Buy a home or rent and hold Bitcoin?

This compares two paths using numbers you choose. The buyer pays a deposit, buying costs and the mortgage. The renter puts the deposit and buying costs into Bitcoin instead. Each year, whichever path costs less puts the difference into Bitcoin, so the comparison is even. Bitcoin is a high-growth, high-risk asset, so try a bad decade and a crash as well as a strong run, then press play to watch both paths unfold.

CurrencyChanges how amounts are shown. Enter every amount in this currency.

Buying

Property price (USD)

Deposit (%)

One-off buying costs (USD)Stamp duty or transfer taxes, legal fees and loan fees. These vary a lot by country and region.

Mortgage interest rate (% a year)

Loan term (years)

Maintenance (% of value a year)

Insurance, property taxes and building fees (USD a year)

Property growth (% a year)

Selling costs (% of value)

Renting and Bitcoin

Rent (USD a month)

Rent increase (% a year)

Bitcoin price today (USD)Bitcoin's price today, from CoinGecko, updated every 10 minutes. Type your own to try another.

Bitcoin growth you want to test (% a year)Bitcoin's price can fall a long way. Try 0% and a negative number too.

Or start from an illustration, then change it:

Years to compare (1 to 50)

Your tax rate on gains (%)Used to estimate tax on the Bitcoin if it were sold. Check the rate that applies to you where you live.

Part of a long-held gain that isn't taxed (%)For example 50 for Australian individuals who held for more than 12 months. Use 0 if no discount applies where you live.

Enter today's Bitcoin price and the growth rate you want to test to see the comparison. We don't fill these in, because any number we chose would be a forecast.

What this leaves out

Growth rates are steady here, but real prices rise and fall, and Bitcoin has fallen by more than 70% several times. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Use the stress test to drop a crash into any year. It also leaves out the security of owning your home, the risk of a rent rise or having to move, home-buyer grants, pension or benefit means tests, and the costs of buying and storing Bitcoin safely. The tax estimate is rough: it applies one rate to the gain and assumes your home isn't taxed when sold, which is true in many countries but not all. A licensed adviser and a tax professional where you live can look at your own situation.