Pay your own mortgage instead of someome else’s!

This calculator provides estimates only. Figures are illustrative based on your inputs and do not constitute financial advice. Every situation is different, so talk to the team at Hunter Galloway about your specific circumstances before making any property decisions.

How to use this rent vs buy calculator

Plug in the numbers that reflect your actual situation: the purchase price you're considering, your deposit, current rent, an estimated interest rate, and how long you plan to stay in the property. The calculator then models the financial difference over time, showing you the approximate point where buying overtakes renting on a pure cost basis.

A word of caution before you get started. The maths only tells part of the story. The rent vs buy question is one of the most personal financial decisions you'll make, and the right answer depends on things a calculator can't capture, like your job security, lifestyle flexibility, relationship situation, and how long you're genuinely likely to stay put. Use these numbers as a starting point, not a verdict.

The real cost comparison: renting vs buying

Most people compare their current rent to what a mortgage repayment would cost. That's a reasonable starting point, but it only scratches the surface. To make a proper call, you need to stack up all the costs on both sides.

What buying actually costs

Beyond the mortgage repayment, owning a home comes with a stack of ongoing and one-off costs that many first-timers underestimate:

• Upfront buying costs: Stamp duty (transfer duty in Queensland), legal and conveyancing fees, building and pest inspection, and mortgage registration. These typically add 3-5% to your purchase price on top of your deposit, though Queensland's first home buyer concessions can substantially reduce the stamp duty component.
• Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI): If your deposit is under 20%, most lenders require LMI. It can run into tens of thousands of dollars, though it can be capitalised into your loan. Our LMI calculator can give you a rough figure.
• Council rates: A recurring quarterly cost that varies by suburb and property type.
• Home and contents insurance: Non-negotiable as a homeowner, and in Southeast Queensland particularly, building insurance premiums have risen sharply.
• Maintenance and repairs: A widely used rule of thumb is around 1% of your property's value per year. On a $700,000 home that's $7,000 a year on average. Some years it's nothing, other years a hot water system and a new fence land in the same month.
• Strata or body corporate levies: If you're buying an apartment or townhouse, these are often substantial and non-optional.
• Selling costs when you move on: Agent commissions, marketing, and legal fees typically run to 2-3% of the sale price. If you sell in a few years without much capital growth, these costs can eat into any gains.

What renting actually costs

Renting is often framed as "dead money", which we'll get to in a moment, but it does come with genuine financial advantages worth acknowledging:

• No upfront capital tied up in a deposit (that money can be invested elsewhere)
• No maintenance costs, because that's the landlord's problem
• No council rates, building insurance, or strata fees
• The flexibility to move without transaction costs

The trade-off, of course, is that you have no control over rent increases, no ability to renovate, and no equity building in the background.

How buying builds equity, and why that matters

Every mortgage repayment has two components: interest (the cost of borrowing) and principal (paying down what you owe). In the early years of a loan, interest makes up most of each repayment. But as the years roll on, more and more of your payment chips away at the principal, and your equity grows.

At the same time, if the property rises in value, your equity increases further. That equity becomes a genuine financial asset. It can be used to upgrade to a bigger home, fund an investment property, or provide security in retirement.

This is the core argument for buying. Over a long enough time horizon, you're building wealth with each repayment rather than simply paying for a roof over your head. The rent you pay, by contrast, builds equity for your landlord, not you.

Property isn't a guaranteed investment, though. Markets go up and down, and a property bought at the wrong price or sold too soon can deliver a loss. Opportunity cost matters here too, because a large deposit sitting in a savings account or invested in a diversified portfolio also grows over time. The question is whether property growth in your target area is likely to outpace those alternatives over your timeframe.

The break-even time horizon: how long you plan to stay matters most

This is probably the single most important factor the calculator is trying to surface. Because of the upfront costs of buying (stamp duty, legal fees, LMI, building and pest inspections), you need to hold a property for a certain number of years before buying genuinely beats renting on a financial basis.

The break-even point varies depending on your purchase price, local market conditions, rental costs, and what you could otherwise earn on your deposit. As a rough guide, in most Australian capital city markets buyers tend to break even somewhere between four and eight years, but this varies considerably.

If you're planning to move cities in two years, or your work situation is uncertain, buying may not stack up, regardless of what the repayments look like versus your current rent. If you're planning to stay put for a decade or more, the numbers usually shift decisively in favour of buying.

This is why the "how long will you stay?" question in the calculator isn't optional. It's arguably the most important input of all.

A worked example: renting vs buying a $650,000 Brisbane unit

Say you are weighing up a $650,000 unit against renting a similar place for $560 a week. With a 10% deposit ($65,000), a 6.0% interest rate over 30 years, and the Queensland first home stamp duty concession (which brings duty to nil at this price), your repayments land near $3,500 a month. Renting costs about $2,430 a month today, so on cash flow alone renting looks cheaper at the start.

