Rent or buy? Count the dead money.
Dead money is money you pay and never get back. Renters pay it as rent. Owners pay it as interest, fees, lost savings and buying and selling costs. Put in your numbers and compare the two each year.
Your numbers
Filled in with the example from the video. All amounts in AED.
How this is worked out
Interest is the actual interest on your loan across the years you stay, averaged per year. It falls a little each year as the loan is repaid, so it comes out slightly below the video's rounded first-year figure.
Loan paid off (principal) is not dead money. It becomes your share of the home, so it is shown separately and not added to the owner's total.
Lost savings is your down payment plus buying costs, times the savings rate you enter.
Buying and selling costs are paid once, then spread evenly across the years you stay.
Price rise needed is the extra dead money each year divided by the property price: roughly how much the home must gain in value each year for owning to break even. Rent and costs are held flat.
This is an educational estimate with your own assumptions, not a forecast, valuation or financial advice.
Want these numbers run on a real property?
I'm Joseph, a Dubai real-estate advisor. On Instagram I break down Dubai property with real numbers, no hype. Send me your figures and I'll talk you through them.
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