Quick answer
The 2026 qualifying rate is the greater of your contract rate plus 2.00 percentage points or 5.25%. An insured mortgage (under 20% down) must meet it at any lender, with housing costs (GDS) capped at 39% of income and all debts (TDS) at 44%; OSFI applies it to uninsured mortgages at federally regulated lenders. In "What can I afford?" mode, income of $150,000 with the other fields at their starting values gives a $682,399.14 maximum price.
What the stress test actually checks
The 2018 revision of OSFI's Guideline B-20 included an updated stress test, and the formula in force today dates from 1 June 2021: borrowers are qualified at the Minimum Qualifying Rate (MQR), a rate higher than the one they'll actually pay, defined as the greater of your contract rate plus 2.00 percentage points or a 5.25% floor. The floor has not moved since 2021 even as contract rates have risen and fallen around it, because its job is to prove you could still make the payment if rates climbed, and a 2-point buffer on top of an unusually low contract rate wouldn't test much on its own. The same formula applies whether your mortgage is insured (under 20% down) or uninsured, but it reaches them by different routes. For an insured mortgage it is a condition that federal regulations put on the loan (s. 5(1)(h) and 5(3) of the Insurable Housing Loan Regulations for CMHC insurance and of the Eligible Mortgage Loan Regulations for private insurance), so it applies whichever lender makes the loan. For an uninsured mortgage it is OSFI's expectation of federally regulated lenders. A provincially regulated lender follows its own regulator on uninsured loans, which is why this calculator's "does not qualify" result for an uninsured mortgage is specifically about federally regulated lenders, not every possible source of a mortgage.
Two ways to use this calculator
Can I afford this home? takes a purchase price you already have in mind and tells you whether it clears the stress test, the CMHC minimum down payment, GDS and TDS all at once. What can I afford? flips the question: starting from your down payment saved and your income, it solves for the highest purchase price that still clears every one of those same checks — including the CMHC insurance premium, which only appears once you cross the 80% loan-to-value line and itself grows the mortgage (and therefore the payment) the closer the price pushes you toward that boundary. That feedback loop is why the second mode can't just invert the payment formula directly; the calculator searches for the price the same way a mortgage broker would sanity-check it by hand, just faster.
Worked example — $900,000 in Toronto, 20% down
Purchase price $900,000, down payment $180,000 (exactly 20%, so this mortgage is uninsured — no CMHC premium), contract rate 4.49%, 25-year amortization, Ontario, property tax $6,000/yr, heating $150/mo, household income $180,000, no other debt. The mortgage is $720,000. Contract-rate payment: $720,000 at 4.49% over 25 years, compounded semi-annually (the Interest Act requires a mortgage to state its rate calculated yearly or half-yearly, not in advance, and this calculator uses the half-yearly basis), comes to $3,981.00/month. The qualifying rate is the greater of 4.49% + 2.00% = 6.49% or the 5.25% floor — 6.49% wins — and the payment at that rate is $4,818.37/month. GDS = ($4,818.37 + $500 tax + $150 heat) ÷ $15,000 monthly income = 36.46%; with no other debt, TDS is identical. Both sit comfortably under the 39%/44% ceilings — 36.46% ≤ 39% — so this purchase passes with about $381.63/month of room before GDS would bind, and the $180,000 down payment is well above the $65,000 CMHC minimum a $900,000 price would require.
Worked example — $650,000, 10% down, an insured mortgage
Purchase price $650,000, down payment $65,000 (10%), contract rate 4.79%, 25-year amortization, Ontario, income $140,000, property tax set to $0 for this example (the page's own default is $6,000/yr — clear the property tax box and type 0 to reproduce this result) and heating left at the page's own $150/month default (see the audit trail below on that default). Loan-to-value is 90%, landing in CMHC's 85.01–90% band at a 3.10% premium: $585,000 × 3.10% = $18,135.00, financed straight into the mortgage for a total of $603,135.00. Because this is Ontario, 8% PST applies to the premium dollar amount, paid in cash at closing rather than added to the loan: $18,135.00 × 8% = $1,450.80. Qualifying rate is 4.79% + 2.00% = 6.79% (above the 5.25% floor), giving a stress-test payment of $4,146.55/month against a contract-rate payment of $3,436.11/month. GDS and TDS both land at 36.83% — comfortably under 39%/44%, with about $253.45/month of room, and the $65,000 down payment clears the $40,000 CMHC minimum for a $650,000 price with room to spare.
