Bill has been paying 600 euro per month in rent since September 2025. Six months in, the question arrives the way it always does: would it make more sense to buy?
He is 25. He has 4,914 euro in savings and a 1,200 euro deposit he will recover at the end of the lease. Total available capital: 6,114 euro. A flat in his city costs between 120,000 and 160,000 euro. A standard mortgage requires a down payment of 20 percent: between 24,000 and 32,000 euro.
The accounting comparison between renting and buying is not a simple calculation. Under IFRS 16, a lease creates a right-of-use asset and a corresponding liability. The monthly rent payment reduces the liability and is recognised as an expense. A mortgage, by contrast, creates a financial asset and a financial liability. The monthly payment reduces the loan and a portion is implicitly an investment in equity.
The difference is that rent produces no equity. Every euro paid to the landlord leaves the system permanently. Every euro of mortgage principal reduces a liability and increases net worth by an equivalent amount.
Bill does the calculation. At 185 euro per month, he will reach the minimum down payment of 24,000 euro in approximately 97 months. That is 2034.
He signs the lease renewal for another twelve months. He puts 2026 in the column labelled: building toward.
The tip
Rent vs buy is not a philosophical question. It is a balance sheet question. Calculate the gap between your available capital and the required down payment. Then calculate how long it takes to close it. The answer tells you when, not whether.
Lease vs buy, March 2026: savings 4,914, deposit recoverable 1,200, total capital 6,114. Minimum down payment required: 24,000. Gap: 17,886. Time to close gap at 185 per month: 97 months. Lease renewed.
Bill is 25. Every episode, we read his personal ledger through accounting eyes. / FY 2026 ledger