The picture shifts over time. Rent tends to rise most years, while the principal portion of your repayments quietly builds equity and the property itself may appreciate. The calculator above models that crossover for your own numbers, which is where the rent versus buy decision is really made. These figures are illustrative only.

When renting genuinely makes more sense

There's a tendency in Australian culture to treat renting as a failure state, something you do until you "get serious." That's a bit unfair, and it can lead people into buying decisions that don't actually suit their circumstances. Renting is the right call when:

• You're not going to stay long enough: If there's a realistic chance you'll need to move within three to four years, the transaction costs of buying and selling will likely outweigh the equity you've built.
• The price-to-rent ratio is stretched: In some Brisbane suburbs and inner-city markets, purchase prices are high relative to rental yields. This compresses the financial advantage of buying, at least in the short to medium term.
• Your deposit isn't there yet: Buying with a very small deposit means LMI costs, a higher loan-to-value ratio, and less buffer if the market softens. Sometimes it's smarter to keep saving, particularly if you can redirect those savings productively.
• Life is in flux: New relationship, new job, possible interstate move. Buying a home is a long-term commitment, and entering that commitment during a period of genuine uncertainty is a risk in itself.
• Rentvesting makes more financial sense for you: More on that below.

Being honest about these scenarios is the foundation of good advice. If renting is right for your situation right now, then the answer is renting.

How government schemes change the numbers for first home buyers

If you're a first home buyer in Queensland, there are several government initiatives that can meaningfully shift the rent-vs-buy maths in your favour.

Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme (formerly the First Home Guarantee)

The Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme (formerly the First Home Guarantee) allows eligible buyers to purchase with as little as a 5% deposit. The government guarantees the remaining 15%, so lenders treat it as a 20% deposit, which means no LMI. From October 2025 the scheme removed income caps entirely, making it available to a broader range of buyers. There are no waitlists, but eligibility still depends on lender assessment, and you can only access the scheme through a participating lender.

Queensland stamp duty concessions

Queensland offers generous transfer duty (stamp duty) concessions for first home buyers. For established homes, eligible buyers pay $0 stamp duty on properties up to $700,000, with a partial concession available on a sliding scale up to $800,000. For new homes and vacant land, there is no value cap on the full exemption. On a $700,000 purchase, first home buyers pay $0 stamp duty, a saving of up to around $24,500 versus the standard transfer-duty rate.

Queensland First Home Owner Grant

A $30,000 grant is available for eligible first home buyers purchasing or building a new home valued under $750,000. Note that this $30,000 amount applies only to eligible contracts entered into up to 30 June 2026. From 1 July 2026 the grant reverts to $15,000. It can be combined with stamp duty savings for a meaningful financial boost at the point of purchase.

First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSS)

The FHSS scheme lets you make voluntary concessional contributions to your superannuation and then withdraw them (up to applicable limits) to use as a home deposit. Because super contributions are taxed at a lower rate than regular income, this can be a tax-effective way to accelerate your deposit savings. The rules have a few nuances, so it pays to get advice on whether it suits your situation.

Used in combination, these schemes can materially reduce the upfront cost of buying and shorten the break-even timeline. Our deposit calculator can help you model what your savings position looks like with these factored in.

Rentvesting: the middle path

Rentvesting is a strategy that's gained real traction in Australian property circles, and it's worth understanding if you feel priced out of buying where you want to live.

Here's the idea. You keep renting in the suburb or city where you want to live (for lifestyle, work, or flexibility reasons), while at the same time buying an investment property in a more affordable market. Your tenant's rent covers part of your mortgage, you start building equity and property exposure, and you're not sacrificing your lifestyle to do it.

It's not for everyone. You won't be eligible for the First Home Owner Grant on an investment property, and there are tax and lending considerations that need proper advice. But for buyers who are priced out of their preferred suburb, or who don't want to compromise on location, rentvesting can be a genuine entry point into the property market that a standard rent-vs-buy calculator won't capture.

Talk to the team at Hunter Galloway if you want to explore whether rentvesting could work for you.

Rent vs buy FAQs

It depends heavily on the market, your deposit size, and your time horizon. In many Australian cities, monthly mortgage repayments on a median-priced home currently exceed equivalent weekly rent, particularly in the early years when interest makes up most of the repayment. That repayment is building equity, though, whereas rent builds none. Over a long enough period, typically more than five to seven years, buying tends to be the more cost-effective outcome in most capital city markets, especially when capital growth is factored in. In the short term, renting is often cheaper on a cash-flow basis.