Worked example — solving for the maximum price
Household income $150,000, down payment saved $80,000, contract rate 4.49%, 25-year amortization, Ontario, property tax assumed at 1% of price per year, heating $150/mo, an existing $400/mo car payment, not a first-time buyer or new build. A naive calculation that ignores mortgage insurance — as if every buyer could put 20% down — would suggest roughly $699,000 is affordable on GDS alone. But at $80,000 down, a $699,000 home means only about 11.4% down, which is an insured mortgage, and the CMHC premium that comes with it inflates both the loan and the payment. Solving properly, folding the premium back into the price search, gives a maximum affordable price of $682,399.14 — about $16,600 (2.4%) lower than the naive figure. At that price the mortgage (including a financed $18,674.37 premium at 88.28% loan-to-value, the 85.01–90% band) comes to $621,073.51, the stress-test payment is $4,156.33/month, GDS lands exactly at the 39.00% ceiling (the binding constraint), and TDS sits at 42.20% — under the 44% limit, with room to spare. This is exactly the kind of interaction a calculator needs to model explicitly: a single-pass formula that ignores the insurance premium's own feedback into the price silently overstates what's actually affordable. To reproduce this example, switch to "What can I afford?", type 150000 as the household income and 400 as the other debt payments; every other field already holds the value used here.
GDS and TDS, and why the ceiling differs by mortgage type
GDS (Gross Debt Service) is the stress-test mortgage payment plus property tax, heating, and half of any condo fees, divided by gross monthly income — capped at 39% for a CMHC-insured mortgage. TDS (Total Debt Service) adds every other monthly debt payment — car loans, credit cards, lines of credit — on top of that same numerator, capped at 44% insured. Both limits are set for insured mortgages by federal regulation (s. 5(1)(h) of the Insurable Housing Loan Regulations and of the Eligible Mortgage Loan Regulations), and CMHC's guidance applies the same two numbers; for an uninsured mortgage there is no equivalent published regulatory ceiling at all — individual federally regulated lenders apply their own internal policy, often similar to or a little looser than 39%/44% for strong-credit borrowers. This calculator applies the same 39%/44% numbers either way for consistency, but the note below the results table tells you whether you're looking at a hard regulatory limit or an industry-typical lender guideline.
The $1,500,000 cliff
Below $1,500,000, a buyer can put down as little as 5% on the first $500,000 plus 10% on the remainder and still get CMHC (or Sagen, or Canada Guaranty) mortgage default insurance — that's what makes a 10-15% down payment possible at all on an average-priced home. At exactly $1,500,000 and above, insured mortgages disappear entirely: every buyer needs a full 20% down payment, effectively more than doubling the minimum down payment right at the boundary (about $125,000 minimum just under the cap, versus $300,000 exactly at it). This calculator models that cliff precisely rather than smoothing over it, because it's a real, sudden change in what a household needs saved, not a rounding artifact.
Built for how mortgage brokers actually work
Ontario brokerages licensed under the Mortgage Brokerages, Lenders and Administrators Act, 2006 owe the borrower written disclosure (the brokerage's relationships and conflicts, its fees and compensation, the cost of borrowing and each mortgage's material risks) at the earliest opportunity and no later than two business days before the earlier of certain events described in section 35 of O. Reg. 188/08, as FSRA sets out the rule. In British Columbia, B.C. Reg. 108/2025 brings the Mortgage Services Act into force effective 13 October 2026, with stated exceptions, and the Mortgage Brokers Act stays in place until that date; the Mortgage Services Rules (B.C. Reg. 110/2025), made effective the same date, require several disclosures, some of them in a form approved by the superintendent. Other provinces have their own broker rules, which this page does not describe. None of that disclosure duty is replaced by a calculator: this tool estimates, it doesn't advise, and a broker embedding it (see /embed) is showing a client a transparent, sourced starting point for a conversation their own required disclosure still has to happen alongside.
What this doesn't model
This calculator does not model lender-specific overlays or credit-score-based adjustments to the qualifying rate; the nuances of variable-rate mortgage qualification beyond the flat contract-plus-2% rule; the exemption, in force since late 2024, that lets an uninsured borrower switch lenders at renewal without being re-stress-tested (this calculator always stress-tests a purchase, which is the scenario it's built for); closing costs such as land transfer tax (use the Land Transfer Tax Calculator alongside this one); rental income offsets for an investment property; or the rate a mortgage might actually renew at years from now. It also doesn't model the 90.01–95% LTV "non-traditional down payment" premium tier (4.50% instead of 4.00%). CMHC treats savings, the sale of a property and a non-repayable financial gift from a relative as traditional sources, which take the standard rate; its examples of a non-traditional source are an unsecured personal loan or an unsecured line of credit, and it requires such a down payment to be arm's length and not tied to the purchase and sale of the property. CMHC offers the tier only on one- or two-unit properties, for borrowers with a strong credit management history, so it is a narrower case than the standard tiers this calculator does cover.
Three more gaps worth knowing about before you rely on a result. First, every insured scenario above assumes the borrower clears CMHC's own credit bar — at least one borrower or guarantor needs a minimum credit score of 600, a fixed eligibility cutoff separate from the credit-score-based rate adjustments already mentioned, and this calculator doesn't check it. Second, this tool is built for an owner-occupied purchase: a single-unit non-owner-occupied rental isn't eligible for CMHC insurance at any down payment, and CMHC's separate Income Property product for a non-owner-occupied 2–4 unit rental caps loan-to-value at 80% — so a real rental purchase needs at least 20% down either way, a different qualification path than the one this calculator runs. Third, this calculator applies the one- and two-unit minimum down payment tiers (5% of the first $500,000 and 10% of the rest) to every owner-occupied purchase, but CMHC's Purchase page caps loan-to-value at 90% and asks for 10% down on an owner-occupied property of three or four units.
