Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Spreadsheet Template for Google Sheets & Excel
Set the price, the deposit share, the rate, the horizon and the rent you would otherwise pay. The Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet template puts those inputs on the left and their results on the right: deposit and loan amount, estimated monthly principal and interest, the home value projected to the end of the horizon, and average monthly rent once your increase is applied. Google Sheets or Excel, one file. No macros, no VBA, no sign-up.
Assumptions gathered on a sheet of their own - price, deposit, rate, term, tax, insurance, dues, maintenance, closing costs, appreciation, rent and rent increase
Opportunity cost modelled: the return the deposit and closing costs would earn if invested rather than spent on a purchase
Year-by-Year breakdown showing every cost line on both sides rather than a rolled-up total
Net figures stated as wealth - ownership counts equity and appreciation back, renting counts the investment returns
Assumptions gathered on a sheet of their own - price, deposit, rate, term, tax, insurance, dues, maintenance, closing costs, appreciation, rent and rent increase
Opportunity cost modelled: the return the deposit and closing costs would earn if invested rather than spent on a purchase
Year-by-Year breakdown showing every cost line on both sides rather than a rolled-up total
Assumptions gathered on a sheet of their own - price, deposit, rate, term, tax, insurance, dues, maintenance, closing costs, appreciation, rent and rent increase
Opportunity cost modelled: the return the deposit and closing costs would earn if invested rather than spent on a purchase
Year-by-Year breakdown showing every cost line on both sides rather than a rolled-up total
Net figures stated as wealth - ownership counts equity and appreciation back, renting counts the investment returns
Assumptions gathered on a sheet of their own - price, deposit, rate, term, tax, insurance, dues, maintenance, closing costs, appreciation, rent and rent increase
Opportunity cost modelled: the return the deposit and closing costs would earn if invested rather than spent on a purchase
Year-by-Year breakdown showing every cost line on both sides rather than a rolled-up total
Assumptions gathered on a sheet of their own - price, deposit, rate, term, tax, insurance, dues, maintenance, closing costs, appreciation, rent and rent increase
Opportunity cost modelled: the return the deposit and closing costs would earn if invested rather than spent on a purchase
Year-by-Year breakdown showing every cost line on both sides rather than a rolled-up total
Net figures stated as wealth - ownership counts equity and appreciation back, renting counts the investment returns
The FinancialAha Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Spreadsheet Template is a one-sheet workbook for Google Sheets and Excel, with a How to Use guide on a second tab. It works as a Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Excel template and a Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Google Sheets template from the same download. This Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet template sizes the purchase and projects it forward: the deposit and loan behind a given price, the monthly payment that follows, and where the home value and the rent each land at the end of the horizon you set. No macros, no VBA, no sign-up.
Inside the workbook
What's inside the FinancialAha Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet template
The FinancialAha Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Spreadsheet Template runs on one working sheet, with the instructions on a tab of their own. It works in both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets and here is what the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet holds.
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Rent vs Buy
The single working sheet, and the whole template. Inputs sit on the left and the figures they produce sit on the right, so changing an assumption and watching the other side move is the entire workflow. You set the price, the deposit share, the mortgage rate and term, the horizon, the rent you would otherwise pay, and the two growth rates; back come the deposit in money terms, the loan behind it, the monthly principal and interest, the home value at the end of the horizon, and the average monthly rent across it. The mortgage term is worth setting deliberately - it drives the monthly payment and is a separate figure from the horizon, which only sets how far the projection runs. It stops there - this build does not add the two sides up against each other.
Rent vs Buy
Included guide
How to Use
A step-by-step guide on its own tab, covering setup, how to replace the sample values, and how to change the currency. Because it ships inside the file, the instructions travel with the template wherever it is opened.
Works in both Google Sheets and Excel
Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Spreadsheet template for Google Sheets
Upload the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Spreadsheet Template to Drive, right-click it, and choose "Open with Google Sheets". This Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Google Sheets template needs no conversion step and nothing gets rewritten on the way in - the figures recalculate exactly as they do in Excel. The currency dropdown beside the title relabels each money field, and the whole Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet is small enough to open instantly.
Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Google Sheets template setup
A shared copy of the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Google Sheets template works when two people are weighing the same move, and Sheets version history covers an assumption someone typed over. One screen of inputs also makes the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Spreadsheet Template practical on a phone, which matters when a listing comes up away from a desk.
Sharing the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Google Sheet
The Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Google Sheet is built for a sitting rather than a routine: put a property's numbers in, read the figures, change the rate or the horizon, and read them again. Because the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet has no schedule to scroll, running a second listing is a matter of duplicating the tab.
Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Spreadsheet template for Excel
The Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet Excel download is a plain .xlsx. Excel opens this Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Excel template directly, with no import step and no compatibility prompt, and every figure updates the moment an input changes. There are no macros and no VBA in the file, so it opens without a security warning.
Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Excel template setup
The same Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Excel template opens in Excel on Windows, Excel on Mac, and Excel for the web. It is also the identical file you would upload to Drive, so there is no separate Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet download to choose between.
Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet Excel notes
The Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet Excel file carries no macros and no VBA, so Excel opens it without a trust prompt. The same Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet Excel download also opens in Excel for the web, which matters when you move between a work machine and a personal one.
Opening the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet Excel file
Nothing in the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Excel template is version-specific, so this Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet Excel workbook behaves identically in Excel on Windows, Excel on Mac, and older builds.
