Failing house prices, low mortgage rates and rising rents mean that, in autumn 2010, tenants who are able to take the plunge and engage a residential conveyancing solicitor to help them buy their own home should be better off.

Research by the property website Zoopla shows the cost of renting is now usually 10% more expensive than the comparable mortgage payment in 80% of UK towns and cities.

This latter figure is up from 74% in July, giving a further indication of the difficulty for prospective home owners, particularly first-time buyers, in trying to obtain mortgages.

The survey compared average rents for two-bedroom flats in the 50 largest urban areas in the UK with the cost of a 5% interest-only mortgage.

York was the worst city in which to be a tenant because that's where rents exceed mortgage payments by 39% and, at the opposite extreme, renting is 21% cheaper in Aberdeen than buying a home there.

On the basis of the survey, making a house purchase in London, where there are the highest prices in the UK, is still more cost-effective than renting. Average rent is £2,121 a month compared with an average home price of £444,553.

A spokesman for Zoopla said buying had always been slightly cheaper than renting and for those who are able to buy costs were currently low.

"The freezing up of credit has put home ownership beyond the reach of many renters and it's driving a larger and larger wedge between them and owner-occupiers," he said.

If house prices continue to fall, with their consequent effect on the level of activity of residential solicitors and others involved in the property market, the gap between the costs of renting and buying will continue to grow.