Canadian Mortgage Calculator
Semi-annual compounding, CMHC and stress test.
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How it works
Enter the price and down payment
The calculator checks your down payment against Canada's minimums and flags whether CMHC insurance applies.
Set your rate, term and amortization
Use your quoted contract rate. Amortization caps at 25 years for insured mortgages, with a 30-year exception for first-time buyers and new builds.
Compare payment frequencies
See how accelerated bi-weekly payments shorten the amortization and cut total interest.
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Why is a Canadian mortgage calculator different from an American one?
Canadian fixed-rate mortgages compound semi-annually, not in advance, while American ones compound monthly. That is set out in the Interest Act, and it means the effective monthly rate is (1 + annual/2)^(1/6) − 1 rather than annual/12. Using a US calculator overstates a Canadian payment by roughly $10–20 a month on a $500,000 mortgage — small, but wrong every single month for 25 years.
When do I have to pay CMHC mortgage insurance?
Whenever your down payment is under 20% of the purchase price. The premium is a percentage of the loan amount and scales with how little you put down: 4.00% at 5–9.99% down, 3.10% at 10–14.99%, and 2.80% at 15–19.99%. It is normally added to the mortgage principal rather than paid up front, so you pay interest on it for the life of the loan. Homes priced at $1.5 million or more cannot be insured at all and require 20% down.
What is the minimum down payment in Canada?
5% on the first $500,000 of the purchase price, 10% on the portion between $500,000 and $1.5 million, and 20% on any home priced at $1.5 million or above. On a $700,000 home that works out to $45,000 — 5% of the first $500,000 plus 10% of the remaining $200,000. The $1.5 million ceiling replaced the previous $1 million cap in December 2024.
How does the mortgage stress test work?
Federally regulated lenders must qualify you at the higher of your contract rate plus 2 percentage points, or 5.25%. So a 4.5% quoted rate is tested at 6.5%. You do not pay the stress-test rate — it only determines the maximum you can borrow. This calculator shows both the real payment and the qualifying payment so you can see the gap before you talk to a lender.
Are accelerated bi-weekly payments actually worth it?
Yes, and the mechanism is simpler than it sounds. An accelerated bi-weekly payment is just the monthly payment halved, taken 26 times a year — which is 13 monthly payments rather than 12. That extra payment goes almost entirely to principal. On a $500,000 mortgage at 5% it typically removes about three years from a 25-year amortization and saves tens of thousands in interest, with no change to your rate.
Does this include property tax, heating and condo fees?
The payment figure is principal and interest only. Lenders assess affordability using Gross Debt Service, which adds property tax, heating and half of any condo fees, and should stay under about 39% of gross income. Budget separately for those — on a typical Canadian home they add $400–800 a month, which is easily enough to change what you can comfortably afford.
About mortgage calculator
The thing most mortgage calculators get wrong in Canada
Canadian fixed-rate mortgages are compounded semi-annually, not in advance. That phrase appears on every commitment letter in the country and it comes from the federal Interest Act. American mortgages compound monthly, and almost every calculator you find online uses the American formula.
The difference is in one line of arithmetic. A US calculator divides the annual rate by twelve. A Canadian one has to convert a semi-annually compounded rate into a monthly one:
monthly rate = (1 + annual ÷ 2)^(1/6) − 1
At 5% over 25 years on a $500,000 mortgage, the American formula produces a payment of about $2,923 and the Canadian one about $2,908 — roughly $15 a month. Small, but wrong in the same direction every month for twenty-five years, and enough to make a calculator disagree with your lender’s paperwork. This calculator uses the Canadian formula.
One caveat worth knowing: variable-rate mortgages in Canada are usually compounded monthly rather than semi-annually, so a variable quote and a fixed quote at the same posted number are not quite the same rate.
Minimum down payment
Canada uses a tiered minimum rather than a flat percentage. Since the December 2024 changes:
| Purchase price | Minimum down payment |
|---|---|
| $500,000 or less | 5% of the price |
| $500,001 to $1,499,999 | 5% of the first $500,000, plus 10% of the rest |
| $1,500,000 and above | 20% — these mortgages cannot be insured at all |
On a $700,000 home that works out to $45,000: $25,000 on the first $500,000 plus $20,000 on the remaining $200,000. The $1.5 million ceiling replaced the long-standing $1 million cap in December 2024, which brought insured mortgages within reach in Toronto and Vancouver for the first time in years.
CMHC insurance: what it costs and who it protects
If your down payment is under 20%, mortgage default insurance is mandatory. It is worth being clear about what it is: it protects the lenderif you default, not you. What you get in exchange is access to a mortgage you could not otherwise obtain, and usually a slightly better rate, because the lender’s risk is now underwritten.
| Down payment | Premium (% of loan) | On a $600,000 loan |
|---|---|---|
| 5% – 9.99% | 4.00% | $24,000 |
| 10% – 14.99% | 3.10% | $18,600 |
| 15% – 19.99% | 2.80% | $16,800 |
| 20% or more | None | $0 |
The premium is normally added to the mortgage principal rather than paid up front, which means you pay interest on it for the entire amortization. On a 25-year term that $24,000 premium can cost well over $40,000 by the time the mortgage is discharged. Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan also charge provincial sales tax on the premium, and that portion must be paid at closing — it cannot be rolled in.
The jump from 14.99% to 15% down is worth noticing: it moves you from a 3.10% premium to 2.80%. Finding another few thousand dollars can pay for itself several times over.
The stress test
Federally regulated lenders must qualify you at the higher of your contract rate plus two percentage points, or 5.25%. So a 4.79% quoted rate is tested at 6.79%. You never pay the stress-test rate — it exists purely to determine the maximum you can borrow.
The practical effect is that your borrowing capacity is roughly 15–20% lower than the payment you could actually afford at your real rate. The calculator shows both figures side by side, so you can see the gap before a lender shows it to you. Credit unions are provincially regulated and are not bound by the federal test, which is one reason buyers close to the limit sometimes end up there.
Accelerated payments are the best free money in a mortgage
An accelerated bi-weekly payment is simply your monthly payment halved and taken 26 times a year. Twenty-six halves is thirteen monthly payments, not twelve. That extra payment arrives with no interest attached to it, so almost all of it lands on the principal.
On a $600,000 mortgage at 5% over 25 years, switching from monthly to accelerated bi-weekly clears the mortgage in about 21.5 years instead of 25 and cuts total interest from roughly $447,000 to roughly $374,000 — a saving of over $70,000. Your rate does not change, your lender does not need to approve anything unusual, and the only real cost is that you pay about 8% more per year. Use the comparison table above to see the effect on your own numbers.
Note the distinction: plain bi-weekly is the annual monthly total divided into 26 payments, so it costs the same per year and saves almost nothing. Only the accelerated versions do the work.
What this calculator does not include
The payment figure is principal and interest only. Lenders assess affordability using Gross Debt Service, which also counts property tax, heating costs and half of any condo fees, and which should generally stay under about 39% of your gross income. Total Debt Service, which adds every other debt payment, should stay under roughly 44%.
Budget separately for land transfer tax — which in Toronto is charged twice, once by the province and once by the city — along with legal fees, a title search, a home inspection and an adjustment for prepaid property tax. On a typical purchase these closing costs run 1.5% to 4% of the price, and they are due in cash on closing day.
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