The research looks into the housing market of 38 countries
Mortgage payments have become 34.9% more expensive than rent, according to research from Compare The Market.
The research looked into average house and rent prices in 38 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and found that New Zealand ranked eighth when it comes to the widest gap between the two prices.
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Across the nation, the average rent for a three-bedroom property is $1,656, but the estimated monthly mortgage payment surpasses that number at $2,234. Germany is close behind New Zealand with similar figures.
Luxembourg ranked highest with a price gap of 51.1%, with an average rent of $3,017 and a monthly mortgage payment of $4,558 due to the high cost of living. Coming in second was Latvia which had a substantial gap of 42.5% despite having much cheaper houses. There, the average rent is $582 while the monthly mortgage payment is $830.
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At the opposite end, there’s Finland and Italy, two countries with negative percentages where house prices are more affordable than rent.