Rent, or buy?
The honest answer depends on how long you'll stay. This compares both over the years you'll actually be there — where your money ends up either way, the year buying overtakes renting, and what each really costs once you allow for the deposit you could have invested instead. Free, no sign-up.
Assumptions — sensible defaults, tweak if you like
A guide, not financial advice. It compares net worth at the end of your stay: as an owner that's the equity in the home after selling costs; as a renter it's the deposit and any monthly saving invested at the return you set. It holds the mortgage rate, growth rates and your rent steady — real life moves around, and house prices can fall as well as rise. It leaves out council tax and insurance (you pay those either way). Talk to a mortgage broker or financial adviser before a decision this big. Nothing you type here leaves your browser.
"Renting is throwing money away" isn't the whole story.
How long you'll stay is the decision. Buying carries big one-off costs — stamp duty, legal fees, a survey, and agent fees when you sell. Spread over two or three years those costs swamp any gain; spread over ten or fifteen they barely register. That's why this tool puts your stay front and centre, and shows the breakeven year — the point where buying finally pulls ahead.
It's a fair fight, not a loaded one. A renter isn't just "throwing money away" — they're not tying up a deposit or paying for the boiler, so they can invest that money instead. This compares the owner's equity at the end against the renter putting the same money to work in savings or investments. Whoever has more at the end wins.
The assumptions matter. Nudge house-price growth down a point, or investment returns up a point, and the answer can flip. That's the honest truth of it: buy-versus-rent isn't a fact, it's a forecast. Use the assumptions panel to test your own view rather than ours.
There's more to it than money. Owning brings security and freedom to change things; renting brings flexibility and no surprise repair bills. The numbers are one input to a decision that's also about how you want to live.
Whichever you choose, keep it organised.
Stead keeps your whole home in one place — the rent or mortgage and bills, the certificates and renewals, the jobs that need doing. When you do buy, it tracks the running costs, the maintenance and the value over time so you always know where you stand.