CMHC Insurance Calculator — Canada

What CMHC insurance actually is

CMHC insurance, formally called mortgage default insurance, is mandatory on any Canadian mortgage with less than 20% down. It protects your lender, not you, if you default on the loan — which is exactly why it's required, since a smaller down payment means more risk for whoever's lending you the money.

This is what makes 5% down payment mortgages possible at all in Canada. Without default insurance, federal banking law limits lenders to loaning no more than 80% of a property's value. Insurance is the mechanism that lets lenders exceed that limit responsibly.

2026 premium tiers

The premium is calculated as a percentage of your mortgage amount — not your home price — and the percentage drops as your down payment grows.

On a $500,000 home with 5% down, that's a $475,000 mortgage at 4.00%, which works out to a $19,000 premium — a real, significant cost that's easy to underestimate when focused purely on the down payment itself.

How the premium gets paid

Unlike most one-time fees, the CMHC premium isn't typically paid in cash upfront. It's added directly to your mortgage principal and amortized over the life of the loan alongside everything else you're borrowing — which means you also pay interest on the premium itself for the full term.

This is a meaningful detail: the true cost of the premium is higher than the sticker figure once interest is factored in over a 25 or 30-year amortization. This calculator's "finance the premium" toggle shows the difference between rolling it in versus paying cash, which most borrowers don't have readily available anyway.

Provincial tax on your premium

In Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, provincial sales tax applies to the CMHC premium itself, and this tax portion has to be paid in cash at closing — it can't be rolled into the mortgage the way the premium itself can. On the $19,000 Ontario example above, 8% provincial tax adds another $1,520 due at closing.

This is a genuinely easy detail to overlook when budgeting for a down payment, since it's a cash requirement on top of your down payment and other closing costs, not something that gets absorbed into your monthly payment.

The $1.5 million price cap

Mortgage default insurance isn't available at all on homes priced above $1.5 million, a threshold raised from $1 million in late 2024. Above this cap, buyers need at least 20% down regardless of their financial profile, since insured financing simply isn't an option at that price point.

This particularly affects buyers in Toronto and Vancouver, where a meaningful share of the housing stock sits above this threshold, effectively requiring a larger down payment than the standard 5% minimum for anyone shopping in that price range.

How to use this calculator

Enter your home price and planned down payment in dollars. Select your amortization period and province, since both affect your final numbers — amortization through the 30-year surcharge, and province through the tax calculation. The calculator shows your premium, the provincial tax if applicable, and your total mortgage with the premium included.

The 30-year amortization surcharge

Extending your amortization beyond the standard 25 years, an option available to eligible first-time buyers and some new-construction purchases, adds a 0.20 percentage point surcharge to whichever premium tier you fall into. A 3.10% tier becomes 3.30%, a 4.00% tier becomes 4.20%, and so on.

This surcharge exists because a longer amortization means slower equity buildup, which represents slightly more risk to the insurer over a longer period. It's worth factoring into the decision between 25 and 30 years alongside the monthly payment difference itself.

Avoiding CMHC insurance entirely

The straightforward way to avoid the premium completely is reaching 20% down, which also avoids the provincial tax that comes with it. For a $500,000 home, that's the difference between a $25,000 down payment plus a $19,000+ premium, versus a $100,000 down payment with no premium at all.

Programs like the First Home Savings Account (FHSA) and the Home Buyers' Plan (HBP), which lets you withdraw from an RRSP for a down payment, can help close that gap faster for buyers specifically targeting the 20% threshold to avoid insurance costs entirely.

CMHC vs Sagen vs Canada Guaranty

CMHC is the best-known default insurer in Canada, but it isn't the only one — Sagen and Canada Guaranty offer essentially identical coverage at essentially identical pricing. Lenders typically choose which insurer to use based on their own internal relationships and preferences, not anything the borrower controls or needs to shop around for.

Because pricing is standardized across all three insurers, this calculator's premium tiers apply regardless of which specific insurer ends up backing your particular mortgage.

A tier-by-tier worked example

On a $700,000 purchase, moving from 5% down to 10% down cuts your premium tier from 4.00% to 3.10%, while also shrinking your mortgage amount by $35,000.

Combined, this can mean tens of thousands of dollars less borrowed and a meaningfully smaller premium — a strong argument for stretching toward the next tier threshold if you're close to it, rather than assuming the minimum down payment is always the best move. The CMHC's official mortgage loan insurance page has the current full rate card and program details.

CMHC compared to FHA in the US

Readers familiar with US mortgage insurance will notice some structural similarities between CMHC and FHA, though the details differ meaningfully. Both exist to let lenders approve lower-down-payment loans by transferring default risk to a government-backed insurer. FHA charges a smaller upfront premium (1.75%) plus an ongoing annual premium paid monthly for years, while CMHC charges a larger one-time premium with no ongoing monthly charge at all.

This structural difference means CMHC-insured Canadian borrowers see their insurance cost fully baked into the mortgage from day one, rather than spread out as a recurring monthly line item the way FHA borrowers experience it — worth understanding if you're comparing notes with someone who bought using FHA financing south of the border.

