Rent vs buy calculator
Buying carries large one-off costs at both ends — transfer tax, legal fees, agent commission on the way out — that only get amortised by staying put. That is why the break-even point is usually expressed in years rather than in price: below roughly five years, renting almost always wins; past ten, buying almost always does. The interesting cases are the ones in between, which is where the assumptions in this calculator do the most work.
Highly assumption-dependent. Purchase and sale costs are not modelled, tax treatment differs by country, and the answer swings sharply on price growth, which nobody can forecast. Treat it as a way to test assumptions, not as an answer.
Buying beats renting once the equity built and the price growth outweigh the interest, running costs and transaction fees. The break-even is usually five to ten years — below that, the upfront costs of buying rarely get recovered.
How to compare renting and buying
Price growth is the assumption that dominates and the one nobody can know. At 3% a year the numbers usually favour buying past about seven years; at 0% they often do not, even after a decade. It is worth running the calculation at several growth rates rather than one, because a conclusion that only holds at an optimistic assumption is not a conclusion. The other factor no calculator captures is flexibility: renting can be ended in a month, while selling takes months and costs several per cent.
Questions
It depends almost entirely on how long you stay. Under five years renting usually wins; past ten, buying usually does.