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Rent or buy?

This one has no universal answer, and anyone who gives you one is selling something. It turns on assumptions about the future that nobody can verify.

What RealityCheck can do is hold both paths to the same standard, put every assumption on the table, and show you exactly how much the answer moves when you change your mind about them.

The mistake most rent-vs-buy comparisons make

A great many comparisons total up the rent you would pay over twenty years, set it beside the home you would own at the end, and conclude that renting is money down the drain. That is not a comparison; it is an accounting error.

The buyer spends a large amount of cash on day one for the down payment and stamp duty, and typically pays more each month than rent once maintenance and property tax are counted. A fair comparison follows that money. Here the renter invests both the upfront cash and every month's difference at a return you choose, so both paths involve identical total spending and the question becomes which one leaves you holding more at the end.

The result is genuinely sensitive to two numbers: how fast property appreciates and what your investments would return instead. Set them equal and buying usually wins on leverage alone. Give investments a few points of advantage and renting often wins. Both are shown, neither is asserted.

Questions about this calculation

How is this comparison made fair?
Total monthly spending is held equal across both paths. In any month where one option costs less, the difference is invested at the return you specify. The renter also starts by investing the cash a buyer would have sunk into the down payment and stamp duty. Comparisons that skip this step charge the buyer for building equity while letting the renter's savings vanish, which makes buying look better than it is.
Why does the answer change so much when I adjust appreciation?
Because it is the single most influential assumption in the whole comparison. Property appreciation compounds on the full value of the home, including the borrowed part, so a one-point change moves the outcome by lakhs over a decade. That sensitivity is the honest finding here: anyone claiming to know the answer is really claiming to know future property prices.
What is the breakeven year?
The first year at which the buyer's net worth overtakes the renter's. Before that point, stamp duty, registration and front-loaded loan interest outweigh the equity being built. If no breakeven appears within 30 years, buying does not catch up at the rates you entered.
Does it include tax benefits on a home loan?
Yes, when they apply. Under the old tax regime the buyer's section 24(b) and 80C relief is computed each year from that year's actual interest and principal, then invested as it is received, so it compounds like any other money. Under the new regime — the default for most people — a self-occupied home loan carries no deduction, and the comparison applies none. Switching the regime in the calculator is one of the largest single levers on the result.
How much does the tax regime change the answer?
Substantially. On a typical crore-scale loan the interest deduction is pinned at its 2,00,000 annual cap for many years, which at a 30% marginal rate plus cess is roughly 62,000 a year of relief, compounding across the whole horizon. That can pull the breakeven year forward noticeably. It is worth setting this correctly before reading anything else on the page.
Is renting throwing money away?
Not automatically. Rent buys housing without transaction costs, maintenance risk or illiquidity, and it leaves capital free to compound elsewhere. Interest on a home loan is also money that does not build equity. Which path leaves you better off depends on the numbers you enter, and this calculator exists to show that rather than settle it.
How long should I plan to stay for buying to make sense?
Over horizons shorter than about five years, stamp duty and selling costs rarely get recovered, so the calculator flags short horizons explicitly. Beyond that it depends entirely on the appreciation and investment-return assumptions you set.

RealityCheck is a decision-support tool, not financial advice. Results depend entirely on the figures and assumptions you enter, and are a starting point for your own thinking rather than a conclusion.