cost gap between buying and renting narrows

The gap between the annual costs of buying compared to renting are the lowest in almost a decade, according to the Halifax.

The lender's Buying v Renting Review revealed that the average UK buyer is now saving £366 per year, compared to £900 in 2017. However, homeowners are still better off than renters across the UK when all costs are taken into consideration.

Buyers in Scotland have the highest average savings of 20 per cent versus renting, while buyers in Yorkshire have seen the most modest gains where the cost of buying is only 5 per cent lower than renting.

Meanwhile, the Government's latest English Housing Survey showed a slight rise in the home ownership  rate in 2018 to 63.5 per cent, compared to 62.6 per cent in 2017.

The biggest improvement in home ownership over the past year has been among those aged 35-44, although at 57 per cent  the home ownership rate among this age group is well below its peak of 73 per cent in 2006.

Overall the number of households owning their homes outright remained at a record high of 7.9 million which, according to Nationwide,  is almost  entirely among homeowners aged 65 and above.

Ben Furnell, Managing Director of Furnell Residential, said: "Owning your own home remains the ambition of many people.  It is no surprise that the older age demographic makes up the vast majority of people achieving this given they have had the longest time to pay off their mortgage."