Mortgage payments surge past rent in New Zealand

The research looks into the housing market of 38 countries

Mortgage payments surge past rent in New Zealand

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.