Lease or buy your business premises?

Lease vs buy calculator

Compare leasing and buying

Leasing

Space size (sq ft)

Base rent ($ / sq ft / yr)

Additional rent ($ / sq ft / yr)

Base rent increase per year (%)

Buying

Purchase price

Down payment (%)

Mortgage interest rate (%)

Amortization (years)

Owner costs: tax, insurance, repairs ($ / yr)

Legal and closing costs ($)

Transfer tax is added automatically

Value growth per year (%)

Selling costs at exit (% of price)

Both

Years you plan to stay

Return your cash could earn elsewhere (%)

Compare

Enter the space size and a purchase price.

The default numbers are placeholders to show how the tool works, not Vernon market rates. Nobody publishes reliable Vernon lease rates; ask Sean for recent comparables on the kind of space you need.

How the comparison works

Leasing cost is base rent, growing at your escalation rate, plus additional rent (growing at 2% a year) over the years you stay.

The net cost of owning adds up everything you pay out, then subtracts what you get back when you sell:

• down payment, BC property transfer tax (1% / 2% / 3%) and legal and closing costs;
• mortgage payments over the period (monthly compounding);
• owner costs (property tax, insurance, repairs and capital reserves), growing at 2% a year;
• the return your down payment and closing costs could have earned if you had left them invested;
• less the equity you walk away with: the sale price after growth, minus selling costs and the remaining mortgage.

What the calculator leaves out

• Income tax. Rent is fully deductible. Owners deduct interest and capital cost allowance instead, and pay tax on gains when they sell. Many owner-users hold the building in a separate company. Your accountant should run the after-tax comparison.
• GST timing. GST on a purchase is usually self-assessed by registrants, and GST on rent is usually recoverable as an input tax credit, but cash-flow timing differs.
• Extra space. If you buy more building than you need, rent from a tenant can carry part of the mortgage.
• Flexibility. A lease lets you move when the business outgrows the space. Selling a building takes time: In August 2026 the North Okanagan had about 23 months of commercial inventory at the 2026 sales pace (our calculation from Association of Interior REALTORS® figures).
• Control. Owners decide on renovations, signage and whether they stay. Tenants in redevelopment areas such as Uptown may face demolition clauses.

When buying tends to win, and when leasing does

Related tools: NNN cost estimator, PTT calculator, cap rate and DSCR calculator. For a BC-wide discussion of owning versus leasing, see Commercial Real Estate Group.

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Buy or lease?Choose oneLeaseBuyEither

UseChoose oneRetailRestaurant or caféOfficeMedical or clinicLight industrial or shopWarehouse or storageAviationCannabis retailOther

Size needed (sq ft)

Preferred areaChoose oneDowntownUptown / Anderson WayHighway 97 corridorPolsonJubilee HillOkanagan LandingAirportIndustrial areaNo preference

Budget (rent per month or price) (optional)

TimingChoose oneReady now (0 to 3 months)3 to 6 months6 to 12 months12+ months, researching

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