Bigger house or more investments?
A bigger home is somewhere to live as well as an investment. See what each route could leave you with after stamp duty, tax and running costs, and the house price growth where they come out level.
Your answer
Enter what your home is worth, the bigger home's price, your cash, the running costs and how many years to compare.
About this calculator
For homeowners in England or Northern Ireland weighing up a move to a bigger home against staying put and investing the money. It compares paying for the move in cash. It's a rough comparison, not investment or mortgage advice.
What happens to your answers
We don’t keep them. Your answers go to our server to do the sums and aren’t stored or logged. If you copy a link to your answers, they’re in the link itself, so only share it with people you trust.
How it’s worked out
Both routes start with the same cash. If you move, it pays the price gap, stamp duty and moving costs, and anything left is invested. If you stay, it's all invested, along with the extra running costs you don't pay each year. We grow the homes and the investments year by year, take off tax on investments outside an ISA, and add the home's value. A home you live in is normally free of Capital Gains Tax.
Worked example
After 15 years, staying and investing leaves you about £175,075 better off on paper than moving to the bigger home.
Home prices +3% a year · investments 5% a year, 2% of it paid out as dividends · invested in ISAs · higher rate taxpayer (income about £70,000) · married, money held jointly · moving costs £10,000 · extra running costs £2,000 a year · cash move, no mortgage · England or Northern Ireland stamp duty · today's tax rates throughout
| Bigger home's price, less what your home is worth now | £150,000 |
|---|---|
| Stamp duty on the bigger home, as a home mover | + £17,500 |
| Moving costs (estate agent, solicitor, removals) | + £10,000 |
| Cash the move uses | £177,500 |
| Moving: the bigger home after 15 years at 3% a year (no Capital Gains Tax on your main home) | £856,882 |
| Moving: £22,500 left over, invested in an ISA at 5% a year | £22,500 |
| Moving: investments after 15 years, after tax | £46,776 |
| Moving: your wealth after 15 years | £903,658 |
| Staying: your home after 15 years at 3% a year | £623,187 |
| Staying: £200,000 invested in an ISA at 5% a year, plus £2,000 a year not spent on running costs | £200,000 |
| Staying: tax on dividends over the 15 years | − £1,787 |
| Staying: investments after 15 years, after tax | £455,546 |
| Staying: your wealth after 15 years | £1,078,733 |
| Moving against staying | − £175,075 |
| House price growth a year at which the two come out level | 6.9% |
| Inheritance tax if the estate were passed on after 15 years, at today's thresholds: moving £1,463, staying £71,493; moving less staying | − £70,030 |
A year-by-year comparison. Stamp duty uses HMRC's residential rates for a home mover in England and Northern Ireland; dividend tax, Capital Gains Tax, ISA allowances and inheritance tax use this tax year's rates and allowances; growth and returns use your assumptions.
Questions people ask
Is this investment advice?
No. We don't recommend any investment or tell you which route to take. For advice on how to invest, speak to a financial adviser regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Why can't all the money go into an ISA at once?
Each person can put £20,000 a year into ISAs. Money above that waits in a taxable account and moves across each April, which counts as selling it and can make a taxable gain.
Does a bigger home help with inheritance tax?
Only up to a point. The extra home allowance is £175,000 a person and needs the home to go to children or grandchildren. If your current home already uses it all, a bigger home doesn't add to it.
More free calculators
Talk to us about your tax.
A free call with the team. We’ll contact you within 24 hours.