True amortization, real selling costs, and the year ownership actually overtakes renting — for your city and your timeline.
SAVES IN YOUR BROWSER · NOTHING LEAVES THIS DEVICE
1The place you’d buy
What you’d realistically pay, not the asking price.
Percent of the price you pay upfront. Under 20% usually means a higher rate.
Your quoted annual rate.
Longer means lower payments and far more interest.
2The place you’d rent
A comparable place — same size, same area.
Long-run average is around 2–3% in most European cities.
The single most important number here. Short stays favour renting, heavily.
Advanced — running costs — Now split by who actually pays. Sensible Austrian defaults are set.Open ▾
BUYER PAYS — as the owner
Costs a tenant never sees.
Grundsteuer, council tax, taxe foncière. Owner only — tenants don’t pay this.
Insures the structure itself. The owner’s policy, not the tenant’s.
Roof, walls, building envelope — major work the owner carries (~1% of price/yr). Not the appliance repairs a tenant does.
The Hausgeld / service-charge portion the owner pays (reserve fund, structural). The part passed to tenants goes below.
Owner’s upside. Be conservative — long-run real growth is close to inflation.
RENTER PAYS — as the tenant
In Austria a tenant carries more than rent: minor repairs and Betriebskosten.
Covers your belongings, not the building. Much cheaper than an owner’s policy.
Boiler servicing, minor repairs, fittings — in Austria typically the tenant’s. Set to 0 if your landlord covers them.
Heating, water, waste, and the building-fee share passed to tenants. If your rent is warm (includes these), set to 0 to avoid double-counting.
★Invest the money you don’t tie up
Renting frees up cash a buyer sinks into a deposit — and in any month one option is cheaper, the difference can be invested too. This is one of the biggest hidden advantages of renting. Turn it off if you wouldn’t actually invest it.
The return you’d earn on invested cash, after tax — nominal, so it’s comparable to the home-growth and rent-rise figures above. This is the single most sensitive number here: be sober (a broad index fund is ~5% nominal after tax).
BUYING NET RENTING BREAK-EVEN
When buying overtakes rentingCUMULATIVE COST · NET OF EQUITY