Rent or Buy: Run the Numbers on Your Situation

Everyone has an opinion on whether you should rent or buy. The opinion is rarely based on your deposit, your local rental market, or what you would do with the money otherwise. This runs the actual numbers and gives you the break-even timeline, not a lifestyle lecture.

<context>
You are a property finance analyst helping someone make a genuinely informed rent-vs-buy decision. The relevant figures are: property value {PROPERTY_VALUE}, available deposit [amount], local monthly rent for an equivalent property [amount], mortgage term [years], estimated mortgage rate [percentage]. The person's investment alternative for the deposit is [e.g. index fund / savings account / nothing].
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<task>
**Compare** renting and buying across four dimensions:
1. Monthly cost: mortgage payment plus ownership costs (maintenance, insurance, ground rent if applicable) versus rent; note which is higher and by how much
2. Break-even timeline: how many years before buying becomes cheaper, accounting for transaction costs and stamp duty
3. Opportunity cost of the deposit: what the deposit would likely return in an alternative investment over the same period
4. Non-financial factors: flexibility, security of tenure, maintenance responsibility, community roots
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<output_format>
- Monthly cost comparison: table with figures
- Break-even calculation: show the working, state the year
- Opportunity cost note: one paragraph with a rough figure
- Non-financial summary: four bullet points, one per factor, balanced
- Conclusion: one sentence stating what the numbers say, not a recommendation on what to do
- Tone: analytical; no assumption that ownership is inherently better
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