FAQ
Which lenders does the mortgage stress test actually bind?
It depends on whether the mortgage is insured. An insured high-ratio mortgage (less than 20% down) has to pass the federal qualifying-rate test whichever lender makes the loan, because the rule attaches to the loan: the Insurable Housing Loan Regulations (SOR/2012-282, for CMHC insurance) and the Eligible Mortgage Loan Regulations (SOR/2012-281, for private mortgage insurance) each require, in s. 5(1)(h) and 5(3), a gross debt service ratio of no more than 39% and a total debt service ratio of no more than 44%, worked out at the greater of the contract rate plus 2% and 5.25%. For an uninsured mortgage the test is OSFI's: its Guideline B-20 and minimum qualifying rate page set the same rate and apply to federally regulated financial institutions, such as banks and federal trust and loan companies. A provincially regulated lender making an uninsured loan (a credit union under a provincial Act, for example) follows its own regulator instead. OSFI notes that some provincial regulators build on B-20, and Quebec's AMF tells the public that lenders are required to apply a stress test at the greater of the contract rate plus 2% or 5.25%, as they have since 1 June 2021. So a borrower who fails this calculator's test on an uninsured mortgage at a bank may still qualify at a provincially regulated lender under rules this tool does not model.
Why is the qualifying rate the greater of contract-plus-2% or 5.25%?
OSFI set the 5.25% floor in 2021 and it has not moved since, even though contract rates have swung well above and below it, because the floor exists to make sure a borrower could still make their payments if rates rose above a low contract rate — a 2-point buffer on top of a very low contract rate could otherwise let someone qualify at a rate barely above what they're actually paying. The Department of Finance applies the identical formula to insured mortgages, so both share the same floor and the same 2-percentage-point buffer above the contract rate, whichever is higher.
What is the difference between GDS and TDS?
GDS (Gross Debt Service) is your projected housing costs alone — the mortgage payment at the qualifying rate, property tax, heating, and half of any condo fees — divided by your gross monthly income, capped at 39% for a CMHC-insured mortgage. TDS (Total Debt Service) is the same numerator plus every other monthly debt payment you carry (car loans, credit cards, lines of credit), capped at 44% insured. A borrower can fail on TDS even while comfortably under the GDS limit if they carry other debt, which is why this calculator always shows both.
Who can get a 30-year amortization instead of 25?
As of 15 December 2024, a 30-year amortization is available on an insured (high-ratio) mortgage to all first-time homebuyers and to all buyers of newly constructed homes — a narrower version limited to first-time buyers on new builds only existed from 1 August 2024 before being widened. Every other insured mortgage is still capped at 25 years. Uninsured mortgages are not bound by this federal rule at all; some lenders offer 30- or 35-year amortizations on uninsured deals as their own policy, which this calculator does not model.
Which provinces charge PST on the CMHC insurance premium?
Ontario (8%), Quebec (9%, rising to 9.975% for premiums paid on or after 1 January 2027 under Bill 99) and Saskatchewan (6%) currently charge provincial sales tax on the dollar amount of the mortgage default insurance premium, paid in cash at closing rather than added to the mortgage. Manitoba charged 7% until its retail sales tax stopped applying to mortgage insurance on new and renewal contracts taking effect after 30 June 2020 (Manitoba Finance Notice RST 20-04, and Bulletin 061, which gives no end date), and CMHC's premium page names only Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. That is a detail worth knowing, since older articles and some other calculators still list Manitoba at 7%. Every other province and territory charges no PST on the premium at all.
What changes at exactly $1,500,000?
Below $1,500,000, a buyer can put down as little as 5% on the first $500,000 plus 10% on the rest and get CMHC (or Sagen or Canada Guaranty) mortgage default insurance. At $1,500,000 and above, insured mortgages are not available at all — every buyer needs a full 20% down payment, a much bigger jump than the tiered formula would suggest just below the cap. This creates a real cliff: the minimum down payment on a $1,499,999 home is a little under $125,000, while on a $1,500,000 home it is exactly $300,000.
Does this work for a rental or investment property I won't live in?
No — this calculator is built for an owner-occupied purchase. A single-unit non-owner-occupied rental isn't eligible for CMHC mortgage insurance at all, and CMHC's separate Income Property product for a non-owner-occupied 2-4 unit rental caps loan-to-value at 80%, so a real rental purchase needs at least 20% down either way — a different qualification path than what this tool models.
This page is general information based on published 2026 OSFI, Department of Finance and CMHC rules, not mortgage or financial advice. A licensed mortgage broker or lender sees your actual credit, income documentation and the specific product you're applying for, all of which can change the real answer.