Rentvesting Australia Calculator
Compare renting where you want to live and buying an investment property elsewhere, against simply buying the property you'd live in — using real suburb data and stamp duty for both.
Pick the suburb you'd live in and the suburb you'd invest in, add your deposit and loan details, and see the weekly cost, the upfront cost, and how each path's equity and cash position plays out over time — side by side.
Where do you want to live?
If you were to buy in this suburb, what would you want to pay?
If you were to rent in this suburb, how much rent would you be prepared to pay?
No suburb selected yet
Pick a suburb from the dropdown above to see its real median price and rent.
Where would you invest?
If you were to buy an investment property in this suburb, what would you want to pay?
What rent could you realistically achieve from a tenant in this suburb?
No suburb selected yet
Pick a suburb from the dropdown above to see its real median price and rent.
Select both suburbs above to continue.
What rentvesting actually trades off
Rentvesting means renting the home you'd like to live in — often somewhere you can't yet afford to buy, or don't want to be tied to — while putting your deposit into an investment property somewhere more affordable or higher-yielding instead.
A worked example
Say you'd love to live inner-city, where a home costs $900,000, but you can also find a strong-yielding investment property two hours away for $500,000. Rentvesting means renting the inner-city home (say $600/week) while your deposit buys the $500,000 investment property, which might rent for $550/week. If that investment property's rent covers most of its own loan and running costs, your real weekly outlay can end up close to — or even less than — what you'd pay carrying a $900,000 mortgage on the home you actually want to live in.
Why the deposit is the constraint
Most investors don't have two deposits — they have one. Rentvesting isn't really a comparison of renting vs buying in the abstract; it's a comparison of two things the SAME deposit could do: sit in the home you live in, or go to work in a property you don't. That's why this calculator always uses one deposit figure across both paths, not two.
Why the weekly number and the wealth number can disagree
A cheaper week-to-week outlay and a bigger long-term equity position don't always point the same way. An investment property with a smaller loan and strong rent can make rentvesting cheap to hold today, while a more expensive owner-occupied home in a faster-growing suburb can still end up ahead on total equity after enough years of growth — or the reverse. Both numbers are real; which one matters more depends on whether cash flow today or wealth later is the bigger constraint for you right now.
What this calculator doesn't include
- Stamp duty uses each state's general/investor rate for BOTH properties — it doesn't model first-home-buyer or owner-occupier concessions on the property you'd live in.
- It doesn't model tax at all — no negative gearing benefit, no capital gains tax on eventual sale, no depreciation.
- Capital growth is a single flat rate you choose, applied evenly every year — real growth is lumpy and never guaranteed.
- It doesn't include buying or selling costs beyond stamp duty (legal fees, agent commission, building/pest inspections), or any vacancy on the investment property.
- Median price and rent data only has real coverage in parts of VIC, QLD and NSW today — pricing and rent fields are always editable so the calculator still works everywhere else.
- It covers Australian suburbs only.
Akweno tracks the real rent, loan, growth and cash flow for every property in your actual portfolio — including one you rentvest into — so your ongoing numbers are exact, not a projection. Start free.
Related guides
Rentvesting Explained: A Guide for Australian Investors
What rentvesting means, where it works, where it doesn't, and the tax and cost trade-offs to weigh before you commit.
Read the guideAustralian Stamp Duty: A Guide for Property Investors
How transfer duty is calculated across every state — the same schedule this calculator uses for both properties.
Read the guideWant to model a single investment property's numbers in more depth? Try the cash flow calculator, the gearing calculator, or benchmark a rent with the rent benchmark calculator.
SEE MORE. DECIDE AHEAD. BUILD WEALTH.
Track your rentvesting strategy from real numbers.
Akweno tracks the actual rent, loan and equity for every property in your portfolio — home and investment alike — so your position is always accurate, not a projection.
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