Rent vs Buy Calculator: Compare Monthly Cost by Leinster Town
Pick a town. We use its real median price and average rent to compare the monthly cost of owning against renting.
- Interest only counts as cost. Cost to own is the first month's mortgage interest, not the full repayment. The principal you repay is counted as savings, because you keep it as equity.
- Maintenance: 1% of the price a year, divided by 12.
- Local Property Tax: Revenue's 2026 band charge for the price, divided by 12 (shown when a town is selected). No council adjustment applied.
- Fees: €3,000 for legal and survey, added to the deposit and stamp duty as the upfront cost of buying.
- Stamp duty: the residential rates in force since 2 October 2024 on the median price, treated as second-hand (no new-build VAT adjustment), from the same calculation the stamp duty calculator uses.
- Break-even is the number of years of the monthly saving it takes to recover the upfront cost. It ignores price and rent changes, tax relief and the return the deposit could earn elsewhere.
- Defaults: 10% deposit, 3.7% rate, 30 years, unless you change them above.
Rent vs buy comparison across Leinster towns (10% deposit, 3.7% APR)
Default comparison for the 15 highest-volume towns in our dataset, comparing monthly unrecoverable owning cost (first-month interest + 1% upkeep + 2026 LPT) against RTB average monthly rent.
| Town | County | Median price | Cost to own / mo | RTB rent / mo | Break-even |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drogheda | Louth | €385,000 | €1,417/mo | €1,462/mo | 40+ yrs |
| Wexford | Wexford | €293,750 | €1,080/mo | €1,203/mo | 23.8 yrs |
| Swords | Dublin | €495,000 | €1,822/mo | €1,992/mo | 28.1 yrs |
| Dundalk | Louth | €325,000 | €1,200/mo | €1,427/mo | 14.3 yrs |
| Lucan | Dublin | €500,000 | €1,840/mo | €2,163/mo | 15.0 yrs |
| Kilkenny | Kilkenny | €330,000 | €1,219/mo | €1,216/mo | Rent cheaper |
| Portlaoise | Laois | €367,500 | €1,354/mo | €1,316/mo | Rent cheaper |
| Mullingar | Westmeath | €355,000 | €1,309/mo | €1,243/mo | Rent cheaper |
| Gorey | Wexford | €370,000 | €1,363/mo | €1,455/mo | 39.5 yrs |
| Navan | Meath | €395,000 | €1,453/mo | €1,422/mo | Rent cheaper |
| Naas | Kildare | €491,500 | €1,809/mo | €1,922/mo | 40+ yrs |
| Carlow | Carlow | €295,000 | €1,084/mo | €1,349/mo | 11.1 yrs |
| Athy | Kildare | €385,000 | €1,417/mo | €1,368/mo | Rent cheaper |
| Longford | Longford | €200,000 | €730/mo | €1,140/mo | 5.1 yrs |
| Newbridge | Kildare | €424,000 | €1,566/mo | €1,466/mo | Rent cheaper |
Common questions on renting vs buying in Ireland
How does the rent vs buy calculator compare monthly costs?
The calculator compares the unrecoverable monthly cost of owning a home (first-month mortgage interest at 3.7% APR, 1% annual maintenance, and 2026 Local Property Tax) against the RTB average monthly rent for the same town. Principal repayments are treated as equity savings rather than a sunk cost.
What upfront buying costs are included in the break-even calculation?
Upfront buying costs combine a 10% mortgage deposit, residential stamp duty (1% up to €1,000,000), and €3,000 for legal and survey fees. Break-even shows how many years of monthly savings it takes to recover that upfront outlay.
Where do the town house prices and rents come from?
Median sale prices come from the rolling 12-month Property Price Register (PSRA) for each town, and monthly rents come from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) quarterly rent index.
Median price is the 12-month Property Price Register median, shown with the number of sales (n) it rests on; rent is the RTB average monthly rent for the quarter shown. Estimate only, not financial advice.
Property Price Register sales to 9 October 2026, CSO RPPI to August 2026, RTB rents to Q4 2025. How we compute these figures
More tools: what can I afford? · stamp duty calculator · LPT calculator 2026 · rental yields by town · rent review calculator