Your situation
These are example numbers. Replace them with yours and the results update instantly.
Used for stamp duty. Other states: enter your own duty under advanced settings.
Houses carry their own upkeep and insurance, with no strata levies.
20.0% of the price
What you would pay to rent a comparable house.
Held constant. Check your lender's rate.
Buying has big upfront and selling costs, so time horizon matters most.
Advanced assumptions
Buying costs
Only if your house has any.
Of home value each year. 1% is a common rule of thumb.
Agent fee, marketing, legal at the end.
Growth and returns (long-run guesses, not forecasts)
What the renter earns on money not spent on a home.
Taxed each year. The rest is taxed as capital gains at the end.
Including Medicare levy.
Only used for the today's dollars view.
After 10 years, if you sold and cashed out
Too close to call on your assumptions ($30,761 apart)
Across the three scenarios below: buying ahead in 1, renting ahead in 1, too close to call in 1. "Too close" means within 5%.
Property weak, shares strong
Home prices 2.0%/yr, rent 3.0%/yr, investments 8.0%/yr
Buy: net wealth
$441,179
Rent and invest: net wealth
$734,484
Your assumptions
Home prices 4.5%/yr, rent 3.5%/yr, investments 7.0%/yr
Buy: net wealth
$717,960
Rent and invest: net wealth
$687,199
Property strong, shares weak
Home prices 7.0%/yr, rent 4.0%/yr, investments 5.5%/yr
Buy: net wealth
$1,061,214
Rent and invest: net wealth
$623,980
The numbers behind it
Cash needed to buy
- Deposit
- $170,000
- Stamp duty (estimate)
- $32,437
- Conveyancing and fees
- $3,000
- Total
- $205,437
The renter starts with this same amount, invested. Loan: $680,000 (80% of the price).
Monthly, in year 1
- Loan repayment
- $4,077
- Rates, insurance, strata, upkeep
- $1,083
- Total cost to own
- $5,160
- Rent
- $2,817
If rates rose 3 points, the repayment would be $5,471 a month. Only part of the repayment is interest; the rest builds equity.
Break-even year
Year 8
The year buying pulls ahead of renting and stays ahead, if you sold that year, on your assumptions.
What would need to be true
4.2% a year
Home price growth needed over 10 years for buying and renting to finish level. You assumed 4.5%.
Net wealth over time
Your assumptions. Each line is what you would have if you sold up and cashed out that year.
Where the money goes over 10 years
Dollars paid, not adjusted for inflation. Your assumptions.
Buying
- Loan interest
- $378,296
- Rates, insurance, strata, upkeep
- $156,037
- Stamp duty, fees, loan insurance
- $35,437
- Selling costs
- $33,001
- Money gone (not recovered)
- $602,771
- Loan principal repaid (becomes equity)
- $110,937
Renting
- Rent paid
- $396,521
- Investment growth after tax
- $481,762
Rent is money gone. The investments are the offset: the deposit and every month the renter spends less than the buyer.
How sensitive is the answer?
Buying minus renting, net wealth after 10 years. Positive (green) means buying is ahead. Negative (blue) means renting is ahead.
| Home price growth ↓ / Investment return → | 5.0% | 6.0% | 7.0% | 8.0% | 9.0% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5% | -$191k | -$233k | -$279k | -$328k | -$382k |
| 3.0% | -$47k | -$89k | -$134k | -$184k | -$239k |
| 4.5% | +$119k | +$77k | +$31k | -$19k | -$74k |
| 6.0% | +$307k | +$265k | +$219k | +$169k | +$114k |
| 7.5% | +$522k | +$480k | +$433k | +$383k | +$327k |
The outlined cell is your own assumptions.
How this calculator stays fair
- The renter invests the deposit and every upfront buying cost, so both sides start with the same cash.
- Each month both sides spend the same total. Whoever has the lower housing cost invests the difference.
- The buyer pays interest, rates, insurance, strata, maintenance and selling costs. The renter's investment returns are taxed.
- Your home is exempt from capital gains tax. The renter's investment gains are not.
- Both sides are cashed out at the end, so the totals are directly comparable.
