Buy vs rent calculator
Compare the cost of buying and renting the same home over your stay.
Example figures are filled in. Replace them with your own.
Your result
Check the highlighted figures to see a result.
On these assumptions, buying costs about RM 274,000 less than renting over 10 years.
| Buying | Renting | |
|---|---|---|
| Average a month | RM 2,100 | RM 4,380 |
| First year, a month | RM 4,797 | RM 4,000 |
Cash needed at the startRM 152,827
Buying, first year: loan repayment plus ownership costs.
We work with a few banks that provide housing loans.
Estimates only. Not financial, legal or tax advice.
Cost breakdown
| Deposit | RM 100,000 |
|---|---|
| Stamp duty on the transfer | RM 24,000 |
| Stamp duty on the loan | RM 4,500 |
| Legal fees, sale and loan (with 8% service tax) | RM 24,327 |
| Other upfront costs | RM 0 |
| Cash needed at the start | RM 152,827 |
| Upfront costs, not including the deposit | RM 52,827 |
|---|---|
| Interest paid during your stay | RM 324,664 |
| Ownership costs | RM 60,000 |
| What your cash could have earned | RM 33,468 |
| Gains tax if sold | RM 0 |
| Change in the home's value | −RM 218,994 |
| Net cost of buying | RM 251,965 |
| Total rent over 10 years | RM 525,587 |
| Loan repaid (builds your equity) | RM 190,944 |
|---|---|
| Estimated value at the end | RM 1,218,994 |
| Loan left at the end | −RM 709,056 |
| Equity at the end, before selling costs | RM 509,938 |
Change the assumptions to test other scenarios.
Above RM 7,500,000, lawyers' fees are negotiable, so the figure shown is the most they may charge.
Estimates only. Not financial, legal or tax advice. Not included: selling costs, income tax, loan insurance, early settlement fees, first-home exemptions and refundable rental deposits.
How this is worked out
Buying counts the money spent and not recovered, less the change in the home's value. Renting counts the rent paid.
Step by step
- Loan = price − deposit. The monthly instalment uses the standard bank formula for equal monthly repayments over the loan period.
- Upfront costs: stamp duty on the transfer and on the loan agreement, and the lawyers' fees for the sale and the loan with 8% service tax, plus any other costs you add.
- Over your stay: the interest part of the repayments (the rest repays the loan and builds your equity), the ownership costs and, if ticked, what the deposit and upfront costs could have earned at the savings rate.
- At the end: gains tax if the home is sold (if ticked), less the change in the home's value at the price growth rate.
- Renting: a year's rent, rising each year by the rent growth rate, over the same years.
- The result compares the two totals. When they are within RM 1,000 or 1% of each other, they are shown as about the same.
Assumptions
- Rates and rules in force on 3 November 2026, for a home bought now with a ringgit loan from a Malaysian bank.
- Stamp duty on the transfer, for Malaysian citizens and permanent residents: 1% of the first RM 100,000, 2% up to RM 500,000, 3% up to RM 1,000,000 and 4% above. Foreign buyers pay 8% on a home bought under an agreement signed from 1 January 2026.
- Stamp duty on the loan agreement: 0.5% of the loan (RM 5 for each RM 1,000 or part). Every document pays at least RM 10.
- Stamp duty is worked out on the price. The stamp office charges it on the market value instead when that is higher.
- Lawyers' fees: the Solicitors' Remuneration Order 2023 scale (1.25% of the first RM 500,000, then 1%), on the price and on the loan, with one loan security document, less any discount you enter, plus 8% service tax. Disbursements are not included unless you add them.
- The interest rate, growth rates, ownership costs and savings rate are your assumptions, and stay the same each year.
- Gains tax is worked out as if the home were sold at the end of your stay, on the rise in value less the transfer stamp duty and the purchase lawyer's fee. Selling costs are not deducted, so the tax may be slightly overstated.
Exemptions and special conditions
- Gains tax (RPGT): citizens and permanent residents pay 30% on a sale within 3 years, 20% in the 4th year, 15% in the 5th and nothing from the 6th. Foreign buyers pay 30% within 5 years and 10% from the 6th.
- Each individual seller is exempt on RM 10,000 or 10% of the gain, whichever is greater. This is applied here.
- Citizens and permanent residents can claim a once-in-a-lifetime exemption on the sale of one home. It is not applied here, because you may have used it already. See the RPGT calculator for the full rules.
- First-home exemption: a Malaysian citizen buying a first home worth RM 500,000 or less pays no stamp duty on the transfer or the loan agreement, for agreements signed by 31 December 2027. It is not applied here; the stamp duty calculator applies it.
- Permanent residents pay the same stamp duty and gains tax as citizens, but need state authority approval to buy, as foreign buyers do.
Check with the official source
- HASiL: stamp duty Stamp duty on property documents, such as the transfer and the loan agreement. hasil.gov.my (opens in a new tab)
- HASiL stamp duty guideline (PDF, Malay) The transfer bands, the 8% foreign rate and the loan agreement duty (30 June 2026). hasil.gov.my (opens in a new tab)
- HASiL: RPGT rates Gains tax rates by how long the property was held. hasil.gov.my (opens in a new tab)
- HASiL: RPGT exemptions The RM 10,000 or 10% exemption and the once-in-a-lifetime home exemption. hasil.gov.my (opens in a new tab)
- Malaysian Bar: lawyers' fee scale (PDF) The Solicitors' Remuneration Order 2023, which sets lawyers' scale fees. malaysianbar.org.my (opens in a new tab)
Estimates only. Not financial, legal or tax advice.
Rates and rules as at 3 November 2026.
