Rent vs buy calculator
Comparing renting with buying does not produce a single answer but a crossover point: transaction costs and interest make buying dearer in the early years, and it only overtakes renting once the loan principal repaid outweighs them.
Buying
Notary, state fee, land register. In Estonia these follow a schedule based on the price — check a notary's tariff for the exact figure.
What you would pay as an owner: maintenance fund, insurance, land tax and repairs. A tenant pays none of these — the landlord's costs are already inside the rent. Zero by default, because we do not know your building's numbers — but zero is not what they are: left at zero, this shows buying as cheaper than it is. Ask the housing association for the maintenance rate, and read the land tax off your tax notice.
An assumption, not a forecast. Zero by default — we do not know future prices and will not guess for you.
Renting
An assumption, not a forecast.
An assumption, not a forecast. A renter pays no deposit and no transaction costs — this says what that money would earn meanwhile. Left at zero, the calculator assumes it sits idle and earns nothing, and that assumption is what usually tilts comparisons like this one toward buying.
Applies to both sides, buying and renting, and has to be the same for each. Periods of different lengths cannot be compared: the shorter one would always win, because its bill is shorter rather than cheaper. Buying only pays off after a while, and this tells you whether you get there.
- Net cost of buying over the horizon
- €69,516
- Net cost of renting over the horizon
- €54,000
- Buying's advantage over renting
- -€15,516
- Monthly loan payment
- €861.37
- Equity at the end of the horizon
- €63,848
Rates and thresholds
- What is compared
- Net cost: what went out, less what you still hold
- Owner's net cost
- deposit + payments + upkeep − equity
- Renter's net cost
- rent − the return on the deposit not spent
- Default for price growth, rent growth and returns
- 0% — an assumption, not a forecast
- The answer
- A break-even year, not a recommendation
Why is price growth set to zero by default?
Because nobody knows future price growth, and a figure the calculator proposed itself would read as a forecast — three per cent a year moves a twenty-year answer by tens of thousands of euros. At zero the page answers a narrower but honest question: how the cash and the equity compare if nothing grows. If you have a view, type it in and watch the break-even move.
Why does the renter's side count a return on the deposit?
Because a renter spends neither the deposit nor the transaction costs, and that money sits somewhere. Treating the buyer's deposit as a cost while ignoring what the renter does with the same sum tilts every such comparison towards buying — it is the most common error in this calculation. The return defaults to zero, so the field does nothing until you put a number in it.
What transaction costs should you enter?
The notary fee, the state fee and the land register entry. In Estonia these are not a fixed percentage but a schedule based on the transaction value, which is why the field is empty and nothing is computed for you — a guessed number here would be as wrong as a guessed tax rate. A notary's tariff gives the exact figure, and the same goes for an agent's fee on the way out if you plan to sell.
Does the calculator tell you which is better?
No, deliberately. The answer depends on how long you stay and what you assume about prices, and a tool that says “buy” has simply made those assumptions for you. The page shows the break-even year instead and leaves the comparison with your own horizon to you. The calculation also leaves out what numbers do not cover: the freedom to move on one side, and certainty on the other.
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