Rent or buy — and in which year does buying win?
Rent vs buy
Same money, both ways — who ends up with more?
Buying overtakes renting in
Not in 10 yr
After 10 years, buying is ₹53 L behind · EMI ₹69,426
On these assumptions renting stays ahead for the whole period. Stretch the horizon, lower the assumed investment return, or raise the appreciation rate and watch where it flips — that is the useful part of this tool.
Year by year — buyer’s equity vs renter’s portfolio
Both people spend the same amount of money each month. The renter invests the down payment, the one-off costs, and every rupee the buyer spends over and above rent.
| Year | Buyer equity | Renter fund | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ₹24 L | ₹43 L | −₹19 L |
| 2 | ₹31 L | ₹52 L | −₹21 L |
| 3 | ₹39 L | ₹62 L | −₹23 L |
| 5 | ₹55 L | ₹84 L | −₹29 L |
| 7 | ₹72 L | ₹1.09 Cr | −₹37 L |
| 10 | ₹1.04 Cr | ₹1.56 Cr | −₹53 L |
How this was worked out
- Property price
- ₹1,00,00,000
- Down payment @ 20%
- ₹20,00,000
- One-off costs
- ₹14,60,000
- Cash on the table at purchase
- ₹34,60,000
- Home loan
- ₹80,00,000
- Monthly EMI at 8.50% over 20 years
- ₹69,426
- Starting rent for the same home
- ₹35,000
- Both sides spend the same
- ₹1,26,83,474
- Rent paid over 10 years
- ₹54,02,706
- Buyer's equity after 10 years
- ₹1,03,63,662
- Renter's portfolio after 10 years
- ₹1,56,16,714
- Difference
- − ₹52,53,052
Stamp duty, registration, interiors, brokerage. Sunk on day one — this money does not appreciate.
Over 10 years. The renter invests the upfront cash and every rupee the buyer spends above rent, so the only question left is who ends up holding more.
Home worth 5% p.a. more each year, less 2% selling cost, less the loan still owed.
Same cash, invested at 10% p.a. instead.
Positive means buying came out ahead on these assumptions.
Your numbers
Compare like with like: the rent for a home you would actually be happy in, not a cheaper one.
The most decisive input on this page. Short stays almost never favour buying.
Every assumption, editable — nothing is hidden
Nobody knows this number. Try it at 0% — if the case still holds, it is a robust case.
The opportunity cost of the down payment. Most rent-vs-buy calculators leave this out entirely, which is why they always conclude 'buy'.
Association charges, per month. A renter does not pay these; an owner does, forever.
Added to stamp duty and registration of ₹6,60,000 to give ₹14,60,000 of one-off cost. Sunk on day one — it does not appreciate.
Brokerage and transfer costs on the way out.
What this means for you
On these assumptions renting stays ahead for all 10 years. That usually means the assumed investment return is beating the assumed appreciation, or the rent is cheap relative to the price. Both are worth checking against the actual homes you are considering before you conclude anything.
The method, stated plainly
Most rent-vs-buy comparisons are rigged, usually by accident. They total up the rent paid over ten years, compare it against the EMIs paid over ten years, note that the buyer owns a house at the end, and declare buying the winner. The error is that the renter’s down payment has quietly vanished from the calculation.
This model does it differently. Both people start with the same cash and spend the same amount every month. The buyer puts the down payment and the one-off costs into a house and pays an EMI, maintenance and property tax. The renter puts that same cash into an investment, pays rent, and invests the difference between the buyer’s monthly outgo and their own rent — or draws the portfolio down in the months when rent is the bigger bill.
Because both sides spend identically, the comparison reduces to one clean question: at the end of each year, who is holding more? The buyer holds the home’s value, minus selling costs, minus the loan still owed. The renter holds a portfolio. The first year the buyer’s number exceeds the renter’s is the breakeven year. The loan is amortised month by month rather than approximated, so the equity build-up is the real one, not a straight line.
The assumptions, and none of them is hidden
Every input on this page is visible and editable, deliberately. A rent-vs-buy answer is only as good as its assumptions, and burying one is the same as lying about it.
How long you will stay is the most decisive input, and the one people are least honest with themselves about. The one-off costs of buying — down payment friction, stamp duty and registration of about 6.6% in urban Karnataka, interiors, and selling costs at the other end — take years to recover. If there is a realistic chance of a job change to another city inside five years, that belongs in this number.
Property appreciation and investment return are the two forecasts, and nobody has them. Their relationship, not their absolute values, drives the result: set them equal and the answer turns on rent, leverage and costs alone. Try appreciation at 0% as a stress test.
