Proportion of income on rent/mortgage - and which would you choose?

[AnyDream]

PS on renting vs buying: if you've only rented, it's easy to forget all the extra expenses you have to pay for when you own the house: council rates, sewerage, water rates, state government levies, building insurance, servicing & repairs to electricals/heating/cooling/hot water systems, repairs/maintenance on plumbing, roofs & gutters, gardening & fencing costs, termite/pest inspections, repainting & replacing curtains & floor coverings when they wear out, etc. If you have only held up the mortgage repayment figure against the rental amount, then you haven't truly compared the costs at all.

[LionsandBears]

Housing stress is defined as spending more than 30% gross income on rent or mortgage. Extreme stress is spending over 50%. I wouldnt go with either option.

as a follow on from MD's post, estimate spending about 10% of the value of a property on maintenance per annum. This is on top of the mortgage, rates etc. Then there's the costs of purchasing - legal, taxes, fees etc.