the Average
Cost of Renting
is Now 9.7% Higher
Than Owning; Milton Keynes and London are
Ideal Places to buy as
Owners can Save Thousands
of Pounds a
Year.

Renting a home in Britain is currently 9.7% more expensive than
owning on average. And it is cheaper to buy instead of rent in four
in five of the 50 largest towns and cities across the country,
according to the latest research from leading property website href="www.zoopla.co.uk/">Zoopla.co.uk.

The research looks at the current asking prices and rents of
two-bedroom flats around the country and assumes interest-only
mortgage payments of 5% p.a. to provide a comparison to the cost of
renting.

The range of results by location provides some very interesting
insight into where it is best to rent instead of buy and vice
versa. Milton Keynes tops the list of places where renting is the
far less attractive option with average rents exceeding the cost of
servicing a mortgage by a staggering 43%, leaving renters there on
average £2,964 per year worse off compared to owners. At the other
end of the scale, it is currently much more cost effective to href="www.zoopla.co.uk/to-rent/">rent a property in
Poole than buy with renting 27% cheaper and the average tenant
better off by £3,240 per year by renting instead of buying.

Even in London, which has by far the highest property prices in
the country and where the average 2 bedroom flat is going for
£431,366, buying is still 16% more cost-effective than renting.
With average rents at £2,137 per month in the capital versus an
average cost of a 5% interest-only mortgage at £1,797 per month,
renters pay an extra £4,080 annually compared to owners.

Nicholas Leeming, business development director of
Zoopla.co.uk, said: “The relative cost of renting as opposed to
buying has increased over the past 12 months as rents have risen
and house prices and interest rates have remained flat. Almost
750,000 would-be first-time buyers have reluctantly ended up as
renters over the past 3 years as a result of being unable to get a
mortgage. With current href="www.zoopla.co.uk/house-prices/uk/">UK house prices
and interest rates where they are and with rents on the rise, for
those who can get a mortgage, there may never have been a better
time to buy. “

Full list of the top 50 locations: href="www.zoopla.co.uk/rentbuy">www.zoopla.co.uk/re
ntbuy  

About Zoopla.co.uk

Zoopla.co.uk is the UK’s most comprehensive property website,
focused on empowering consumers with the resources they need to
make better-informed property decisions. We help our users make
sense of the residential property market by combining property
listings with market value data, local information and community
tools.

www.zoopla.co.uk
was founded on the principles of transparency and efficiency and
everything we do aims to make the market more effective for both
property consumers and professionals alike. Our mission is to
provide the most useful online property experience by:

• displaying property listings along with value and price trend
  information
• providing rich property data and local market information in
  one place
• enabling users to search for property in a variety of
  customised ways
• allowing users to engage with professionals via our tools like
  AskMe!
• building relationships between home owners and local estate
  agents

By combining free, instant value estimates for every UK home
with sold prices, local market information and hundreds of
thousands of properties available for sale and to rent,
Zoopla.co.uk has become the ultimate destination for property
consumers to search for property and do their market research. We
are the UK’s fastest growing property website and are proud to have
been named ‘Best Property Portal 2009′ (Daily Mail UK Property
Awards).

Our unique features, like AskMe!™ and TemptMe!™ allow users to
gain an insight into the market and discover information they won’t
find anywhere else. And our AskAnAgent feature has rapidly become
one of the most valued sources of vendor leads for UK estate
agents. We calculate our value estimates using a proprietary
algorithm (secret formula) that continuously analyses millions of
data points relating to property sales and home characteristics
throughout the UK. Our estimates are constantly refined, using the
most recent data available and a variety of methodologies, in order
to provide the most current information on any home.

Zoopla Ltd is a privately held company with a highly experienced
and proven management team, backed by well-respected angel
investors and leading venture capital firms href="www.atlasventure.com/">Atlas Venture and href="www.octopusventures.com/">Octopus Ventures.

For further information, please contact: Lawrence Hall at lawrence.hall at zoopla.co.uk or on +44(0)20-7620-4618