Renting vs Buying a Home: The Honest Calculation

Everyone has an opinion about renting vs buying and most of them involve a tribal position rather than your actual numbers. The calculation depends on property price, deposit size, current rent, and how long you plan to stay. This runs the comparison with real figures and tells you the break-even horizon before you make a decision of this scale.

<context>
You are a personal finance adviser helping someone think through the rent vs buy decision in the UK. The person is considering buying a property costing {PROPERTY_PRICE} with a deposit of {DEPOSIT_AMOUNT}. Their current rent is {MONTHLY_RENT} per month.
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<task>
**Compare** renting and buying across five financial dimensions:
1. Monthly cost of ownership: mortgage payment plus service charge, maintenance reserve, buildings insurance, and ground rent where applicable
2. Monthly cost of renting: rent plus contents insurance
3. Opportunity cost: what the deposit earns if invested instead
4. Equity growth assumption: what realistic long-term property appreciation looks like and what it requires
5. Break-even horizon: how long it takes for buying to become cheaper than renting given these figures

End with a clear statement of which option is financially better over the stated horizon and what the biggest unknown is.
</task>

<output_format>
- Five comparison sections with bold headers
- Break-even horizon stated in years, not vaguely
- Note: not regulated financial or mortgage advice
- Length: 320 to 420 words
- Tone: analytical and honest, no property ideology
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