Compare the total cost of buying (with a mortgage) and renting over your chosen period, accounting for deposit, interest, upkeep and property appreciation.
"Net cost of buying" = deposit + payments + upkeep − equity built. Simplified estimate; excludes stamp duty and transaction costs.
Enter the property price, deposit, mortgage rate and term, monthly rent, comparison period, expected upkeep costs and annual appreciation.
The calculator computes the mortgage monthly payment and then over the chosen period: total mortgage payments paid + deposit + upkeep costs, minus the equity you've built (appreciation + principal repaid). This "net cost of buying" is compared against total rent paid over the same period.
Deposit + all payments + upkeep − equity built (appreciation + principal repaid). This is the true cost after accounting for wealth accumulated.
Not always — it depends on your deposit, local property growth, how long you stay and mortgage rate. In high-price cities with slow appreciation, renting can come out ahead.
Stamp duty, solicitor fees, survey costs (can add 2–5%) are not included. Factor these in separately.
No — the calculation runs locally in your browser.
“Rent is money down the drain” is the most expensive oversimplification in personal finance. A fair comparison sets all the costs of owning against renting over the same period — and that is what the calculator above does. Owning is not the mortgage payment; it is mortgage interest + maintenance + insurance + buying/selling costs − the equity you build and the appreciation you may enjoy. Renting is the rent — plus the return you could earn by investing the deposit you did not spend.
Take a £250,000 property with a £25,000 deposit on a 25-year mortgage at 4.5%: the payment is about £1,251 a month. Compare against renting a similar home for £1,100. Over five years the renter pays £66,000; the owner pays about £75,000 in mortgage payments plus, say, £2,500 a year upkeep — roughly £87,500 out of pocket. But the owner has also repaid a chunk of principal and owns any price growth on the whole £250,000 (leverage works both ways). Whether buying wins depends mostly on appreciation, your time horizon, and how long you stay — which is exactly why the calculator lets you vary all three.
Usually, but not axiomatically. Long stays amortise the transaction costs and fix your housing cost while rents inflate — but a leveraged purchase into falling prices, or a forced early sale, can lose heavily. The honest answer is “run the numbers with your own horizon”, which is what this page is for.
Part of each mortgage payment buys equity — it moves money from your bank account into your house, but it is not lost like interest or rent. Comparing only true costs (interest, fees, upkeep vs rent) is what makes the comparison fair.
UK house prices have grown at very different rates by decade and region; 2–3% nominal is a moderate long-run assumption, and it is worth testing 0% to see whether your decision survives a flat market. If it only works at 5%+ growth, you are speculating, not budgeting.