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About this tool
Compare renting vs buying a home in India — EMI, appreciation, invested savings, and a clear verdict for your horizon.
Rent vs Buy Home Calculator compares the net worth you would hold as a buyer against the net worth you would hold as a renter at the end of a chosen horizon, and reports the year in which one overtakes the other. The buyer's side is home value minus outstanding loan balance, plus any surplus invested for the months when owning (EMI plus maintenance, minus any tax saving) costs less than rent that month; the renter's side is the down payment, registration and every month's cost difference invested at your assumed return and compounded monthly. It amortises the loan month by month with the standard EMI formula, escalates rent and home value annually, prices maintenance as a percentage of the home's current value, and can layer on stamp duty plus the old-regime home-loan tax deductions.
Open Rent vs Buy Home Calculator on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Enter the home price, down payment %, loan interest rate and tenure, the monthly rent for the same home, and rent inflation.
Set home appreciation, investment return and maintenance + property tax, drag How long will you stay?, and switch on the home-loan tax benefit or 7% registration.
Read the verdict, the crossover year, the 3% / 5% / 8% appreciation sensitivity strip and the year-by-year net worth table, then press Copy summary.
Rather than one final verdict, it finds the first year in which buying or renting takes the lead and holds it to the end of your horizon.
Model a 20-year loan you only stay in for 7 years — the buyer's net worth is home value minus the loan still outstanding at that point.
A side-by-side strip re-runs the whole simulation at 3%, 5% and 8% appreciation so you can see how fragile the verdict is.
The first year from which one option stays ahead on net worth all the way to the end of your horizon. If buying trails for the first six years and leads from year seven onwards, the crossover is year 7 — which is roughly the minimum time you would need to stay for buying to make sense on these assumptions.
It applies the old-regime deductions at a 30% slab: interest paid in the year capped at ₹2,00,000 under Section 24(b), plus principal repaid capped at ₹1,50,000 under Section 80C. The estimated saving is spread across the twelve months and netted off the ownership cost. It does not apply under the new tax regime — check your own position with a tax professional.
Only if you switch the toggle on, which adds a one-time 7% of the home price to the upfront outlay. That is a common ballpark for Indian states, but the actual rate varies by state and by buyer category, so adjust your expectations to your local figure.
Because the renter's side is not just rent avoided — the down payment, registration and every month that the EMI plus maintenance exceeds rent are invested and compounded monthly at your assumed return. At the 11% default return and 5% appreciation, that compounding often outruns the equity built in the house over a short horizon.
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