Even though the difference between buying a house and renting a property has narrowed it is still cheaper to buy than rent, a survey has shown.

Yorkshire and Greater London showed only a 1% difference in renting and buying prices, while the East of Scotland is now the cheapest place to buy a house compared with renting, high street bank Abbey found.

The research revealed the average difference between buying and renting is now just over £5,000 - with buying a home costing 1.3% less.

The average cost of buying a property over 25 years is currently £437,925, while renting a similar house over the same period would cost £443,736.

The group also revealed that it is 18% cheaper to buy a property in the North than it is to rent one, while 17% can be saved by purchasing a house in the South East.

But while the gap shrinks in some areas of the country, it has widened in others to make buying up to 50% more expensive than it is to rent.

In Northern Ireland soaring prices mean it is now more than £180,000 more expensive to buy a property than it is to rent one over 25 years.

Similarly in Wales, buying is 15% more expensive than renting over the same period.

Nici Audhlam-Gardiner, head of mortgages at Abbey, said: "A number of factors have come together to cause rent over 25 years and a mortgage for the same period to converge across the UK.

"But while on a month-to-month basis in some areas it is cheaper to rent rather than buy, at the end of the 25 years a homeowner actually has a house whereas a renter has nothing. In addition, homeowners benefit from any further house prices rises as the value of their equity increases over time.

"So despite the convergence, we believe that people are still better off owning a property."

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