Free Rent vs Buy Calculator — No Sign-up Required
Model property appreciation, rent growth, stamp duty, loan EMI, and the opportunity cost of investing your down payment. See exactly when — and by how much — buying beats renting over your chosen time horizon.
Use the current market value of the property you are considering buying.
Includes society maintenance, property tax, and home insurance. Typically ₹3,000–₹10,000/month for a mid-range apartment.
Investment return is the annual return on the down payment if invested instead (e.g., equity mutual funds historically ~12%, balanced funds ~10%). Property appreciation for Tier-1 cities has averaged 6–9% per year.
How many years do you plan to stay in the same city? Buying favours longer horizons. Most analysis assumes 10–20 years.
Buying is better by
over 20 years at current assumptions
Net Wealth Comparison
Track how buyer equity and renter investment corpus evolve year by year. The point where lines cross is your break-even.
Net Wealth — Buying (Equity) vs Renting (Investment Corpus)
Once you know which path works better for you, use the EMI Calculator to plan your exact monthly payment, or the SIP Calculator to model the investment corpus from your down payment.
Use the current asking price for the property you are evaluating. The down payment percentage determines your loan amount and the initial capital the renter can invest instead.
Use the current home loan rate from your preferred lender (typically 8–9.5% for salaried borrowers in 2025). Tenure affects the EMI and how quickly you build equity.
Monthly rent is what you currently pay (or would pay) to rent an equivalent property. Monthly maintenance covers society charges, property tax, and insurance when buying.
The key variables: Stamp Duty (5–8% in most Indian states), Rent Growth (rents typically rise 5–8%/year in metros), Property Appreciation (historical 6–9%/year), and Investment Return (what you'd earn on the down payment if renting — equity mutual funds have historically returned 12% CAGR).
The break-even year on the chart shows when buying overtakes renting. If you plan to stay shorter than the break-even, renting may be financially better.
Price: ₹60L | Down: 20% | Rate: 8.5% | Tenure: 20 yr | Rent: ₹20K | Horizon: 20 yr
Appreciation: 7% | Rent Growth: 5% | Investment Return: 10% | Stamp Duty: 5%
The core idea is to put both options on equal financial footing. The buyer pays down payment + stamp duty upfront, then pays EMI + maintenance each month. The renter invests the same upfront amount and invests any monthly surplus (the difference between what a buyer pays and what a renter pays in rent).
The opportunity cost of the down payment is one of the most under-appreciated factors. A ₹12 lakh down payment invested at 10% CAGR for 20 years grows to over ₹80 lakh — even before counting the monthly savings from lower rent. Increasing investment return from 10% to 12% can shift the break-even from Year 12 to Year 18 for the same property.
No. Section 80C deduction (up to ₹1.5L on principal repayment) and Section 24(b) deduction (up to ₹2L on home loan interest) would improve the buying case in the new tax regime only marginally since most salaried individuals now use the new tax regime. Adding these benefits manually would shift the break-even 1–2 years earlier for buyers.
Stamp duty is a state government tax paid when registering a property purchase — typically 5–8% in major Indian states plus 1% registration fee. It is a significant upfront sunk cost that the renter avoids entirely. A ₹3–5 lakh stamp duty bill on a ₹60L property must be recovered purely through property appreciation, which takes several years.
The renter invests the full upfront cash (down payment + stamp duty) from day one. The buyer's equity on day one equals only the down payment minus stamp duty and the 2% assumed selling cost, while the renter's corpus equals the full cash invested. Over time, property appreciation builds the buyer's equity and eventually overtakes the renter's corpus — that is the break-even point.
Use 10–12% for a diversified equity mutual fund (index fund or large-cap fund over 15+ years). Use 7–8% for a balanced/hybrid fund. Use 6–7% for fixed deposits or debt funds. The higher the investment return, the stronger the case for renting.
No — this calculator assumes you live in the property you buy. If you are comparing buying an investment property vs renting your residence, the numbers and assumptions would differ significantly (gross rental yield in India is typically 2–3%).
No. All calculations happen entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to any server.