The FinancialAha Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Spreadsheet Template covers one working sheet. It sizes the purchase and projects the two sides forward, and that is the honest limit of the Free build: it does not add up what each option costs over the horizon, does not name a cheaper one, and carries no break-even year. The Essentials Rent vs Buy Calculator Spreadsheet Template for Google Sheets and Excel is where the comparison actually happens - a year-by-year table running rent and ownership side by side with equity and net cost, a chart over the top, and a dashboard reporting which side comes out lower over ten years and the year the two cross. The Ultimate Rent vs Buy Calculator Spreadsheet Template goes further again, holding the assumptions on a sheet of their own and adding what the deposit would have earned if invested instead, a sensitivity grid across appreciation rates and holding periods, and three appreciation scenarios side by side.
Notes on working in the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet template
The down payment is a share of the price, the mortgage is the remainder, and the payment amortises that remainder at your rate over the horizon.
Home value at the horizon grows the price at the appreciation rate you set; average monthly rent averages a rent growing at its own rate.
A rate of zero is handled on both sides rather than returning an error.
The horizon is an input rather than a fixed period, so it can run to however long you expect to stay.
The dropdown beside the title relabels the money fields. It changes the label and nothing else.
How the Rent vs Buy Calculator template works
Sizes a purchase and projects it forward - the loan behind a given price, the monthly payment, and where the home value and the rent each land at the end of the horizon you set. Enter your own numbers and the figures follow.
When this template helps
01
You have a specific asking price and a specific rent in mind and want both sized over the same number of years.
02
You want the down payment and the mortgage that sit behind an asking price without working the percentage out yourself.
03
Rent rises too, and you want the average monthly rent across the horizon rather than today's figure.
04
You want the home value at the end of the horizon under an appreciation rate you choose rather than one assumed for you.
Tips to get the most out of it
The two sides are not a single verdict - one ends holding a property and the other does not, and the sheet reports rather than concludes.
Both growth rates are assumptions you supply, and the comparison moves further on those than on the price.
Running two horizons is the quickest way to see how much of the answer is the length of stay.
Common mistakes to avoid
Treating the result as a decision rather than an input. The sheet answers "what if" - the final call is yours.
Reading the Free build as a verdict. It sizes the purchase and projects it forward; it never totals the two options against each other.
Leaving appreciation and rent increase at their sample values. Both are assumptions you supply, and the figures move a long way on small changes to either.
How to Use the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Spreadsheet Template
1
Enter the purchase
Put in the home price, the deposit share, the mortgage rate and term, and how many years the projection should run.
2
Enter the rent
Add what renting an equivalent place costs each month, and the annual increase you expect on it.
3
Set the growth rates
Give the sheet an annual appreciation rate for the home. Both growth rates are assumptions you supply rather than figures the file knows.
4
Read the results
The right-hand block returns the deposit and loan, the estimated monthly payment, the home value at the horizon, and the average monthly rent across it.
We use Claude AI to draft each template, after a deep research. Then our team steps in. We refine the layout, stress-test every formula, fix edge cases, and polish the design until it feels like something we would actually use ourselves. The AI gets us 80% there. The last 20% is all human judgment.
Excel
Sheets
No signup
Download instantly, no email required
Formula-driven
All calculations update automatically
Dual compatible
Works in Excel and Google Sheets
Sample data included
See the template in action right away
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between the free, Essentials, and Ultimate Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet template?
Free is a single-sheet starter template with sample data and a How to Use guide. Essentials ($19) is the fuller build - more capacity, more detail, and more worked out for you rather than typed. Ultimate ($29) goes further again, usually six working sheets, giving each part of the template its own sheet and adding deeper reporting on top. What each tier holds differs by template - the comparison table on every template page lists it exactly.
Which Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet template should I download?
Upgrade to Essentials if you want a dashboard with charts, more categories, larger capacity, and a more polished spreadsheet for ongoing use. The Free version is a good fit for one-off planning or trying out the layout.
Can I upgrade the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet template later?
Essentials is a one-time $19 purchase with no subscription. It typically adds a full dashboard, 30-50% more categories or rows than the Free version, and richer formulas. Most buyers upgrade after using the Free version for a few weeks and hitting its limits.
Is the FinancialAha Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Spreadsheet Template a Google Sheets template?
Yes. Upload the file to Drive and choose "Open with Google Sheets". Nothing needs rewriting in the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Google Sheets template, and the currency dropdown still relabels the money fields.
Is the FinancialAha Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Spreadsheet Template an Excel template?
Yes. The download is a plain .xlsx, so the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Excel template opens directly in Excel with no import step. There are no macros and no VBA, so it opens without a security warning.
Will the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet Excel file open in older versions of Excel?
Yes. The Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet Excel workbook ships as a plain .xlsx, so it opens identically in current Excel and in builds that predate dynamic arrays.
Does the FinancialAha Free Rent vs Buy Calculator Spreadsheet Template tell me which option is cheaper?
No. The Free build sizes the purchase and projects the home value and the rent forward, but it does not total what each option costs across the horizon and it carries no break-even year. The Essentials build adds the year-by-year comparison, the equity, and a dashboard reporting which side comes out lower over ten years.
Which inputs should I edit in the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet template?
The left-hand block: home price, down payment percentage, mortgage rate, horizon in years, the equivalent monthly rent, and the two growth rates for appreciation and rent. Everything on the right is derived and updates as you type.
Can I compare two properties in the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet?
Duplicate the tab and enter the second property there. The Free build holds one set of inputs at a time, so a copy per property is how the numbers are kept side by side.
Is the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet template safe to download?
Yes. No macros, no sign-up, no tracking. The file is a plain .xlsx that opens directly in Excel or Google Sheets.
How do I open the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet template in Google Sheets?
Upload the .xlsx file to Google Drive, then open it with Google Sheets. All formulas and formatting will be preserved.
Can I use the Free Rent vs Buy Calculator spreadsheet template for commercial work?
All free templates are released under CC BY 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution). You can use, modify, and share them freely - including for commercial purposes - as long as you credit FinancialAha.com. They are provided as-is and do not constitute financial advice.
