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Sounds like a crazy situation if a mortgage and all the associated costs is less than renting - here in Australia it is considerably cheaper to rent.

I don't think the choice of not using daycare is one that can only be made from a position of massive privilege, but it does involve material sacrifices if you are middle class.

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My mortgage is £477 p/m on a small 2 bedroom semi-detached house. To rent I'd be looking at ~£600p/m for a small 2 bedroom flat (apartment). I'd still have to pay the same utilities etc so wouldn't be better off by any stretch of the imagination.

Wow your mortgage is low - mine is more than 10 times the size and I live in a flat! Australian housing is expensive especially where I live.

When I owned a house the maintenance cost was quite considerable. You can put it off for a while, but eventually it comes due. My guess is that it was around $750 a month plus I had council rates to pay on top of this which were another $250 a month.

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