Guides
The rent-vs-buy decision turns on details that headline mortgage-vs-rent comparisons skip: the tax treatment of a home, the opportunity cost of a down payment, and the capital-gains bill a renter-investor eventually pays. These guides work through them, country by country, in the same terms the calculator models.
Country guides
- Renting vs buying in the Netherlands (2026): HRA, Box 3, transfer tax and NHG
How Hypotheekrenteaftrek, the Eigenwoningforfait, the 2% transfer tax, NHG and Box 3 wealth tax change the rent-vs-buy maths for Dutch households, with a worked example.
11 min read - Renting vs buying in the United States (2026): the mortgage interest deduction, SALT cap, PMI and capital gains
Why the standard deduction, the SALT cap, PMI and long-term capital-gains tax decide the American rent-vs-buy question more than the headline mortgage rate does.
12 min read - Renting vs buying in Italy (2026): prima casa, the mutuo credit, bollo and capital gains
Prima-casa registration tax on the cadastral value, the 19% mutuo interest credit, the bollo wealth tax and Italy's 26%/12.5% capital-gains split, and what they do to renting vs buying.
11 min read
The economics
- Why most rent-vs-buy calculators are wrong
Comparing a mortgage payment to a rent cheque ignores the renter's down payment and the buyer's after-tax cost. Here is the opportunity-cost framing that fixes both.
9 min read - How capital-gains tax quietly changes the rent-vs-buy answer
A renter who invests the down payment owes tax on the gains; a homeowner usually does not. How US LTCG, Italy's 26%/12.5% split and Dutch Box 3 reshape the comparison.
10 min read - The Netherlands' Box 3 2028 reform, explained
From a deemed-return levy to a tax on actual returns: what the 2028 Box 3 reform changes for savers and investors, and why it tilts the rent-vs-buy decision.
10 min read