Buying an apartment in Canberra may be cheaper than renting, but only in a handful of suburbs.
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Units in Civic, Macquarie and Franklin are all listed as cheaper to buy than rent in a report issued by RP Data with savings ranging from $97 to $231 a month.
However if renters spent $50 more each week towards paying off a mortgage, their choice would extend to 14 suburbs including apartments in Forrest and Braddon, based on making interest and principal payments on a variable interest rate loan.
The recent results show an increase in the number of suburbs where it is cheaper to buy than rent in the capital from the previous report issued last month, which listed apartments in Hackett as the only affordable purchasing option.
Nationally there has been an increase of 63 per cent in the number of suburbs where it is cheaper to buy than rent, climbing to 388 suburbs compared to 238 from the previous report.
RP Data national research director Tim Lawless the drop in home values and continued interest rate cuts might boost the activity in the market.
"We may see more consumers returning to the property market as they realize that residential property may not cost them that much more to own than rent," he said.
"For many buyers now may be a good time to either re-enter the market for buy their first home."
Across the border, apartments in Jindabyne and North Batemans Bay were cheaper to buy than rent, as were houses in Cooma.