Are you better off renting or buying?
Compares your net worth after a chosen number of years if you buy, against renting and investing your deposit instead.
The numbers
Net worth after the period
The comparison, done without folklore
"Rent is money down the drain" and "houses always go up" are both slogans rather than sums. The honest comparison tracks two complete positions: the buyer's equity after mortgage payments, maintenance and the eventual value of the home, against the renter's wealth if the deposit and any monthly difference were invested instead. On the defaults, £300,000 house against £1,200 rent with standard growth assumptions, buying comes out £74,751 ahead over ten years. Change the assumptions and the answer moves, which is the point of having the sliders.
What actually drives the answer
Time horizon dominates: buying carries heavy entry costs, stamp duty, legal fees, and a mortgage that's nearly all interest in its early years, so short stays usually favour renting even in rising markets. House-price growth against investment returns is the second axis, and it's worth noticing the buyer's position is leveraged: 3% growth on a £300,000 house is £9,000 on a £60,000 deposit, a mechanism savings accounts can't match, and one that works exactly as hard in reverse when prices fall.
The soft factors are allowed to vote too
Owning buys security of tenure and freedom to knock walls down; renting buys mobility and someone else's problem when the boiler dies. The calculator prices what's priceable. For the buying side in detail, the cost of buying calculator totals the entry price and the mortgage calculator the monthly reality; for the renting-and-investing side, the investment calculator shows what disciplined saving of the difference can build, discipline being the load-bearing word.
Common questions
Is it better to rent or buy?
It depends mostly on how long you stay and on house-price growth versus investment returns. Buying builds equity and eventually removes rent, but ties up a deposit and carries buying, selling and maintenance costs. Renting frees that cash to invest. This calculator puts your net worth under each path side by side over the years you choose.
How many years until buying beats renting?
Often several years, because the upfront costs of buying — Stamp Duty, legal fees, survey — take time to earn back. The exact break-even swings heavily on house-price growth and the return you’d get by investing instead, which is why the calculator lets you set both.
Does buying always win in the end?
No. If investment returns comfortably beat house-price growth, renting and investing the difference can stay ahead indefinitely. The result is genuinely sensitive to those two assumptions, so treat it as a way to test scenarios, not a prediction.
These results are estimates for general information only and are not financial advice. Property decisions have real consequences — check every figure and take appropriate professional advice before acting. Read the full disclaimer.