Rent vs buy calculator

Escape renting, with your eyes open

Rent is a real cost, and so are interest, rates and repairs. Compare them side by side using your own numbers.

Rent vs buy

Example figures. Change them.

Your rent per week

Home price

Where

Deposit %

Home loan rate %Example only. Use your lender's rate.

Rent rises per year %Our assumption.

Home value growth per year %Our assumption, not a forecast. Try 0%.

Your rent each week
Loan repayment each week
Rates, insurance and upkeep each week

Totals so far at each point. Rent is gone once paid, and so are the owner's interest and costs. Equity is what the owner keeps.
After	Rent paid	Owner's interest and costs	Home value	Owner's equity

Owner's costs include stamp duty, about $5,000 in buying costs, and upkeep at 1% of the price per year. Equity includes your deposit, which a renter could keep invested elsewhere. Home values can fall as well as rise.

How to read this

The useful comparison is rent against the money an owner never gets back: interest, stamp duty, rates, insurance and repairs. Your principal repayments aren't in that column, because they build your equity.

Buying tends to win the longer you stay, because entry costs are paid once and rent keeps rising. It can lose over a short stay or a flat market. Set growth to 0% to see your safest case.

Your next three steps

Find out how much you can borrow.
Work out how long your deposit will take.
Check which grants you could get.

Still renting for now?

Read our guides to rentals in WA and rentals in Victoria, including how often rent can go up.