The question is how long, not which one
Renting and buying are not two answers to one question - they are the same answer at different lengths of stay. Everything that makes buying expensive is front-loaded and one-off: the land transfer tax, the legal fees, the years of mortgage payments that are almost all interest. Every month you stay spreads those costs a little thinner while a little more of the payment goes to principal instead of the bank. So the useful output is not a verdict, it is a year: the point where those fixed costs have finally been outrun. Below it renting wins on the numbers, above it buying does, and the only thing that changes which side of the line you land on is how long you stay put.
The part a calculator cannot price
A break-even year is an arithmetic answer to a question that is not entirely arithmetic. Owning ties you to a city and a job market, and the cost of getting out is exactly what the number above is measuring. Renting keeps that flexibility and hands you a landlord, a lease, and no say over whether you are still there next year. Neither of those shows up in a chart. Treat the year as the price of the decision rather than the decision itself - if you would happily stay eight years and the number says nine, the gap is small enough that everything on this paragraph matters more than everything above it. Nothing here is financial advice, and Cadence is not a financial adviser; for guidance on your own situation, speak to someone licensed to give it.
From an estimate to your own numbers
The weakest input on this page is the rent, because you typed it. If you are already renting, the honest figure is not the number on your lease - it is that plus the parking, the insurance, the utilities your landlord does not cover, and whatever the last increase was. That is the part Cadence does: it reads your real spending and tells you what housing actually costs you each month, so the comparison starts from a figure you did not have to estimate. If you are working out what the down payment could grow to first, the investment calculator runs that projection, and the debt payoff calculator covers the balances you would rather clear before taking on a mortgage. The rest are collected on the calculators page.
Frequently asked questions
How does this rent vs buy calculator work?
It runs both paths for thirty years and tracks what you would be worth on each. Buying starts with the down payment, the land transfer tax and the legal costs going out the door, then every month adds the mortgage payment, the property tax bill, insurance and fees; the home grows at the rate you chose, and it is valued net of the agent and legal fees you would pay to sell. Renting starts with that same pile of cash invested instead, and every month invests whatever buying would have cost above the rent. The break-even is the first month the buying line catches the renting line.
Why does buying take longer to come out ahead than I expected?
Two costs that a monthly payment comparison never shows. Getting in costs land transfer tax, legal fees and the down payment itself, and getting out costs roughly 5% of the sale price in agent commission and legal fees - so a home has to gain close to 8% before a sale breaks even on the transaction alone. On top of that, the down payment would have been earning something if it had stayed invested, and early mortgage payments are almost entirely interest rather than equity. Stay long enough and those fixed costs spread thin while the mortgage shifts towards principal, which is why the answer is a number of years rather than a yes or no.
Does this include land transfer tax and CMHC insurance?
Yes. Both are inside the cash figure under the chart, which is dated with the day each source was last checked. Land transfer tax is modelled per province, with the City of Toronto as its own option because Toronto charges a municipal land transfer tax on top of Ontario's, which roughly doubles it. CMHC premium bands apply below 20% down, and the premium is added to the mortgage rather than paid at closing, which is how it actually works. The mortgage rate is compounded semi-annually, as the Interest Act requires for a Canadian fixed mortgage, rather than monthly the way a US calculator would. Tick First-Time Home Buyer and the province's first-home relief comes off, where it offers one - Ontario, Toronto, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island; the rest have no rebate to claim.
How long can my amortisation be?
Twenty-five years if the mortgage is insured, which it must be below 20% down - and thirty at 20% down or more, which is as long as a Canadian lender writes. The exception is first-time buyers, who have been allowed thirty years on an insured mortgage since 15 December 2024, so ticking First-Time Home Buyer raises the ceiling as well as taking the land transfer tax relief off. The same change gave thirty years to anyone buying a newly built home whether it is their first or not; there is no new-build option here, so a repeat buyer of a new build would need to model it by putting 20% down. The field holds itself to whichever ceiling your down payment and that checkbox allow, and says so under the headline when it has to move.
What growth rates should I use?
That is your call, and this page deliberately does not recommend any. Three fields set the rates, and the answer turns on how they sit against each other rather than on any one of them. Home value growth opens at 2%, near the Bank of Canada's inflation target. Rent increase opens at 2.5%, which is the cap on Ontario's rent increase guideline - it sat there for 2023, 2024 and 2025 before falling to 2.1% for 2026 - though market rent, which is what you pay when you move rather than renew, has run well above that. Investment return opens at 5%, where calculator.net opens the same assumption, and lower than the 8% our investment calculator opens at because that page is about long-run stock market investing whereas this money is the alternative to a house.
Which provinces does it cover?
Every province and the Northwest Territories and Yukon, plus the City of Toronto as a separate option. Three of them carry a caveat shown on the page: Nova Scotia sets deed transfer tax municipally from 0.5% to 1.5%, so the Halifax rate is used; Quebec sets transfer duties municipally, so the rates used are the ones outside Montreal, whose own bands run higher; and Alberta and Saskatchewan charge no land transfer tax at all, only registration fees of a few hundred dollars. Nunavut is not listed, because we could not verify a current fee schedule and a made-up figure on a page that dates every other one would be worse than an honest gap.
What does it leave out?
Income tax in every form, including the principal residence exemption and the tax you would owe on the investment returns on the renting side. Mortgage renewals, so the rate you set runs for the full term rather than resetting every few years. Rental insurance, moving costs, and any special assessment a condo board might levy. Inflation beyond the rates you set, so every figure is in today's dollars. And the largest one: whether you actually stay. The answer is a number of years, and it is only worth anything if you would still be there.
Do I need an account to use this?
No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere. Cadence itself is a paid subscription with a 14-day free trial, but this page is open to anyone.