Mortgage cheaper than rent?

But when did you buy it, even factoring in this extra few £k if you bought years ago, you may have already made back some of this money with increased rental payments over time and future increases in rent will help offset this cost where your mortgage remains roughly the same
Again, you have to look at property as a long term investment if you are a landlord or owner occupier. If you are the person renting then obviously you don't have to worry about these big one off payments but you have to accept that if your landlord bought the house 20 years ago you may be paying 2/3x what the mortgage is.

There are so many variables in this comment that it is not really easy to tell.
ie; the size of deposit, (which itself can affect the interest rate), the interest rate itself, etc.
However, over time, as the cost of living goes up, rents usually go up, salaries will increase, but the mortgage payments will stay the same (especially if you have a fixed rate term)
However, maintenance costs will be on you, whereas renters do not have that cost.

There are plenty of areas in the south where a 3 bed house will cost you upwards of around £500k, which is a £2k +/- monthly mortgage cost after a modest deposit, where rent will be at least that amount, and probably £2,200 ~ £2,500 a month. Though the purchaser will have insurance and maintenance on top of the mortgage cost. However, medium / long term the mortgage will always be cheaper because it will go down over time as the mortgage balance reduces, but rent will always go up over time.

I’d imagine that’s the norm. Your rent has to cover the landlords mortgage, any agent costs, poss insurance costs, maintenance costs, and taxes. When I bought my first flat in the late ‘90s I paid £200 a month for a whole one bedroom flat (4 rooms) in the same block where I was renting a single room in a three bedroom for the same money.

It used to be true, and renting was a waste of money but now it depends where you live I think. Knew the mortgage of an old neighbour a couple years ago, then saw how much he put her rent up. I think she was paying just shy of £1,000 a month more than his mortgage was.
Why? Market rate of renting around here went through the roof. He put her rent up overnight £500, because he could.

Let’s face it it’s a ridiculous premise for a thread because an accurate comparison can’t be made. It’s impossible to get a 100% mortgage, so a deposit is always going to have to factor in to the calculations. Equally renting includes things like maintenance and essential repairs whereas a mortgage doesn’t. And it will all depend on your mortgage rate… mine is 1.4% so buying my house on my rate is likely to be cheaper than renting it would be.

The social media posts the OP is referring to are making the point that it’s frustrating to be refused a mortgage based on affordability when you’ve already proved you can afford the same or a similar amount in a rent payment each month. That’s all.

Most of the time rent will be more than a mortgage on the same property.

Rent has to cover the mortgage payment made by the landlord, and the cost of property maintenance/repairs, and the cost of landlord safety checks like boilers/fire/energy certificates etc.

If the rent don’t cover all of those things, why would the landlord bother to own and rent out the house?

You do understand that's how it works?
Your example is patronising in the extreme but that's exactly how it works
Jo and sam have a house each. They've both owned for a few years. They sell both houses and buy one between them. There is a decent amount of equity in both houses. This creates a hefty deposit and brings the mortgage right down

We rented before buying our first home a good few years ago. Rent on a 3 bed house was £600, it was average price at the time although we rented for 7 years so by the end rental process had increased. We bought a 3 bed and our mortgage was £555pcm.
We moved 3 years ago. Sold the house to a landlord, who has rented it out for £1200pcm. Same house that we were paying £555pcm mortgage.

Could you be more specific?
If the insurance goes up, should the landlord take the hit on the profit or should it be passed on to the tenant?
If the carpets are replaced should any of this be passed on?
If the agent fees go up should any of this be passed on?
What are general costs ? What do you mean?

Anywhere really with a hefty deposit!

It depends when you got your mortgage. I pay £1100 mortgage and my neighbour pays £1700 rent for a house with one less bedroom and no driveway. My mortgage is “cheap” because I’ve lived in my house for 15 years and only have 5 years left to pay. If I bought my house today with the same deposit I had 15 years ago then I’d be paying closer to the rent figure but probably less.

Rent has to be more than the landlord’s mortgage by definition.

What costs is it ok not to cover?

Baffled by this thread... The OP seems to know and verify all the answers and responses laid out, so why ask the question if they know the answer?

Even taking that into consideration its often still much cheaper. The identical, adjoining property to me was just rented after less than a day on the market for £1100 p/m. My mortgage is less than £400 p/m. I did put down a decent deposit, however have just done a quick check with my bank, and even if I only put a 5% deposit of what I bought it for ( so approx £8000) the mortgage was still only £650 p/m.

While, yes, you have to have that deposit, anyone letting will also have had to put at least 5 weeks rent as a deposit, not to mention all the other random fees.

Anecdata but pretty much everyone I've discussed it with says their mortgage is much cheaper than the equivalent property would be to rent. Not sure why OP is so disbelieving of this...!

It goes without saying, if you’re ten years+ into a mortgage it will be cheaper than rent. If you put down a big deposit similarly.

But if you buy a house these days with a smaller deposit then initially your payments are probably not far off what you’d be paying in rent.

My DS has just bought a house. His repayments are £1K a month. Rent would be £1-1.2K so not far off.

Pps telling you their mortgage payments are £400 a month are negating the fact that these days you could only borrow around £80K with repayments of £400. Very few people could buy a house with only an £80K mortgage.

My mortgage is cheaper than rent but when you buy you need to factor in other costs. Our front door needed fixed that was £300. Our roof needs cleaned thats £550, my garden had drainage iasues that was another £500. Yearly services for the boiler are £70. Any issues we have to fix. My bathroom radiator needed replaced due to corrosion that was another £200. My house is only 7 years old so these bills are nowhere near as high as older bills. You also need to factor in insurances mine are £65 a month on top of the mortgage.

Market value is about £70-£80k depending on condition etc. As a long term tenant I could buy it from the council for £30k.

We bought a flat in the same block we rented. Both Identical apart from rented one was 1st floor and our bought one is ground floor. Our rent at the time (2018) was £775 for a 3 bed, our mortgage was £498 for the first 5 years, and went up to £670. A friend rents a similar property just down the street and pays £1100pcm. Even with all my bills combined, I still pay less than they do. So, yes I believe a mortgage is cheaper.

Could it be down to the type of mortgage rate you got? The othets maybe got their mortgage rate before the rate got high again?