Rent vs. buy calculator
Most rent-vs-buy tools are built for the US — they assume mortgage interest is deductible and ignore land transfer tax. This one is Canadian: it models LTT by province, CMHC insurance, and what your down payment could earn if you invested it instead. It shows the numbers and the breakeven year — it doesn't pick a side. Recurna Flow shows the part that decides it: whether your cash flow can carry the monthly cost, week by week.
Rent vs. buy calculator
The honest Canadian picture — land transfer tax, CMHC insurance, and what your down payment could earn if you invested it instead. See the year buying breaks even with renting.
Buying breaks even with renting in year 4.
Monthly cost
- Rent
- $2,400
- Buy (all-in)
- $4,041
- Mortgage
- $3,024
- Property tax
- $350
- Maintenance
- $542
- Insurance
- $125
- Condo / strata
- $0
Up-front to buy
- Cash needed at closing
- $142,475
- Down payment
- $130,000
- Land transfer tax
- $9,475
- Closing costs (est.)
- $3,000
- CMHC insurance added to mortgage
- $0
No land transfer tax here — a title-transfer fee of about $0 applies (folded into closing costs).
No data to chart.
Rent or own, you have a monthly housing cost — and the part a calculator can't show is whether your week-by-week cash flow can carry it. That's what Recurna Flow forecasts.
Estimates only, not financial advice. CMHC premium tiers and land-transfer-tax schedules use 2025 data. Excludes selling costs, first-time-homebuyer rebates, and any PST on the CMHC premium. Provincial schedules apply; some municipalities (e.g. Montreal) levy a higher welcome tax than shown.