Not included
- First Home Owner Grants (mostly new homes only), Help to Buy, and other schemes beyond stamp duty and LMI.
- Interest rate changes over time, offset accounts, extra repayments, and renovations.
- Your super, other debts, income, or whether a lender would actually approve the loan.
- Strata special levies, land tax, investment properties, and buying with a partner who already owns property.
Stamp duty uses 20 October 2026 rates for owner-occupiers buying an established home in NSW, VIC, QLD and WA. Growth and return rates are illustrative long-run assumptions, not forecasts. This is general information, not financial advice. A mortgage broker or financial adviser can look at your whole situation.
Staying put for now?
If you are renting and just got a rent increase notice, find out what a fair counter-offer looks like. Free, instant, no sign-up.
Calculate my counter-offerHow to read the result
The headline compares the net wealth each path leaves you with at the end of your chosen time period, after selling the home and cashing out the investments. It is labelled "too close to call" when the two are within 5% of each other, because the inputs are guesses and a small gap is well inside the noise.
The three scenarios move home price growth and investment returns in opposite directions. In one, property does poorly and shares do well. In the other, property does well and shares disappoint. If the answer flips between them, your decision depends more on the future than on the maths, and the non-financial factors below matter more.
What buying costs that people forget
- Stamp duty, which in the four states covered here ranges from nothing for some first home buyers to tens of thousands of dollars
- Lenders mortgage insurance if your deposit is under 20% and you are not using a scheme that waives it
- Council rates, water, insurance, maintenance and, for units and townhouses, strata levies, every year
- Agent fees and marketing when you sell
- The interest on the loan, which is most of your early repayments
What renting costs that people forget
- Rent that rises over time, usually once a year. See your state's rent increase notice rules
- No say over the home, and the risk of having to move when a lease ends or the owner sells
- No capital gain from the home. The wealth only builds if the money you would have spent on buying is actually invested and left alone
- Moving costs each time you move
Things a calculator cannot weigh
- Whether you need to be near a specific school, job or family, and how likely that is to change
- How much you value being able to renovate, keep pets or stay for decades without a notice to leave
- Whether you would really invest the difference every month, or spend it
- How comfortable you are with a large debt and a rate rise
- The stress of a bad tenancy, or of a bad purchase
Frequently asked questions
Is renting dead money?
Not entirely, and buying is not entirely wealth-building either. Rent buys you a place to live and flexibility. A buyer also pays money that never comes back: loan interest, council rates, insurance, maintenance, stamp duty and selling costs. What a buyer gets in return is equity from loan repayments and any rise in the home's value. Which side comes out ahead depends on how long you stay, the price you pay, and how home prices and investments perform.
How long do I need to stay in a home for buying to beat renting?
There is no fixed number. Stamp duty, fees and selling costs can total well over 5% of the price, so staying only a few years usually favours renting unless prices rise quickly. The calculator shows a break-even year based on your own numbers. Treat it as a guide, because it moves a lot when growth or interest rate assumptions change.
What does the renter do with the deposit in this calculator?
The renter invests it, along with every upfront cost the buyer would have paid, such as stamp duty and fees. Each month, whoever has the lower housing cost also invests the difference, so both sides spend the same total. Investment returns are taxed, and the renter pays capital gains tax on the gains when cashing out.
Does the calculator include the First Home Owner Grant or Help to Buy?
No. It includes stamp duty concessions for first home buyers in NSW, VIC, QLD and WA, and lets you remove lenders mortgage insurance if you qualify for a scheme such as the First Home Guarantee. Grants such as the First Home Owner Grant mostly apply to new homes and vary by state, so they are left out. Check your state revenue office for what you qualify for.
Which growth and return rates should I use?
The defaults are illustrative long-run guesses, not forecasts. Home price growth of 4.5% a year, rent growth of 3.5% and investment returns of 7% before tax are plausible, but nobody knows what the next ten years will bring. That is why the calculator shows a weak-property and a strong-property scenario, a sensitivity grid, and the home price growth needed for buying and renting to finish level.
Renting for now?
Check the rules for your state, and whether your notice is even valid: