CMHC Insurance Calculator (2026)

Why the premium exists, and who's buying it

A lender financing more than 80% of a home's value is carrying more risk than its own underwriting alone would normally accept, so federal rules require that risk to be insured. The insurer — CMHC, or one of the two private mortgage insurers offering the same product — pays the lender if the borrower defaults and the sale of the home doesn't cover the balance. The cost of that protection is charged to the borrower as a one-time premium at the start of the mortgage, not something that recurs with every payment the way property insurance does.

In practice the premium is usually added straight onto the loan rather than paid out of pocket, so it's amortized along with everything else and shows up as a slightly larger payment rather than a bigger cheque at closing. The one piece that can't be rolled in is the provincial sales tax some provinces charge on the premium itself — more on that below.

The premium, band by band

The premium is a percentage of the loan amount — price minus down payment — not of the purchase price, and it rises as the down payment shrinks:

• 15.00% to 19.99% down (80.01%–85% loan-to-value): 2.80%
• 10.00% to 14.99% down (85.01%–90% loan-to-value): 3.10%
• 5.00% to 9.99% down (90.01%–95% loan-to-value): 4.00%

Take a $650,000 purchase in Ontario with $65,000 down — 10%. The loan is $585,000, which puts the loan-to-value at 90% and lands it in the 3.10% band: a premium of $18,135, added to the mortgage for a $603,135 total. Put down 15% instead of 10% on the same price and the band drops to 2.80%, which is the whole reason some buyers stretch for a slightly larger down payment — it isn't just less principal, it's a cheaper premium rate on what's left.

Minimum down payment — and the price where insurance disappears

The minimum isn't a flat percentage once the price passes $500,000. It's 5% on the first $500,000, then 10% on whatever comes after that, up to a $1,500,000 insured-purchase-price cap. On the $650,000 example above, the minimum is $25,000 (5% of the first $500,000) plus $15,000 (10% of the remaining $150,000) — $40,000 in total, well under the $65,000 actually put down, so that down payment clears the minimum with room to spare.

At $1,500,000 or more, mortgage loan insurance simply isn't sold — not at a higher premium, not at all — so the minimum jumps straight to 20% with conventional financing. A $1,600,000 home needs at least $320,000 down, full stop; there's no insured path to a smaller down payment on a home at or above the cap.

The 30-year option, and who actually qualifies

Insured mortgages are capped at a 25-year amortization by default. Thirty years is available, but only when at least one buyer is a qualifying first-time home buyer or the home is newly built and never previously occupied — either condition is enough on its own, not both. It costs 0.20% on top of the regular premium rate. Run the same $650,000, $65,000-down example as a 30-year amortization for a first-time buyer and the rate climbs from 3.10% to 3.30%, the premium from $18,135 to $19,305, and the mortgage total from $603,135 to $604,305 — $1,170 more, spread over five extra years of payments instead of paid down faster over 25.

"First-time buyer" has a specific federal definition here, not just the plain-English one. A borrower qualifies if they've never owned a home, or if neither they nor a spouse or common-law partner has lived in a home either of them owned at any point in the last four calendar years — so someone who sold a home six years ago and has rented since qualifies again. It also extends to someone recently out of a marriage or common-law relationship, even if they owned a home with their former partner within that four-year window. Only one buyer on the application needs to meet it for the whole mortgage to qualify, which is why a first-time buyer purchasing with a repeat-buyer partner still gets the 30-year option.

The tax on the premium — paid separately, in cash

Three provinces charge their provincial sales tax on the premium itself: Ontario at 8%, Quebec at 9%, and Saskatchewan at 6%. Manitoba taxed it too until it repealed that tax in 2020, and no other province or territory charges one. This tax can't be added to the mortgage the way the premium can — it's due in cash at closing, on top of the down payment, legal fees and any land transfer tax. On the $650,000 Ontario example, that's $1,450.80 at 25 years, or $1,544.40 at 30 — the tax rides on whatever the premium happens to be.

What this calculator doesn't model

A down payment that comes from borrowed funds rather than savings or a gift counts as "non-traditional" and carries a higher premium — 4.50% instead of 4.00% in the 5%–9.99%-down band, 4.70% with the 30-year surcharge — which this page doesn't account for. It also doesn't model portability or low-ratio insurance for buyers already above 80% equity, multi-unit or rental properties, or self-employed income verified under CMHC's alternative documentation rules, all of which can carry different rates. For an exact quote, a mortgage lender runs the application through the insurer directly.