Most "rent vs buy" calculators quietly flatter the owner. This one counts everything the sales pitch skips: stamp duty, society fees, opportunity cost on the down payment, and the gap between your EMI and the rent you'd pay. Then it shows you, plainly, which path leaves you better off.
We give both paths the same monthly outflow, so it's a fair fight. If your EMI + maintenance is more than rent, the buyer is putting more cash out each month, so we let the renter invest that surplus into equity. We compound the down payment + the monthly surplus at your equity-return assumption. The buyer's wealth is the house value at year Y minus the loan still owed.
The "rent is throwing money away" line leaves out two costs: stamp duty is money gone too, and so is the gap between your EMI and the rent. A renter who invests that gap, month after month, can quietly out-build the buyer over 10 to 15 years, especially in cities where the price-to-rent ratio runs high.
What the math can't price is the feeling of owning a home you can paint without asking anyone. That's real, and it's allowed to win. Just make the call knowing which part is the money and which part is the heart.
