Rent vs. Buy Calculator: Mississauga

Two households, the same cash, one winner

The buyer puts the down payment and closing costs into the home. The renter puts the same amount into savings. Every month the tool compares what each one pays, and whichever household has the cheaper month invests the difference at the return you set. At the end it adds up what each one owns: for the buyer, the home less the mortgage still owed, less any cost of selling, plus their savings; for the renter, their savings.

That is why principal is not counted as a cost. It comes back as equity. Interest, property tax, condo fees and rent do not come back, and the money tied up in a down payment gives up the return it would have earned elsewhere.

Where each starting figure comes from

The mortgage rate is the Bank of Canada’s figure for what chartered banks actually lent at on a 3 to 5 year fixed mortgage in July 2026: 4.08% uninsured and 3.99% insured. The tool switches between them as your down payment crosses 20%. It is a market average, not a quote, so enter the rate your lender offers.

Property tax uses Mississauga’s 2026 residential rate of 1.087901%, charged on your MPAC assessed value. Ontario still assesses on January 1, 2016 values, so for most homes the assessment is below today’s price. The tool starts the assessment at the price, which overstates the tax, until you enter the figure on your notice.

Land transfer tax follows Ontario’s brackets, with the first-time buyer refund of up to $4,000. Mississauga charges no municipal land transfer tax. Below 20% down the tool adds CMHC’s premium to the mortgage (2.80% to 4.00% of the loan, by down payment) and charges the 8% Ontario PST on it in cash at closing, because PST cannot be added to the loan.

Savings earn the Government of Canada 5-year bond yield, 3.53% on 15 October 2026. Rent rises at Ontario’s 2027 guideline of 1.9%, which applies to most units first occupied before 15 November 2018. Newer units have no cap, so raise it if yours is one.

An Erin Mills condo against an Erin Mills 2-bedroom rental

The tool starts from Erin Mills’s average condo listing price of $542,000 against its median 2-bedroom rent of $2,374 a month (the price read September 2026, the rent October 2026). With 20% down, the buyer needs $118,515 on closing day: $108,400 down, $7,315 of land transfer tax and $2,800 for legal fees, title insurance and an inspection.

The mortgage payment is $2,300 a month and property tax adds $491, so owning costs $2,791 a month before condo fees, against rent of $2,374. Over ten years at flat prices, with nothing spent on fees or repairs, the buyer finishes $33,275 ahead.

No real condo comes with zero fees, so the tool’s second answer is the one to read: buying stays ahead as long as condo fees and repairs cost less than $232 a month. Above that, renting wins at flat prices. The same pairing in Meadowvale ($477,000 against $2,600 rent) leaves more room, $759 a month, because the rent is higher against a lower price.

Why a townhouse or house needs your own rent

Pick Townhouse and the tool can fill in Zolo’s average townhouse listing price, read September 2026, for Churchill Meadows ($864,000), Erin Mills ($796,000), Meadowvale ($719,000), Malton ($739,000) and Lisgar ($865,000). It leaves the rent for you to enter. Rentals of whole townhouses and houses are too thin to publish a median by neighbourhood: on 18 October 2026 Zumper listed two 3-bedroom houses for rent in Erin Mills. Use the asking rent of a listing that matches the home you would buy, in size and in area.

Pick Semi-detached or detached and both figures are yours to enter. Zolo publishes an average listing price for each neighbourhood, but it mixes every home type, so it describes no particular house. A freehold home has no condo fee, but every repair is the owner’s, from the roof to the furnace. Put your estimate in the upkeep field, because at zero the tool assumes the house never needs anything.

Future prices and condo fees are break-evens, not inputs

No government body or market platform publishes a sourced forecast of Mississauga condo prices, and condo fees vary too much by building for an average to describe yours. So the tool starts both at zero and tells you where the answer flips. In the worked example, buying stays ahead with no fees unless prices fall more than 0.6% a year. Add fees and that line moves, and the tool recalculates it as you type.

Selling costs work the same way. Agent commission in Ontario is negotiable, so the tool starts at zero. Each 1% of the sale price is about $5,420 on the worked example’s home, so enter your agent’s quote if you would sell at the end.

What CMHC insurance does to the result

At the minimum down payment on the same $542,000 condo, $29,200 (5% of the first $500,000 and 10% of the rest), at the 3.99% insured rate, the CMHC premium is $20,512, added to the mortgage, and the PST on it is $1,641 in cash. The buyer borrows more and pays more interest, but ties up less cash, so the renter has less to invest. With no fees, the buyer still finishes $948 ahead after ten years, and the fees break-even falls to $7 a month.

The tool prices an insured mortgage over 25 years. CMHC does not insure homes priced at $1,500,000 or more, so at that price it requires 20% down.

Costs left out, and which way they lean

Insurance is left out on both sides, since owners and tenants both carry a policy. A house owner’s policy also covers the building, so leaving insurance out leans toward buying a house. Utilities are left out because they depend on the home, not on who owns it, though a house owner pays the Peel water bill that a condo fee often covers. The tool assumes your savings grow tax-free, as they would in a TFSA or FHSA, matching the tax-free gain on a principal residence. Savings in a taxable account would earn less after tax, which favours buying.

It holds the mortgage rate fixed for the whole period, though a real mortgage renews every few years at whatever rate applies then. It does not include special assessments, which a condo corporation can levy when its reserve fund falls short. Read the status certificate before you buy, because a pending assessment changes the answer.