Tool · housing
Buy or rent a home?
"Renting is throwing money away" is a half-truth: buying has costs that never come back too (interest, taxes, upkeep), and the deposit could be invested instead. Here you compare both lives with the same money, year by year.
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Assumptions and how it's calculated
Two people, the same money. One buys: pays the deposit and costs, then every month the mortgage payment plus the costs of owning. The other rents an equivalent home and, from day one, invests what the first one spent on the deposit and costs. Every month, whoever has the lower housing cost invests the difference; that way both put exactly the same into housing plus saving, and the comparison is fair.
What drives the result. Mostly four things: rent versus price (a quick rule of thumb: if a year's rent is below about 4-5% of the price, renting is often competitive), how fast the home appreciates versus what the investments earn, how long you stay (buying and selling costs weigh a lot over short periods) and the discipline to actually invest the difference.
What it leaves out. Tax breaks or help for buyers, a mortgage rate that changes (here it's fixed), one-off building levies, empty months or moving house. It also leaves out what can't be measured in money: the stability of owning your home or the freedom to move. That often matters more than the spreadsheet, and that's fine.
This is an exercise based on your assumptions, not a recommendation.
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