Despite the rapidly rising prices in Sydney and Melbourne, for a surprisingly large number of suburbs across the country it is still cheaper to buy rather than rent as a result of lower mortgage rates, a new report shows.

An analysis compiled exclusively for The Australian Financial Review by CoreLogic was based on the median value of the suburbs as at October 2019. It assumed a 20 per cent deposit on a 30-year loan at a 4.25 per cent average discounted variable rate.