Studio Rental ROI Calculator

This calculator lays a rented studio space side by side against an owned one using the same utilities cost for both, so the comparison isolates the rent-vs-mortgage difference rather than double-counting overhead. Annual rental cost is (monthly rent + utilities) × 12, and annual ownership cost is (monthly mortgage/own cost + utilities) × 12; the difference between the two is your annual savings, where a positive number means renting is currently the cheaper path and a negative number means ownership costs less per year. The break-even bookings figure answers a more practical day-to-day question: how many sessions per month, at your average session fee, does it take just to cover the rent and utilities? It's computed as (monthly rent + utilities) ÷ session fee, then rounded up to a whole booking since you can't book a fractional session — so if the math comes out to 6.2 bookings, the calculator reports 7, because 6 bookings alone wouldn't fully cover costs. "Revenue to Break Even" is simply the annual rental cost restated as a dollar target rather than a booking count.

What this model deliberately leaves out matters for a real decision: it doesn't account for the down payment, financing costs, or appreciation/equity that come with buying a space, nor for the built-in equity a mortgage payment builds versus rent, which is pure expense. It also doesn't factor in the flexibility of renting (easy to relocate or scale down) versus the commitment of ownership. Treat the annual cost comparison as an operating-expense comparison only — for a full buy-vs-rent decision you'll want to weigh equity buildup and long-term commitment separately.