Mortgage payment and affordability calculator

You must qualify at the greater of your contract rate plus 2% or 5.25%, for insured mortgages and for uninsured mortgages from federally regulated lenders. Your payment is calculated at your actual rate; the qualifying rate is only used to test affordability.

5% of the first $500,000 and 10% of the part between $500,000 and $1.5 million. Homes priced at $1.5 million or more need 20% down. The $1.5 million insured cap replaced the $1 million cap on December 15, 2024.

With less than 20% down (an insured mortgage), 30 years is available to first-time buyers and to anyone buying a newly built home since December 15, 2024; otherwise the maximum is 25 years. CMHC adds 0.20% to the premium for amortizations over 25 years. With 20% or more down, amortization is up to the lender.

CMHC's premium is a percentage of the loan based on the loan-to-value ratio: 4.00% above 90% LTV, 3.10% above 85%, 2.80% above 80%, and lower bands below that. The premium is added to the mortgage. In Ontario, provincial sales tax on the premium is paid at closing.

Accelerated bi-weekly payments are half the monthly payment, made 26 times a year, so you pay the equivalent of 13 monthly payments a year. At 5% that pays off a 25-year mortgage about three and a half years sooner; the calculator shows the exact figure for your rate.

Gross debt service (housing costs: principal, interest, property tax, heat and half of condo fees) can be at most 39% of gross income for an insured mortgage, and total debt service (housing plus other debts) at most 44%, both at the qualifying rate.