T21Finance · Housing

Buy or rent: the real number

Everybody tells you that "rent is money thrown away" or that "buying is a trap". Nobody does the real maths with your salary, your capital, the loan, taxes and charges, inflation and currency. Here we do it, with your own numbers.

AI-generated image: a worried man reading a bill by lamplight at a cluttered desk — **He only counted the monthly payment.** Then came the repairs, the insurance and the taxes.

AI-generated image: a calm man holding house keys in front of printed charts and tables — **He counted everything:** salary, taxes, charges, inflation. Then he chose, keys in hand.

Images generated by AI.

This simulator answers one question: is it better to buy a home or to keep renting? Enter your salary, your capital and the home you have in mind; it follows both paths year by year (loan, rent, charges, taxes, inflation, your investments) and shows, below, which one leaves you richer after the number of years you choose. Every value is an assumption you can change.

1.3The simulator (every value below is an assumption: change any of them and the result updates)

Your situation

Net salary per month

What you earn each month after tax and social charges, in today's money. The box on the right is the currency where you live: it applies to the salary, the price, the rent and every amount below (pick it in the list: USD, EUR, THB, PHP, KHR first, then the other most traded currencies).

Capital you have today

Your savings and investments today. The box on the right is the currency they are invested in: if it differs from the currency where you live, the exchange rate between the two changes their value (see the currency setting below). If you buy, the capital pays the down payment and the purchase costs; the rest stays invested.

Price of the home you consider

The purchase price.

Rent of a similar home (per month)

What you would pay each month to rent a home comparable to the one you would buy, today.

1.4Buying or renting: who is ahead, over 10 years

1.5What you end up with

1.6Show the details of the calculations

BUYING (one spreadsheet: costs, savings, investments and net worth; click a cell to see its formula)

2How it works

2.1The idea

You earn a salary and own a capital. Buying and renting are two ways to spend it. In both cases you live on the same salary; what is left after housing is saved and invested. After the years you chose, we compare what you own in each case.

2.2What is counted

Down payment, loan interest and repayment, purchase and selling costs, property tax, maintenance, insurance, building charges, tax on the gain, rent and its increases, investment returns (capital and dividends) after tax, inflation, and the exchange rate between your investments and your home.

2.3What is not

Your personal situation, rules that depend on your income, future prices, interest rates and returns (they are assumptions you set), the comfort or stability of owning, and any tax rule not listed in the settings.

2.4How to use it

Start with the two buttons, change one assumption at a time, and try both good and bad cases (prices falling, rates rising). If the answer flips easily, the choice is not clear-cut: that is itself an answer.