Rent Affordability Calculator
What rent your income supports, and whether the place you are looking at fits.
Landlords often use a simple test: annual rent should not exceed about 40% of gross income, and most advisers put the comfortable ceiling for a tenant at 30% of take-home pay.
Enter your net monthly income and, if you already have a place in mind, the rent being asked. You get the rent your income supports, the share the asking rent represents and the money left each month.
At a glance
- What you enter
- Net monthly income, Rent you are considering
- What you get
- Rent your income supports, Rent as a share of your income, Left after rent
- Formula shown
- Yes - every step, right below your results.
- Cost and privacy
- Free, no account needed, and nothing you type is stored.
See worked examples ↓ Read the FAQ ↓ Share this calculator ↓
How is this calculated?
The recommended rent is your net monthly income multiplied by 30%, the widely used affordability ceiling. The share of income compares the rent you entered with that income, and the leftover is income minus rent - before food, transport and everything else, which is why 30% is a ceiling and not a target.
Housing markets differ enormously: in some cities 40% is normal and unavoidable. What matters is that the number is deliberate and that the rest of your budget still balances.
Room under the 30% guideline: $50.00 - Positive means the rent is inside the guideline; negative means it is above it.
What does this mean?
Rent sits at or below the widely used ceiling. The rest of the budget has to be deliberate, but nothing has to be sacrificed.
On $3,500.00 a month, the 30% guideline puts your rent ceiling at $1,050.00. The rent you entered is $1,000.00, which is 28.6% of your income and leaves $2,500.00 for everything else in the month. Rent is only one line of the cost of a home: utilities, heating, commuting and the deposit all arrive with it, so the ceiling is a starting point rather than a target.
What should I do next?
-
Keep the move-in costs in the plan
Deposits, agency fees and the first month are paid before you live anywhere. They are part of affording the place.
Open the Moving Cost Calculator →
Results are estimates for general information only - always verify with a professional or official source before acting on them.
How to use the Rent Affordability Calculator
- 1 Enter Net monthly income - Take-home pay, after tax.
- 2 Enter Rent you are considering
- 3 Press Calculate. You get Rent your income supports, Rent as a share of your income, Left after rent, and every intermediate step stays visible under “How is this calculated?”
- 4 Change one number at a time to see what moves the result - that is usually the most useful thing a calculator can tell you.
Worked examples
Real numbers run through this calculator. Open any example to load it into the form above and change it.
A $3,500 take-home income and $1,000 rent
A rent that sits just under the 30% guideline.
You enter
- Net monthly income
- $3,500.00
- Rent you are considering
- $1,000.00
You get
- Rent your income supports
- $1,050.00
- Rent as a share of your income
- 28.6%
- Left after rent
- $2,500.00
The calculator puts the rent ceiling at $1,050 a month, so the asking rent is $50 inside it. Rent takes about 29% of take-home pay and leaves $2,500 for everything else in the month.
A $5,200 income and $1,900 rent
A higher income with a rent above the guideline.
You enter
- Net monthly income
- $5,200.00
- Rent you are considering
- $1,900.00
You get
- Rent your income supports
- $1,560.00
- Rent as a share of your income
- 36.5%
- Left after rent
- $3,300.00
The ceiling is $1,560 a month, so this rent is $340 above it. Rent takes about 37% of take-home pay and leaves $3,300, which is the figure to test against the rest of your budget rather than the percentage on its own.
Guides that go with it
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How Much Does It Cost to Move Abroad? Calculate Your Budget
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Frequently asked questions
Should I use gross or take-home pay?
Use take-home pay, because that is the money the rent actually has to come out of. The calculator applies 30% to whatever figure you enter, so entering gross income would produce a ceiling you cannot pay from the money that reaches your account.
Some landlords quote a different test, usually that annual rent should stay under about 40% of gross income. That test is about whether they expect you to pay; the 30% of net figure here is about whether the rent leaves you a workable month, so the two numbers can disagree.
Is the recommended rent a rule or a target?
It is a ceiling, not a target. The calculator multiplies your net income by 30% and shows the result as the rent your income supports, then compares the rent you entered with it and reports the difference. There is nothing special about spending exactly 30%: spending less is better, and the leftover figure is what tells you how much room the rest of the budget has.
Housing markets differ, and in some places a household on a normal income cannot find anything under the guideline. In that case the useful reading is the share of income the rent takes and the money left afterwards, and the decision becomes about what else has to give.
What does the calculator leave out of the cost of a home?
It counts rent only. Utilities, heating and cooling, internet, parking, renters insurance, a commute that got longer and any building fees are all separate, and together they can add a noticeable amount to the rent figure. The Cost of Living Calculator is the better tool once you want the whole monthly picture rather than one line of it.
The money needed before you move in is also missing: a deposit, the first month, agency fees and the cost of the move itself. Those are one-off and they are covered by the Moving Cost Calculator.
What should I do if the rent is above the guideline?
Nothing breaks: the share of income simply comes out above 30% and leaves less for everything else. Read the leftover figure first, because that is the amount that has to cover food, transport, insurance, debt payments and savings, and then decide whether it still works for the next twelve months rather than just the first one.
If it does not work, the levers are a cheaper place, a shared home, a different neighbourhood, or a shorter commute. A place further out is only cheaper if the extra travel does not eat the difference, which is what the Fuel Cost Calculator is for.
Terms used here
Short, plain-language definitions of the words this calculator uses.