Renting or buying: the cheaper one depends on how long you stay. Rent vs buy in the United Kingdom: compare the true cost of renting and buying over the years you'd stay, with buying and selling costs, interest, upkeep and price growth. See when buying starts to win.
Costs on top of the price
£4,900
Moving home · England & N. Ireland ·
What do you want to work out?
Whether renting or buying works out cheaper over the years you'd stay.
Over 7 years, buying works out cheaper by about
Rent paid
£105,742True cost of buying
£48,657Home worth in 7 years
£307,468Interest paid
£54,139Buying and selling costs
£11,537Yours after selling
£146,736True cost of buying = buying costs, interest, upkeep and selling costs, plus what your £67,400 deposit and costs could have earned as savings, minus the rise in the home's value. Mortgage repayments that pay off the loan aren't a cost: they come back to you when you sell. Assumes prices rise 3.0% and rents 3.0% a year (over past 5-year periods, prices in the United Kingdom typically rose 4.2% a year; we cap our starting figure at 3% to stay cautious); change these under "Rates, price growth and upkeep".
An illustration, not financial advice. Prices can fall as well as rise, and rates, rents and taxes change.
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Reach people working out the cost of buying in the United KingdomFor lawyers, brokers, surveyors and agents serving the United Kingdom. Shown only on these pages, labelled as sponsored.Where are you buying?
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Questions
It depends mostly on how long you stay. With our starting figures for a £250,000 home, buying works out cheaper over 7 years. Buying and selling costs are paid once, so the longer you stay, the more buying tends to win. Change the rent, years and growth above to test your own case.
Moving home in England & N. Ireland: stamp duty is about £2,500. All buying costs together come to about £4,900, or 2.0% of the price. Change the price or buyer type above to see your own figure.
In England and Northern Ireland, buyers who haven't lived in the UK for 183 days in the year before buying pay an extra 2% stamp duty. Scotland and Wales have no non-resident surcharge.
Anyone can buy, whatever their nationality.
A UK solicitor or licensed conveyancer. ID and proof of where your money comes from.
We last updated the figures on 15 Oct 2026 and checked them against official sources on 16 Oct 2026. We check every country every week, and show a warning if a check is overdue.
Guides
Buying in the United Kingdom?
CasaAlpha Deals checks and rates thousands of repossessions, auctions and price-cut homes every night. Free to join.
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