Rent vs Buy Comparison Simulator

Compare the total cost of renting versus buying a home, factoring in the mortgage, property tax, maintenance, and resale value, and see the break-even year when buying starts to pay off.

Last updated: 2026-09-20

Main Cost Items Unique to Owning a Home

Unlike renting, owning a home involves the following costs and changes in asset value. This tool factors in all of them when comparing the total cost against renting.

Mortgage Repayment	The core expense of buying: repaying the amount financed (property price minus down payment) through equal installment payments. The interest rate and loan term have a major effect on the total amount repaid.
Property Tax	A tax levied every year as long as you own real estate, based on the assessed value of the property. This cost does not exist when renting.
Maintenance Reserve	Condos require a monthly management fee and maintenance reserve; houses require setting aside funds for future repairs. This is comparable to a renter's management fee, but calculated differently.
Resale Value (Asset Value)	A home remains an asset you can eventually sell. The building's value depreciates over time, but retaining an asset is an advantage renting does not offer.

Why renting against buying is hard to compare

The question of whether owning or renting works out better never quite settles, because **rent and mortgage payments are not the only things that need comparing.** An owner keeps paying property tax, repairs, management fees and the costs incurred at purchase, and in return holds real property at the end. A renter faces renewal fees and **rent that may rise for as long as they stay.** Unless all of that sits on the same footing, no comparison is possible.

This tool folds in rent inflation, the mortgage, property tax, repairs and the eventual resale valuation to compare the total cost, and works out **how many years you must stay before buying beats renting.** **What moves the result most is the resale valuation you assume.** The value of the same property twenty years on varies enormously with location, so run both an optimistic and a pessimistic figure and look at the range. The same caution applies to the interest rate and rent inflation: do not put faith in a single number.

How to find the break-even point

Enter the renting side Your current monthly rent and the annual rate at which you expect it to rise. Leave it at zero if you expect none.
Enter the buying side Property price, deposit, interest rate and repayment term.
Enter the holding costs Property tax, repairs, management fees — **the costs that keep falling due after purchase.** Do not omit them.
Set the resale valuation **This moves the result more than anything else.** Running an optimistic and a pessimistic figure is strongly advised.
Read the break-even point You see how many years you must stay before buying turns out ahead.

Tips for getting more out of it

The break-even year is a rough guide for when buying starts to cost less overall than renting — it matters most if you're unsure whether you might move again.
The depreciation rate is only a simplified estimate. Actual resale value can vary a lot based on location and building age, so treat a real appraisal as the final word.
If the mortgage term is longer than the comparison period, some balance will still be outstanding at the end — that remaining debt is subtracted from the resale value in the calculation.
Property tax and maintenance costs vary widely between condos and houses, so entering figures close to a real quote will make the estimate more accurate.
Setting the rent increase rate to 0% compares a simple flat-rent scenario. In areas where rent hikes are likely, try running the numbers again with 1-2% to see how it changes the outcome.

Where this helps

When you first start considering a purchase

It becomes concrete, in figures, that how long you intend to stay is the axis of the decision.

When a job relocation is possible

**If you expect to move before the break-even point, renting is the rational choice** — and you can show why.

Thinking about the effect of location

Varying the resale valuation shows how much holding its value actually matters.

Providing material for a family discussion

Building on figures rather than impressions tends to move the conversation forward.

Housing comparison terms explained

Break-even point: The number of years until the total cost of buying falls below that of renting. **Stay for less than that and renting comes out ahead.**
Property tax: The annual tax on owning real property. **A renter never pays it; it falls on the owner year after year.**
Repair costs: The cost of renewing roofs, external walls, water heaters and so on. In a flat it is collected monthly as a repair reserve.
Resale valuation: What you expect the property to fetch if sold later. **The conclusion turns on this figure, so treat it as a range.**
Purchase costs: Agency fees, registration costs, acquisition tax and other sums payable on top of the property price.
Opportunity cost: The return the deposit would have earned had it been invested elsewhere. A rigorous comparison takes it into account.

Frequently Asked Questions

It's the year at which the net cost of buying (down payment plus payments plus taxes and maintenance, minus the resale value) first drops below the cumulative cost of renting. Living in the home past that year makes buying look increasingly favorable.

No. This tool focuses on the core recurring costs — mortgage payments, property tax, maintenance, and resale value — and does not include one-time costs like brokerage fees, registration fees, or moving expenses.

Yes. A higher depreciation rate lowers the estimated resale value, which raises the net cost of buying and pushes the break-even year later. For properties in areas where land value holds up well, try a lower depreciation rate to better match local conditions.

These are the most common horizons people actually plan around, and keeping the period to one of three fixed values keeps the mortgage schedule and chart easy to read. Choose 10 years if you want a shorter-term view.

The calculation assumes the mortgage is still being paid off at the end of the comparison period. The remaining balance at that point is subtracted from the resale value, so it's correctly reflected in the net cost.

Side Note — Why the "Rent vs Buy" Debate Never Really Settles

The question of whether renting or buying is the better deal has been argued for decades, yet it's never fully settled economically. That's because so many variables — mortgage rates, rent growth, future real estate prices, the chance you'll move — all shape the outcome, and every one of them depends on predicting the future. The break-even year this tool shows is only an estimate under the assumptions you've entered.

Still, running the numbers is worthwhile, because many people decide based on nothing more than a vague sense that owning "feels" more secure or that renting "feels" more flexible. Once you actually work through the total mortgage payments, taxes, and maintenance costs, and subtract the resale value that remains as an asset, the result often looks quite different from that gut feeling.

One factor that's easy to overlook is the asset value a home retains. With renting, every payment simply disappears; with buying, the principal portion of each payment builds equity that you can recover, at least in part, when you sell. But because the building itself loses value over time, how much that depreciation matters ends up depending heavily on the land's value in that particular location — and that very uncertainty is a big part of why this debate never fully resolves.

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