Your rent is buying a building — just not yours.
Shop, office, warehouse: this calculator runs your escalating rent against owning the space — the year rent passes a frozen mortgage payment, the equity a decade builds, and the return your business would need to earn on the down payment for renting to genuinely win. No down payment saved? It checks your home equity too.
Your lease today
Most commercial leases bump 2–4% a year — check your schedule.
On a triple-net lease you already pay property tax, insurance and maintenance — so those costs don't count against owning. Most rent-vs-buy math gets this wrong.
The building you'd buy
Owner-occupied commercial typically wants 20–35% down.
BC PTT on $1.5M is about $28K, plus legal, appraisal and environmental. GST is usually $0 cash for GST-registered buyers (self-assessment).
Assumptions
The make-or-break input. If your business turns spare cash into high returns, renting can genuinely win — this calculator will say so.
No down payment? Check your house
Net position — owning your shop vs staying a tenant
Both paths spend the same cash each month — whichever pays less invests the difference. The renter's line starts with the down payment + closing costs working in the business.
Where you stand at year 10
- Rent crosses above your payment
- at the year-4 rent increase
- Rent by year 10
- $8,481/mo (payment stays $7,031)
- Building value
- $1,920,127
- Mortgage remaining
- $850,458
- Equity in your building
- $1,069,669
- Break-even return on capital
- 10.49%
Before-tax comparison. Rent is deductible to the business; as owner, mortgage interest and building depreciation are — the structures roughly offset, and the right ownership setup (personal, opco, holdco) is a conversation with your accountant that we join. A building is also less liquid than cash: selling takes months, not days.
- Knows triple-net from gross: on an NNN lease you already pay taxes, insurance and maintenance, so they don't count against owning — the apples-to-oranges error most rent-vs-buy math makes
- Prints the break-even return on capital instead of hiding it — if your business genuinely out-earns it, this calculator tells you to keep renting
- The only shop calculator we know of with a down-payment finder: stated-income home-equity refinance, debt consolidation included, with the honest before/after monthly cash flow — sometimes lower than rent plus debts, and it says so either way
- Fair by construction: both paths spend identical cash monthly, the renter's fund starts with the down payment working in the business, and rent escalates in real annual steps
Get your real mortgage approval amount
Calculators give estimates. We give exact numbers — based on your income, credit, and the lender most likely to say yes. Free, no obligation, same-day reply.
Get my free personalized quoteNo credit pull · No spam · Reply within hours
How much down payment does owner-occupied commercial need?+
Typically 20–35% of the purchase price, driven by the strength of the business and the building. Strong covenants and certain government-backed programs can do better. On a $1.5M unit, plan around $375K down plus roughly $38K of closing costs in BC — and if that number just ended the conversation, read the next answer.
I don't have the down payment. Is that the end of it?+
Often not. If you're self-employed and own a home with equity, a stated-income refinance can pull the down payment out of the house with little to no declared personal CRA income — qualification runs on what your business actually earns, not your deliberately-lean T1. (Stated income is a self-employed program; salaried co-owners qualify on their regular income.) The same refinance can consolidate expensive debts, and depending on the numbers your total monthly outlay after buying can land lower than what you pay today in rent plus debt payments. The calculator's equity module runs your exact numbers.
My bank declined the business. Does that kill the purchase?+
No — it usually means the file was presented to the wrong lender in the wrong format. Owner-occupied commercial exists at banks, credit unions, alternative lenders and government-backed programs, each with different appetite. Placement — matching your business's real story to the lender built for it — is precisely the work we do.
What about GST on the purchase?+
If your business is GST-registered, you self-assess the GST and claim the offsetting input tax credit on the same return — $0 GST cash at closing on most commercial purchases. Buyers who aren't registered pay it in cash. It's one of the most misunderstood line items in commercial deals.
Rent is a write-off. Isn't owning worse for tax?+
Rent is deductible — but so are mortgage interest, property costs and building depreciation when you own, and ownership can be structured personally, in your operating company, or in a holdco depending on what your accountant is optimizing. The structures roughly offset; the equity you build doesn't. We run this decision with your accountant, not around them.
When does renting actually win?+
When your business genuinely earns more on spare capital than the break-even return this calculator prints — a fast-growing company that turns $400K of working capital into 20% returns should usually keep renting. It also wins when you might outgrow the space quickly or need liquidity. The honest answer depends on your numbers, which is why we show the break-even instead of hiding it.
Related: Commercial mortgage programs → · How we work with builders → · Builder financing in Metro Vancouver → · Commercial closing costs →