There are a variety of costs involved with buying and selling a property, compared with renting, that you should take into account. To help with this, the calculator will take into account the common costs of buying, how much you will get back after selling, and compare that to renting for the same period of time.
Rent
Property price
Buying tends to be better the longer you stay because the upfront fees are spread out over many years.
What Are Your Mortgage Details?
£1,144 Per Month
£30,000
Capital & Interest Payment Breakdown
£270,000
£343,322
£73,322
Predict the future
This calculator will assume you’ll sell your property at the end of your stay when buying, and spend your would-be mortgage deposit on stocks or another investment when renting.
Worth £315,303 after 5 years
Monthly investment
Will you be investing additional money whilst you are buying or renting? You might have money left over after paying your monthly mortgage/rent and would like to add it to your investment account.
Your mortgage is £1,144 and your rent is £300, the difference is £844.
£6,801 after 5 years
Stamp Duty
Stamp duty is a government tax paid on homes costing £250,000 or more.
First-time-buyers will pay no Stamp Duty on the for properties worth up to £425,000. You pay a different tax if your property or land is in Scotland or Wales, however this calculator does not support that option, so just select "Do not include".
£0
For more details, use our stamp duty calculator.
Buying and Selling Costs
There are a variety costs to pay when you are buying/selling your property. Costs that do not apply if you were renting e.g. surveyor’s and legal fee
£3,000
£3,000
Maintenance and Service Charge
Homeowners are responsible for all the costs of keeping the house maintained and repairs, for example replacing the boiler or getting a new fridge if it breaks. This is in addition to any renovation work like remodelling the bathroom or kitchen.
You may also have to pay service charge and ground rent if you are purchasing a leasehold property.
£3,000 spent per year
£0 spent per year
Additional Renting Costs
These are the costs on top of rent, such as the initial deposit and agency fee.
£300
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Rentingis better by:£26,190 over the same period.
#Summary
After 5 years, the net gain/loss from buying and selling a property would be -£30,581.
If you were renting and invested your £30,000 deposit, and contributed £100 per month towards your investments, the net gain/loss would be -£4,391.
That‘s a difference of £26,190, so you‘re better off renting.
Explained
You bought your property for £300,000 and sold it for £315,303 after 5 years.
During that time, you paid £68,664 in mortgage payments. £24,884 was interest, and you paid off £43,781 from the £270,000 mortgage principle, meaning you still owed the bank £226,219 at the time of selling.
Therefore, from the £315,303 sale money, £226,219 goes to the bank for your mortgage.
So, you actually received £89,084 from the sale.
Now, let’s go through the expenses:
- £68,664 in mortgage payments.
- £15,000 for maintenance and repairs over 5 years.
- £6,000 in buying and selling costs.
That leaves you with -£581.
But wait, there's also the £30,000 deposit, if you take that into account too, then overall you’ve lost -£30,581.
Explained
You start with £30,000* as your investment capital, and it grows to £38,501, which is an increase of £8,501.
In addition, you also invested £100 per month, which grew to £6,801 after 5 years, which is an increase of £801.
In total, your investments increased to £15,301.
During this time, you paid £19,892 in rent and spent £100 on your agency fee, but got £300 back from your initial deposit.
Overall, you come out at -£4,391.
*The initial investment capital is not included, because we are calculating the net increase/decrease for both scenarios.
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Numbers don't say everything
There are other factors to consider when trying to decide if you're better off buying or renting.
For example, the ease of mind of knowing you don't have to move when your tenancy contract is up, or maybe you want the flexibility to move at a moment's notice. A negative factor for buying can be a positive for renting and vice versa.
For further reading, please take a look at our related articles:
You are in the fortunate position where you can afford to buy a property, but does that mean you should? Here ...
When considering whether to rent a property or buy one, people often look at it purely from a financial point ...
#Breakdown
See how the buying and renting totals were calculated.
Buying
- Deposit:
£300,000 x 10% = £30,000
Property price x Deposit (%)
- Mortgage paid:
(£1,144 x 12 = £13,733) x 5 = £68,664
5 years of mortgage payments. More details available with our mortgage calculator
- Capital from sale:
(£300,000 x 1% 5) - £226,219 = £89,084
(Property price x Growth rate % Years) - Outstanding mortgage
- Investment growth:
£0 per month with 5% growth rate after 5 years = £0
Monthly investment with X Growth rate after X Years.
More details available with our compound interest calculator
- Maintenance/repairs
£300,000 x 1% x 5 = £15,000
Property price x Maintenance (%) x Years
- Service Charge
£300,000 x 0% x 5 = £0
Property price x Service Charge (%) x Years
- Stamp duty
£0
From To Rate Cost £0 £425,000 0% £0 Calculated using our stamp duty calculator
- Buying/selling costs
(£300,000 x 1%) + (£300,000 x 1%) = £6,000
Property price x Cost of buying (%) + Property price x Cost of selling (%)
- Net gain/loss
£89,084 - £30,000 - £68,664 - £15,000 - £0 - £0 - £6,000
= -£30,581Capital from sale - Deposit - Mortgage paid - Maintenance/repairs - Service Charge - Stamp duty - Buying/selling costs
= Net gain/loss
Renting
- Initial capital
£30,000
Your would-be mortgage deposit
- Investment growth from initial capital
£30,000 with 5% growth rate after 5 years = £8,501
Capital with X Growth rate after X Years.
More details available with our compound interest calculator
- Total monthly investments
£6,000
£100 per month x 60 months (5 years)
- Investment growth from monthly investments
£801
Monthly £100 investment with 5% return rate after 5 years
More details available with our compound interest calculator
- Rent paid
Year 1 £3,600 Year 2 £3,780 Year 3 £3,969 Year 4 £4,167 Year 5 £4,376 Total £19,892 5 years of rent paid with 5% year on year increase
- Deposit returned
£300 x 1 = £300
Monthly rent x Renting deposit months
- Agency fee
£100
Initial rental agency fee
- Net gain/loss
£8,501 + £6,000 + £801 + £300 - £100 - £19,892
= -£4,391Investment growth from initial capital + Total monthly investments + Investment growth from monthly investments + Deposit returned - Agency fee - Rent paid
= Net gain/loss
Changelog
Wondering what has changed since your last visit?
9th October 2022
Updated calculating investment growth from initial capital for renting calculation to be inline with compound interest calculator.
2nd October 2022
The stamp duty calculation has been updated with the rules published on 23rd September by the government.
12th September 2022
Fixed a bug when stamp duty was being included even though "Do not include" was selected.
30th August 2022
Fixed a bug when calculating the investment growth when investment return rate was 0.
26th August 2022
Fixed a bug when calculating the investment growth for initial capital when renting.
16th August 2022
The stamp duty calculator has been fixed so it will give the correct value.
7th February 2022
Previously, only the mortgage interest was deducted from the buy scenario as part of the cost of the mortgage. However, this was incorrect, because the total payments paid over the course of the mortgage is the actual cost of the mortgage. The buy scenario has been updated so that the total mortgage payments paid is deducted from the total.