Should I buy or keep renting?
Should you buy or keep renting? Your answer in one line, the cash you need on the day, stamp duty in every state, and the year owning gets ahead.
Housing and rents shows how much a bank might lend you and the repayment, what happens to both if rates move, the cash and stamp duty it takes to buy, the median rent in your suburb with the cheapest rents nearby on a map, whether a rent rise is normal, and what a sale leaves you.
What it works out
- Rent: your rise against rents in your suburb and against your state's own rent increase rules.
- Buy: transfer duty (stamp duty) in every state and territory with the first home buyer rules that apply, lenders mortgage insurance, the 5% Deposit Scheme price caps and how much a bank would lend.
- Rent or buy: four plain questions and one answer, with the sum shown in four steps.
- Sell: what a sale costs, what the tax office takes from a gain, the land tax an investor pays and what a rental returns.
- Your suburb: who lives there, what they earn and what they pay, from the 2021 Census.
- The market around it: the cash rate and what moves it next, what banks charge, what dwellings sell for and how fast rents are rising.
Where the numbers come from
- Australian Bureau of Statistics: monthly CPI, residential dwellings, average weekly earnings, lending indicators and building approvals
- Reserve Bank of Australia: rate decisions, meeting dates and lending rates
- State bond lodgement data, for rents by postcode in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania
- Each state's own tenancy page, for the rent increase rules
- State and territory revenue office pages, for transfer duty
- Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021 Census, for suburb profiles
- Cotality home value index, for ten-year growth, rental yield and rent growth by capital
- The Australian Government first home buyers site, for 5% Deposit Scheme price caps
Nothing here is legal or financial advice.
Questions people ask
How much can I borrow?
Borrow works it out the way the banks' own calculators ask it: your income, your household and your spending, tested at your rate plus the 3 point buffer APRA asks lenders to use, and capped at about six times income. It shows the repayment, and what both do if rates move.
Is my rent rise normal?
The tool sets your rise against rents in your suburb and against your state's rent increase rules. The rules are read from each state's own tenancy page, and where a page did not state something, the tool does not claim it.
How much stamp duty will I pay?
The Buy section works out transfer duty, the official name for stamp duty, for every state and territory. It includes the first home buyer rules that apply right now.
Should I rent or buy?
Rent or buy asks four plain questions and gives one answer. It shows the sum in four steps: can you borrow it, the cash on the day, each month, and over the years.
Related tools
- Your pay: your income for the loan
- Policy days: the rate your repayments follow
- Cost of living: what the rest of life costs here
The live tool loads on this page. Enter your own numbers and it works out the answer for you.