http://money.uk.msn.com/news/money-news/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=157182323

Buying a property is nearly £100 a month cheaper than renting one as a result of record low interest rates and house price falls, research indicates.

Homeowners spend an average of £608 a month on mortgage payments and maintenance costs on a three-bedroom property, but rent on a similar house would cost £706 a month, according to high street bank Halifax.
The group said buying a home was now 14% cheaper than renting one, a considerable turnaround from 2008, when buying cost 43% more than renting.

It attributed the improvement to the steep fall in average mortgage rates as a result of the low Bank of England base rate, as well as house price falls, which have also reduced mortgage costs.
The average mortgage rate for a new borrower has fallen from 5.82% in March 2008 to 3.59% last month, cutting monthly payments by around 39%.
Halifax said the costs associated with owning a home now accounted for 27% of people's take-home pay, down from 56% three years ago.

But, despite the improvement in the affordability of owning a property, the tight lending criteria introduced by many banks since 2007 has prevented many potential buyers from getting on to the property ladder.
Suren Thiru, housing economist at Halifax, said: "The typical monthly mortgage payment has declined by over a third since 2008 as a consequence of falling mortgage rates and lower house prices. As such, the fall in the cost of buying a property compared to the average rent paid by tenants has been significant.
"Such a marked decline in mortgage costs has improved affordability for those able to enter the market as well as helping to ease the pressure on existing homeowners' disposable income."

It is now cheaper to buy a property than to rent one in 10 of the 12 regions of the UK, with people in London seeing the biggest savings, of £144 a month. But it is still 2% cheaper to rent a home than to buy one in Northern Ireland while those in Wales would be 1% better off if they rented rather than bought.