The break-even point varies, but in most Australian capital city markets, most buyers reach the point where buying has outperformed renting somewhere between four and eight years after purchase. The key drivers are how much you paid in upfront costs (stamp duty, LMI, legal fees), the rate of capital growth in your area, what you could have earned investing your deposit elsewhere, and whether your rental costs would have risen significantly over that period. Our calculator models this over time, and the chart will show you where the lines cross for your specific inputs.

The big ones that catch buyers off guard are stamp duty (transfer duty) and legal fees, which add 3-5% to your purchase price beyond the deposit. Then there's Lenders Mortgage Insurance, which can run into tens of thousands if your deposit is under 20%, plus building and pest inspections that cost a few hundred dollars but are non-negotiable. On top of that, ongoing costs like council rates, home insurance, maintenance, and body corporate fees if applicable can collectively add another 1-2% of property value per year. Many buyers plan for the mortgage repayment but underestimate the total cost of ownership. Our home loans page has more detail on what to budget for.

It's a popular framing, but it's not quite right, or at least it's not the whole picture. Rent pays for housing, which is a genuine need. You could make the same "dead money" argument about mortgage interest, council rates, insurance, and maintenance, none of which build equity either. The honest answer is that both renting and buying involve unavoidable costs. The difference is that buying also builds equity over time (through principal repayment and capital growth), whereas renting doesn't. Whether that equity advantage outweighs the higher upfront and ongoing costs of ownership depends on how long you hold the property and how the market performs.

Brisbane's property market has seen significant price growth in recent years, which has compressed rental yields and pushed purchase prices higher. The decision comes down to your individual circumstances: how long you plan to stay in Brisbane, whether you qualify for first home buyer schemes (which can significantly reduce your entry costs), your current deposit position, and your income stability. If you're planning to stay in Brisbane for five or more years and have a workable deposit, the numbers often favour buying, especially with Queensland's stamp duty concessions for first home buyers removing a major upfront cost. A first home buyer guide session with our brokers can walk through whether the timing is right for you.

Rentvesting means renting where you want to live while owning an investment property somewhere more affordable. It lets you get into the property market and start building equity without having to compromise on where you live or work. The trade-off is that you don't get the emotional and lifestyle benefits of owning your own home, you miss out on the First Home Owner Grant on an investment purchase, and managing an investment property has its own complexities. It works best for people who value lifestyle flexibility, are priced out of their preferred suburb, or who see higher capital growth potential elsewhere. It's a strategy that deserves a proper conversation before you commit either way.

Technically, you can buy with as little as a 5% deposit using the Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme (formerly the First Home Guarantee), and from October 2025 income caps were removed from the scheme, making it accessible to more buyers. Without a scheme, most lenders want at least 10-20% to avoid LMI, and a 20% deposit avoids LMI entirely. Beyond the deposit itself, you'll need funds for stamp duty, legal fees, and inspection costs, though first home buyers in Queensland may pay little to no stamp duty depending on the property type and value. Use our deposit calculator to model different scenarios, and check our LMI calculator to see what LMI would cost at different deposit levels.

Not directly, but the First Home Super Saver Scheme (FHSS) lets you make voluntary contributions to super and later withdraw them (subject to limits) to put toward a deposit. Because voluntary concessional contributions to super are taxed at 15% rather than your marginal rate, this can be a tax-effective way to build your deposit faster. There are rules around how much you can contribute and withdraw, and the scheme has some quirks worth understanding. A mortgage broker or financial adviser can help you work out whether it's worth incorporating into your savings strategy.

The Queensland First Home Owner Grant is $30,000 for eligible first home buyers purchasing or building a new home valued under $750,000, but this $30,000 amount applies only to eligible contracts entered into up to 30 June 2026. From 1 July 2026 the grant reverts to $15,000. It's a grant for new builds and brand-new homes (not established properties), and it can be combined with Queensland's stamp duty concessions. If you're weighing up a purchase around that mid-2026 cut-off, the timing of your contract could make a meaningful difference, so it's worth a quick chat with our team to make sure you don't miss out.

Talk to a Brisbane mortgage broker about your situation

There's no universal right answer to the rent vs buy question, and any calculator, including this one, can only give you estimates based on the numbers you put in. What it can't do is factor in your career trajectory, your family situation, the specific property you're looking at, or the lending options actually available to you right now.

Our team at Hunter Galloway has helped thousands of Brisbane buyers work through exactly this decision. We're an independently owned brokerage with access to dozens of lenders, and we'll give you a straight answer about whether the numbers make sense for your circumstances.

If you'd like to explore your options, book a free assessment with one of our brokers, or call us on 1300 088 065. We're based in Brisbane and work with buyers across Queensland.