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Rent vs buy calculator
A year-by-year net worth race: home equity minus every ownership cost on one side, your deposit and savings invested on the other, with stamp duty worked out automatically.
After 15 years
Buying leaves you about
£159,154
better off on these assumptions
- Buyer net worth
- £322,584
- home equity after the mortgage
- Renter net worth
- £163,430
- deposit and savings invested
- Break-even
- Year 1
- Mortgage payment
- £1,500.75/mo
Net worth year by year
| Year | Buying | Renting |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | £44,981 | £41,451 |
| 4 | £93,278 | £67,219 |
| 7 | £147,065 | £93,449 |
| 10 | £206,997 | £119,879 |
| 13 | £273,812 | £146,176 |
| 15 | £322,584 | £163,430 |
This answer is assumption-heavy: nudge house price growth or investment returns by one percentage point and it can flip. Treat it as a way to test scenarios, not a verdict. Selling fees, rate changes after a fixed deal, and tax on investments are not modelled.
The stamp duty figure comes from our stamp duty calculator. Not sure what you could borrow? Try the mortgage affordability calculator.
Common questions
- Is it cheaper to rent or buy?
- It depends on how long you stay and what prices do. Buying a £300,000 home with a £30,000 deposit at 4.5% costs about £1,500 a month in mortgage payments plus roughly £250 a month in maintenance, against perhaps £1,200 in rent. The buyer builds equity, the renter keeps the deposit invested, and which wins usually only becomes clear after several years.
- What is the break-even point when buying a home?
- The year your equity (property value minus the mortgage you still owe) overtakes what a renter would have by investing the deposit and any monthly savings. Buying typically starts behind because stamp duty, legal and survey fees, often £5,000 to £15,000, are sunk costs from day one. With steady 3% house price growth, break-even commonly lands somewhere between year 3 and year 8.
- What upfront costs does buying add on top of the deposit?
- Stamp duty plus legal and survey fees. A mover buying at £300,000 pays £5,000 stamp duty in England and Northern Ireland; a first-time buyer at the same price pays none. Conveyancing, searches and a survey typically add £2,000 to £4,000, which is why this calculator defaults to £3,000 of other costs.
- Why does renting sometimes win even though rent is 'dead money'?
- Because mortgage interest, maintenance, insurance and buying fees are dead money too. A renter who invests a £30,000 deposit at 5% earns about £1,500 a year before any monthly savings. If house prices are flat while investments grow, the renter can stay ahead for a decade or more. The dead money argument only settles it once the sums are done.
- How reliable is a rent vs buy calculation?
- Treat it as a scenario tester, not a prediction. The answer swings on assumptions nobody can know in advance: house price growth, investment returns, future mortgage rates and how long you actually stay. Moving one of those by a single percentage point can flip the result, so try a pessimistic and an optimistic version before drawing conclusions.
Working out what a lender might offer? The mortgage affordability calculator estimates your borrowing range, and the stamp duty calculator breaks the tax down band by band. All of this is guidance to help you weigh the decision, not regulated financial advice; for a recommendation tailored to you, speak to a regulated adviser.