Rent vs. Buy Calculator
Not just “which is cheaper” — this tracks what your deposit (and any month one option costs less than the other) would be worth if invested instead, alongside what buying builds in home equity. Instead of a single yes/no answer, you'll get the year buying pulls ahead for good, over a fixed 50-year view — because the honest answer to “rent or buy” almost always depends on how long you stay and what you assume about growth, not a flat verdict.
Your numbers
Costs vary a lot by where you are — fields are worded generically so this works anywhere.
Buying
The purchase price of the home before any deposit or costs are applied.
The cash you put down upfront; the rest is borrowed. These two fields are linked — change one and the other updates to match. This amount stays invested (compounding at your investment return rate) throughout the renting scenario, which is the core of the opportunity-cost comparison.
Your loan's fixed annual interest rate. Assumed to stay the same for the life of the loan — refinancing and rate changes aren't modeled.
How many years the mortgage is scheduled to run before it's fully paid off.
How much the home's value is assumed to grow each year, on average. 3–5%/yr is a common long-run assumption in many markets, but local trends vary a lot — check recent numbers for your area rather than relying on a global average. This is the single biggest lever on your result, so it's worth testing a range in the What If section below.
A rule-of-thumb yearly estimate for repairs and upkeep needed to preserve the home's value — not optional upgrades, which aren't included. This tends to rise with age: around 1%/yr is reasonable for a newer home, while older homes with aging roofs, plumbing, or electrical often run closer to 2%+/yr.
Your estimated yearly property tax or council rates bill.
Estimated yearly homeowner's/building insurance.
Recurring costs tied to owning within a shared building or managed community — HOA dues, strata or body corporate fees, condo fees. Usually covers shared-building upkeep, insurance, and amenities. Leave at $0 for a standalone house with no such fees.
Agent commission, legal, and other costs you'd pay if you sold — applied to every year on the chart, since each point assumes you hypothetically sold at that moment.
One-off buying costs paid at the start: stamp duty/transfer tax, legal fees, building inspection, and similar. Added to your deposit as money that would otherwise have stayed invested.
Renting
Your current (or expected) monthly rent payment.
How much you expect rent to rise each year. Applied once a year, compounding.
What a move typically costs you: bond/deposit, removalists, and similar one-off costs.
How often you expect to have to move as a renter (e.g. lease non-renewal). This cost is spread evenly across those years rather than shown as a lump sum every few years, so it shows up as a small steady addition to your monthly rent cost.
Shared assumptions
What unspent money — your deposit, plus any month renting comes out cheaper — would otherwise earn if invested (e.g. in a diversified index fund). This is what makes the comparison a real opportunity-cost comparison, not just a cash-spent comparison.
Assumptions built into this calculator
- The comparison runs over a fixed 50-year horizon. This isn't user-editable — the tool shows the whole curve rather than asking you to guess how long you'll stay.
- Property tax, insurance, and ongoing fees (HOA/strata) are assumed to stay flat in today's dollars for the entire 50 years. Unlike rent (which you set to increase annually) and maintenance (which scales with home value), these three costs never rise in the model — in reality they typically do increase over time.
- The mortgage rate and term are fixed for the life of the loan — no refinancing, rate resets, or rate changes are modeled.
- The investment return rate is treated as a flat, steady annual return — it doesn't model market volatility.
- Every point on the chart assumes a hypothetical sale at that exact year, net of selling costs.
- No income tax effects are modeled — this includes mortgage interest deductions, capital gains tax on investment growth or on selling the home, and any tax treatment of rent. These vary by location and personal situation.
- Appreciation is the single most sensitive input. Because the deposit is leveraged, small changes to your assumed appreciation rate can shift the sustained-breakeven year by years, not months — test a realistic range for your area using the What If section rather than trusting one number.
Result
This crossover is genuinely sensitive to your appreciation assumption — a leveraged down payment means even a modest change there can shift the answer by years. That's not a quirk, it's the actual honest answer to “rent or buy” — use the What If section below to see exactly how much it moves.
This tool is a guide to help you think through the numbers, not a financial recommendation. It runs the comparison you set up — the result is only as good as the assumptions you enter, especially the appreciation and investment return rates, which are genuinely hard to predict and can change the answer by years. It doesn't account for your personal risk tolerance, job stability, family plans, or other lifestyle factors that reasonably belong in a rent-or-buy decision alongside the math. Tax treatment, property costs, and lending rules vary by location — for a decision this size, it's worth speaking with a licensed financial adviser or mortgage broker who knows your local market and your full financial picture. All calculations run in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere or stored.
Buying's net advantage over time
One line, not two — this is renting's net cost minus buying's net cost, both already accounting for opportunity cost (what unspent money would've earned invested). Above zero means buying is ahead by that amount; below zero means renting is.
What if…?
Flex one assumption and watch the sustained breakeven year move — the honest answer is “it depends,” so see exactly what it depends on.