Rent vs Buy Calculator (Brazil, 2026)
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Buying property in Brazil looks tempting until you price the opportunity cost of the cash. This calculator runs both paths month by month: the buyer pays a down payment plus transfer taxes, finances the rest with a 30-year fixed-payment mortgage and watches the property appreciate; the renter invests exactly the same upfront cash and contributes the monthly gap between mortgage payment and rent. At the end of your horizon you see both net worths side by side, with every assumption disclosed.
Why the answer in Brazil is different from the US or Europe
Brazil in 2026 has one of the highest real interest rates in the world. The central bank’s policy rate (Selic) sits at 14.00% per year after the August 2026 Copom meeting, and the CDI interbank benchmark that prices most fixed-income products runs at 13.90%. After the 15% income tax that applies to investments held longer than 720 days, a plain bank CD yields roughly 11.8% net per year — with sovereign-grade risk and daily liquidity.
Meanwhile the FipeZAP residential sale index rose 5.46% in the 12 months to July 2026, and gross rental yields average 6.14% per year. Put those numbers side by side and the arithmetic is brutal: cash parked in a CD compounds faster than housing appreciates, and the spread compounds every year. That is the opposite of the situation in most developed markets, where mortgage rates sit near or below expected home appreciation and buying usually wins after five to seven years.
Mortgage rates make it worse. A typical SFH housing loan costs around 11% per year nominal before mandatory MIP/DFI insurance and administration fees, so the effective cost is higher still. There is no 30-year 6% fixed mortgage in Brazil.
How the model works
Buying scenario: at month zero you pay the down payment plus transaction costs, which the model fixes at 5% of the property price (roughly 3% ITBI municipal transfer tax plus about 2% in registry, deed and certificate fees). The remaining balance is financed over 360 months using the Price table — a fixed monthly payment, the Brazilian equivalent of a standard amortizing mortgage. The annual rate you enter is converted to its compound monthly equivalent, i = (1 + annual)^(1/12) − 1. Your net worth at the horizon equals the appreciated property value minus the outstanding loan balance.
Renting scenario: the same down payment and transaction costs go into an investment portfolio at month zero. Every month the renter invests the difference between the buyer’s mortgage payment and the rent actually paid. The cash flow is symmetric — once annual rent adjustments push rent above the fixed mortgage payment, the renter withdraws the shortfall from the portfolio. Nothing is floored at zero, because that trick silently gifts money to the renting scenario.
Rent is adjusted once a year by the same rate you set for property appreciation. This is the constant-yield assumption: over the long run Brazilian rents and prices have moved together, keeping the rent-to-price ratio roughly stable. Brazilian residential leases typically run 30 months with annual indexation to IGP-M or IPCA.
What the default scenario shows
The defaults describe a fairly typical mid-market apartment: a R$500,000 property, R$100,000 down, R$2,200 monthly rent for an equivalent unit, an 11% mortgage, 11.8% net investment return and 4% annual appreciation. The mortgage payment comes out at R$3,653.43 and transaction costs at R$25,000.
| Horizon | Buyer’s net worth | Renter’s net worth | Difference | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 years | R$220,843 | R$321,551 | −R$100,708 | Rent |
| 10 years | R$373,731 | R$623,935 | −R$250,204 | Rent |
| 20 years | R$824,599 | R$1,877,282 | −R$1,052,683 | Rent |
| 30 years | R$1,621,699 | R$5,303,115 | −R$3,681,416 | Rent |
The break-even points — and the caveats a foreign buyer should know
Holding everything else constant, buying breaks even when property appreciation reaches about 6.9% per year over a 5-year horizon and about 6.3% per year over 20 to 30 years. On the rent side, break-even arrives at roughly R$3,100 to R$3,400 of monthly rent on a R$500,000 property — a gross yield of 7.5% to 8.1% per year, comfortably above the 6.14% national average. Those two thresholds are the fastest way to sanity-check any Brazilian deal.
Several real costs sit outside the model, and almost all of them push against the buyer: owner maintenance (0.5% to 1% of value per year), extraordinary condominium levies, MIP/DFI mortgage insurance bundled into every Brazilian installment, selling commissions of 5% to 6%, and 15% capital gains tax on the profit at sale. Condominium fees and IPTU property tax are excluded because Brazilian leases normally pass both to the tenant, making them roughly neutral between the scenarios.
Non-residents can buy Brazilian urban real estate with few restrictions, but they generally cannot access subsidised SFH mortgage credit and will pay cash or finance abroad — which makes the opportunity-cost question even sharper, since 100% of the purchase price stops earning 11.8%. Rural land and properties near international borders face additional legal limits. Currency risk is another layer this calculator does not model: everything here is in nominal reais.
Frequently asked questions
Is it better to rent or buy in Brazil in 2026?
On pure arithmetic, renting and investing wins in the default scenario at every horizon from 5 to 30 years, because a bank CD nets around 11.8% per year while housing appreciates near 4% to 5.5% and yields about 6%. Buying wins when appreciation exceeds roughly 6.5% per year, when the equivalent rent is unusually high relative to price, or for the non-financial reasons: stability, freedom to renovate, and a fixed payment that inflation erodes over 30 years.
What are the closing costs when buying property in Brazil?
Budget about 5% of the purchase price. ITBI, the municipal transfer tax, runs 2% to 4% depending on the city (3% in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), and registry, deed and certificate fees add roughly 1% to 2%. Market surveys in 2026 place the full package between 3% and 5% of the transaction value. These costs are paid upfront and are not recoverable on resale.
What is a typical rental yield in Brazil?
The FipeZAP residential rental index reported an average gross yield of 6.14% per year in July 2026, roughly 0.51% per month. One-bedroom units yield more (6.78%) and large units less (4.84% for four or more bedrooms). Among capital cities, Recife (8.47%), Cuiabá (8.31%) and Belém (8.18%) led. Yields below your net investment return argue for renting.
Can foreigners get a mortgage in Brazil?
Foreigners can buy urban property with few restrictions, but subsidised SFH financing generally requires residency, a Brazilian tax ID and local income. Most non-resident buyers pay cash. If you buy outright, set the down payment equal to the property price in this calculator — the renting scenario will then invest the full amount, which is exactly the comparison you want.
Does this calculator account for inflation and currency risk?
No. All figures are nominal Brazilian reais, with no IPCA deflation and no exchange-rate modelling. Because both scenarios are nominal, the comparison between them remains valid, but a foreign investor should separately consider BRL depreciation against their home currency over the horizon.
Sources
Simplified nominal simulation for educational purposes. Fixed model assumptions: 30-year Price-table mortgage, transaction costs of 5% of the property price, and rent indexed to the same rate as property appreciation. Excluded: condominium fees, IPTU, owner maintenance, MIP/DFI insurance, TR indexation, administration fees, selling commissions, capital gains tax, FGTS usage, vacancy and moving costs. September 2026 references: CDI 13.90% p.a. and Selic 14.00% p.a.; FipeZAP sale index +5.46% over 12 months and average rental yield of 6.14% p.a. (July 2026 reports, the latest verified). Not investment advice.
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Also available in Portuguese: Alugar ou Comprar: Calculadora de Patrimônio