Buying or leasing a bicycle – which one is cheaper in 2025?
Choosing a new bicycle is exciting, but financing your new two-wheeler is often a little less fun. Anyone who can opt for bicycle leasing at work will soon be wondering: should I lease or buy this bike? It's often said that leasing a bicycle is cheaper than buying it. But is that actually true? Our experts have done the maths.
You might find this interesting as well:
- Calculate your lease price
- What does a lease bicycle cost?
- Why does bicycle leasing offer tax benefits?
Buying or leasing a bicycle – which one is cheaper in 2025?
In many cases, leasing a bicycle through your employer is up to 40% more affordable than buying the same bike yourself. The fact that leasing a bicycle often packs a better deal than buying one was also borne out by a recent investigation carried out by De Tijd.
Why is leasing a bicycle such good value?
Because you will pay less tax by paying for your lease bicycle from your gross salary. If you buy a bicycle yourself, you will be paying for it using your take-home pay.
Does that make a difference? Yes, because your gross pay is your take-home pay plus the amount you pay in tax. If you lease a bicycle, you will then be using the part of your salary that normally goes towards your taxes to pay for your lease bicycle instead. This means that anyone choosing to buy their lease bicycle once the lease comes to an end will ultimately be paying up to 40% less for it than if they bought the same bicycle in the store.
Of course, you'll want to see the evidence, won't you? Time to show you some of the maths.
Want to know what a lease bike could save you?
Calculation example: leasing vs. buying a bicycle
By leasing a bicycle in 2025, you will save €1,543 on a bicycle that will cost you €2,895 if you buy it in store.
How does that work? Let's do the maths:
If you lease your €2,895 bicycle for three years and then buy it at a residual value of 16%, you'll pay €2,102 in total. This also includes a maintenance budget of €175 per year, breakdown assistance, warranty insurance and cover for damage and theft.
If you buy that same bicycle and ride it for three years, it will cost you €3,720
Buying or leasing a bicycle: the pros and the cons
Anyway, besides the financial picture, leasing or buying a bicycle also comes with other pros and cons. That is why we have also compared the pros and cons of buying a bicycle with the ones that apply when leasing one below.
The disadvantages of buying your bicycle yourself
- Paying out a large sum of money in one go
- Paying the maintenance costs yourself
- No protection in the event of damage or theft
Purchasing your bicycle yourself? If so, you'll be paying a hefty sum out of your take-home pay all at once. After all, the very latest bicycles (and e-bikes) can soon cost you €3,000 on average. Electric bicycles, speed pedelecs and cargo bikes in particular are expensive.
Anyone who buys a bicycle rather than leasing it is also responsible for the maintenance costs their bicycle needs. If your battery breaks down, you need a part replaced or if it's time for annual maintenance again, you'll need to pay those costs yourself.
A fall can happen all too quickly and in many cases, your bicycle itself will also suffer some damage during a fall. If you buy your bicycle yourself, you will have to pay the costs of any repairs to it as well.
The advantage when buying your bicycle yourself
The big advantage when buying a bicycle yourself is that it then becomes yours. You can do whatever you want with it and can make quite a few adjustments to fully tailor it to your style and your needs. You can therefore enjoy a certain freedom to do what you want with your bicycle.
Leasing a bicycle: the pros and the cons
The benefits of leasing your bicycle
- Payment is in stages
- Tax benefit of up to 40%
- Protection against damage and theft is included
- You can buy your bicycle at its residual value of 16% or 20% once the lease period is over
Leasing a bicycle through your employer has quite a number of advantages. That is why quite a large number of employees are nowadays opting to lease their bicycle. Today, lease bicycles are just as popular as leased cars, making them one of the top five most frequently chosen fringe benefits.
Payment is made over time, not by paying out a sum of money all in one go
The first advantage of leasing your bicycle is that you don't have to put down a big chunk of your take-home pay all at once. Because your lease runs for several years, you will be paying for your bicycle in stages – you pay a certain amount once a month or once a year for three to four years.
Tax-effective, as you pay using your gross salary
Aside from the benefit of paying by installments, leasing a bicycle is also effective from a tax perspective as well. Because you pay for your bicycle, not from your take-home pay, but from your gross pay. You will basically be sacrificing part of your gross salary or end-of-year bonus to receive a bicycle. This is beneficial from a tax perspective, making the same bicycle up to 40% cheaper through leasing than it is when purchased privately.
By the way, you don't only receive that tax benefit on your lease bicycle itself, but also on all the accessories you lease along with it, such as your helmet, GPS, cycling clothes ... you name it.
Like to read more about the tax benefits of bicycle leasing for employees? If so, be sure to read our blog ‘The six benefits of bicycle leasing for employees’.
The lease package also comes with many more benefits besides
Lease your bicycle and you will no longer need to stress about the financial impact if your lease bicycle is damaged or if it needs to go in for maintenance yet again. The reason for that is because our lease package includes an annual maintenance budget and protection against damage and theft.
The disadvantages of leasing your bicycle
What are the disadvantages of bicycle leasing?
- During the lease period itself, you will not own the bicycle yourself
- Leasing your bicycle may have a minor impact on your pension
- You will lose some of the benefit if you quit sooner
During the lease period itself, you do not own the bicycle yourself
The downside of bicycle leasing is that you don't own the bicycle yourself, so your freedom is a bit more limited. You can't go and make structural changes to your bicycle as you see fit and you will be entering into a contract for three or four years.
Once the lease period is over, however, you can take ownership of the bicycle by buying it at a predetermined residual value. What is the residual value of a bicycle after leasing? In most cases, it comes to 16% or 20%, depending on your employer.
Will leasing a bicycle have a negative impact on my pension?
Something that many people also say is that leasing a bicycle will have an impact on your pension. Will bicycle leasing have a disadvantageous effect on your pension? It sometimes has an impact, but it is very small. To find out exactly how that works, you should read this article, ‘Will leasing a bicycle in 2025 have a negative impact on your pension?’
Because the bicycle is an exempt benefit, you don't accrue any additional entitlements under your pension scheme, for example." ‘For most people, that's not a problem because the amount involved is only small. – De Tijd
What if you end your contract earlier?
In most cases, you simply complete your lease and don't need to dwell on that. If you do end your contract earlier, then part of your tax benefit will no longer apply if you take ownership of the lease bicycle at its residual value at that time. If you do that, no severance payment will be required.
You can also return the bicycle at any time and in some cases you will then pay a severance fee. The further into the term of your contract you are, the lower that severance fee will be.
How much does it cost to lease a bicycle in 2025?
So how much will it cost you to get a lease bicycle? You can calculate your lease price quickly and easily using our calculator. Curious about how the lease price of your bicycle is determined and want to know everything that's included in the price? If so, be sure to read our blog: ‘How much does a lease bicycle cost?’
So is leasing a bicycle truly cheaper?
Yes, leasing a bicycle in 2025 will still be cheaper than buying one yourself because it's so advantageous from a tax point of view. Leasing a bicycle is up to 40% cheaper than buying one yourself. Leasing your bicycle means that you can access additional services such as damage and theft protection and a maintenance budget.
Please note: leasing a bicycle is only more advantageous if you lease it via your employer.
So to sum up, should you actually lease your bicycle or buy it at the moment? If you can lease a bicycle through your employer, then leasing is the cheapest option. An investigation by Testaankoop also shows that.