Rent inflation matters more over long horizons than people expect, because rent compounds while an EMI on a fixed-rate view does not. Maintenance and property tax are owner-only costs and both rise. Selling cost is the brokerage and transfer expense on the way out, which a renter simply does not have.
How to read the answer honestly
A breakeven of year seven does not mean buying is right. It means that if the assumptions hold and you stay past year seven, the arithmetic favours buying. Two things follow. If you are confident about staying much longer than the breakeven year, the case is comfortable. If the breakeven lands close to your expected stay, the calculation is telling you the two options are roughly equivalent and you should decide on the non-financial grounds instead.
Also worth noticing: the answer moves a lot when you move the sliders, and that sensitivity is information. If small, plausible changes to appreciation or investment return flip the conclusion, then the honest summary is “it is close”, not “buy”.
None of this is financial advice, and it is not a forecast of any market. If you land on buying, the next useful pages are what you can afford and what owning actually costs. Registration costs used inside this model are Karnataka rates as last reviewed on 2026-08-01 — verify before you transact.
Common questions
Is it better to rent or buy a home in India?
It depends almost entirely on how long you will stay and on two rates nobody knows in advance: how fast the property appreciates and what the same money would have earned invested. Buying carries large one-off costs — down payment, stamp duty and registration of around 6.6% in urban Karnataka, and interiors — which take years of ownership to recover. Short stays therefore favour renting. This calculator finds the year in which the buyer's equity overtakes the renter's invested portfolio, so you can compare that year against how long you honestly expect to stay put.
What is the breakeven year in a rent vs buy calculation?
It is the first year at which the buyer's net position — the home's value, less selling costs, less the loan still outstanding — exceeds what the renter's portfolio is worth. Before that year the renter is ahead. After it, the buyer is. It is not a prediction; it is the arithmetic consequence of the assumptions you set on this page, which is why every one of them is a slider.
Why do most rent vs buy calculators conclude 'buy'?
Because they leave out the opportunity cost of the down payment. If the renter's cash is treated as though it sits idle, buying always wins. Give that cash a realistic return and the comparison becomes genuinely close. This calculator gives both sides the same money: the renter invests the down payment, the one-off costs, and every rupee the buyer spends over and above rent each month.
What appreciation rate should I assume?
Nobody knows, and a calculator that picks one for you is guessing on your behalf. The useful exercise is to set appreciation to 0% and see whether buying still makes sense on the strength of rent avoided and principal repaid alone. If it does, the case is robust. If it only works at 10% a year, you are not buying a home, you are taking a leveraged position on a price forecast.
Does this include maintenance and property tax?
Yes, both, on the buyer's side only — a tenant does not pay association maintenance or property tax, an owner does, and both rise over time. Maintenance inflation is a separate editable input because association charges reliably go up and never come down.
What about the non-financial reasons to buy?
They are real and this calculator cannot price them: security of tenure, freedom to renovate, no landlord ending your lease, and for many households a straightforward sense of having arrived. Equally real on the other side: mobility, no exposure to one asset in one city, and no ₹25 lakh locked into a down payment. Use the number here as one input into that decision, not as the decision.
Before you rely on this
This is a calculator, not financial advice. Pinly is not a lender, a broker or a tax adviser. The numbers here follow the assumptions you set on this page — change an assumption and the answer changes.
Stamp duty, cess, surcharge, registration fees and GST are set by the state and change with state budgets. The rates used here are Karnataka rates as last reviewed on 2026-08-01. They are not a live feed. Confirm the current figure on the Kaveri portal or with the jurisdictional sub-registrar before you transact.
We do not name banks, quote interest-rate offers or promise an approval. Your sanctioned rate, tenure and eligibility are the lender’s decision, based on your credit profile and their policy on the day.
Tax is not modelled on either side — neither capital-gains tax on the renter’s investments nor any deduction you might claim on home-loan principal or interest. Both depend on your tax regime and personal circumstances, and assuming either one for you would tilt the answer. Two other assumptions are baked in rather than editable: that the owner pays association maintenance and property tax and the tenant does not, and that no rental deposit is modelled.
This model compares financial positions only. It cannot price security of tenure, the freedom to renovate, or the risk of a landlord ending your lease — and it cannot price the flexibility of not owning either. Those belong in your decision; they just do not belong in a spreadsheet.
Project prices on Pinly are demonstration data for this prototype and do not describe a real project or a real registration.