Rent vs Buy Calculator

Buying tracks your mortgage paid down month by month, ongoing maintenance costs, and the property's estimated value growing over time - netted against everything you've spent (deposit, buying costs, mortgage payments, maintenance) to give a net cost. Renting tracks rent increasing each year, netted against the return the deposit money could earn if invested instead of spent on a house.

Why the numbers you enter matter so much

Small changes in the house price growth or investment return assumption can flip which option looks cheaper over a long time horizon - there's no single right answer that applies everywhere, which is why this tool is built around your own numbers rather than a fixed rule of thumb.