Aberdeen is the cheapest city to be a first-time buyer, with the average asking price coming to £102,601, a report has stated.
According to Rightmove, the average monthly mortgage payment in Aberdeen is £406 per month, assuming a 20% deposit on a five-year fixed rate mortgage at 4.84% over the course of 35 years. It also assumes a first-time buyer property of two bedrooms or fewer.
Aberdeen is followed by Bradford, Sunderland, Carlisle, Preston, Hull, Dundee, Stoke-on-Trent, Durham and Doncaster to round out the top 10 cheapest cities in which to buy as a first-time buyer in the UK.
On the flip side, London is the most expensive city in which to be a first-time buyer, with the average asking price coming to £501,934 and the average monthly mortgage repayment per month pegged at £1,862.
The most expensive cities in which to be a first-time buyer were then St Albans, Cambridge, Winchester, Oxford, Brighton, Bristol, Chelmsford, York and Edinburgh.
Earlier this month, it was reported that London had the top three most expensive streets in the UK.
Carlisle cheapest city to rent
Looking at the rental market, the cheapest city in which to rent was Carlisle at £607 per month, followed by Hull at £638 and Sunderland at £648.
Stoke-on-Trent, Doncaster, Bradford, Wrexham, Lancaster, Aberdeen and Preston rounded out the rest of the top 10 cheapest cities in which to rent.
Unsurprisingly, the most expensive city in which to rent is London, where the average monthly rent is £2,264, followed by Oxford at £1,561 and Cambridge at £1,533.
This was followed by St Albans, Brighton, Bristol, Winchester, Edinburgh, Chelmsford and Milton Keynes.
Overall, the report found that mortgage payment for a typical first-time buyer-type property is £53 more than this time last year, versus an £81 increase for renters.
The report stated that, for those who saved an average deposit of 20% to 25%, it is cheaper to pay a mortgage than rent in each of Great Britain’s largest cities.
The cost of renting a two-bedroom or smaller home has risen by 39% in the last five years, compared to a 19% jump in the cost of buying a two-bedroom or smaller home.
Even for those with a smaller 15% deposit who want to repay their mortgage over 25 years rather than 35 years, it would still be cheaper to pay a mortgage than rent in 39 out of Britain’s 50 largest cities, outside of London.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s property expert, said: “These latest figures highlight why so many people remain determined to get onto the ladder, as the soaring costs of renting [have] meant buying has remained attractive even with higher mortgage rates.
“Longer mortgage terms are becoming more common as a way to improve overall affordability and reduce monthly payments, though first-time buyers should be aware of what they are paying in interest compared with their actual mortgage.
“Without improvements to the supply of good-quality, affordable rental homes in Great Britain, owning your own home is likely to continue to be the end goal for those that can get their deposit together and borrow what they need to from a mortgage lender.”