CMHC insurance on a refinance

Refinance transactions in Canada generally can't be insured by CMHC — mortgage default insurance is specifically tied to purchase transactions and certain switches, not equity-access refinances. This means anyone refinancing to pull out equity needs to stay at or below 80% loan-to-value on the refinanced amount, since there's no insurance option to exceed that threshold on a refinance the way there is on an original purchase.

This is worth planning around if a home has appreciated since purchase and you're considering pulling out some of that increased equity — the 80% ceiling applies to the new, larger loan amount you're requesting, not your original purchase-time loan-to-value.

Porting your mortgage and CMHC insurance

If you sell one home and buy another while keeping your existing mortgage through porting, most lenders allow your existing CMHC insurance policy to transfer along with it, avoiding a brand new premium on the new property. This can be a meaningful saving if you're moving but not substantially increasing your loan amount.

If porting increases your loan amount meaningfully, a "blended" premium sometimes applies to the increased portion, calculated on the incremental amount rather than the full new loan. It's worth asking your lender directly how they handle CMHC portability specifically, since the mechanics can vary somewhat between institutions.

Calculating your actual mortgage payment with CMHC included

Once you know your CMHC premium, the natural next step is understanding how it affects your monthly payment, not just your total borrowed amount. Because Canadian mortgages compound semi-annually rather than monthly — a legal requirement under the federal Interest Act — the payment calculation on your CMHC-inflated loan amount uses a specific conversion most generic calculators skip entirely.

Running your total mortgage amount, including the financed premium, through a calculator built specifically for Canadian semi-annual compounding gives an accurate monthly payment figure. A calculator using US-style monthly compounding on the same numbers will understate your actual payment, sometimes by a meaningful amount over a full amortization period.

Special considerations for first-time buyers

First-time buyers get access to a few CMHC-adjacent programs worth knowing about alongside the standard premium tiers. Eligibility for extended 30-year amortization, discussed earlier, is specifically limited to first-time buyers and certain new construction purchases — repeat buyers generally can't access the 30-year option even with mortgage default insurance in place.

The First Home Savings Account and Home Buyers' Plan withdrawal from an RRSP, both mentioned earlier as ways to build a larger down payment faster, are also specifically designed around first-time buyer status. Combining these savings vehicles strategically, well before a purchase, can meaningfully shift which premium tier — or whether any premium at all — applies to an eventual purchase.

CMHC insurance on new construction and pre-construction purchases

New construction and pre-construction condo purchases follow the same core premium tiers as resale homes, but the insurance application timing works differently. For pre-construction purchases with a deposit paid well in advance of closing, the CMHC application typically happens closer to the actual completion and closing date, using the home's value and your down payment status at that later point rather than at the original purchase agreement date.

This timing gap is worth understanding if you're buying pre-construction, since your down payment percentage — and therefore your premium tier — gets locked in based on circumstances closer to your actual move-in date, which could be a year or more after your original purchase agreement, depending on the project's construction timeline.

Premium refunds and portability nuances

CMHC premiums are generally non-refundable once paid, even if you sell shortly after purchasing or pay off your mortgage early. There's no prorated refund mechanism the way some insurance products offer — the premium covers the insurer's risk from the point of closing forward, regardless of how long you actually hold the mortgage.

This is worth factoring into any short-term ownership plan, since the full premium cost applies whether you own the property for two years or twenty. It's one more reason the "should I wait and save a larger down payment" calculation matters — a premium paid on a home sold quickly represents a real, sunk cost with no partial recovery available.

Waiting to save more versus buying now

A common dilemma for buyers close to the 20% threshold is whether to keep saving toward avoiding CMHC insurance entirely, or to buy now with a smaller down payment and accept the premium.

The right answer depends heavily on local home price trends — if prices are rising faster than your savings rate, waiting can end up costing more in appreciation than it saves in premium, even though the premium itself is a real, calculable cost and future appreciation isn't guaranteed.

Does credit score affect CMHC pricing?

Unlike some insurance products, CMHC premium rates are set purely by down payment tier and amortization length — your credit score doesn't change the premium percentage itself. A borrower with excellent credit and one with borderline-qualifying credit pay the exact same premium rate at the same down payment level, provided both are approved for the mortgage in the first place.

Credit score still matters enormously for the underlying mortgage approval and interest rate you're offered, just not for the CMHC premium calculation specifically. It's worth understanding this distinction, since credit score affects several parts of a mortgage application differently — some directly, like your rate, and others not at all, like the standardized premium tiers this calculator models.

Does CMHC require its own appraisal?

CMHC-insured purchases typically rely on the appraisal your lender already orders as part of standard underwriting, rather than requiring a completely separate CMHC-specific appraisal process. The insurer reviews the file, including the property's assessed value, as part of approving the insurance alongside the mortgage itself.

This is somewhat different from the US FHA process, where a dedicated FHA-specific appraisal checking against Minimum Property Standards is required. CMHC's process is generally less separately burdensome on this specific point, though the overall underwriting file still needs to satisfy both the lender's and insurer's requirements before closing. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's mortgage insurance guide covers the underwriting process in more consumer-friendly detail.

Bringing it all together

CMHC insurance is a real, calculable cost — not a small line item to gloss over while focused purely on the down payment itself.

Understanding your exact premium tier, whether provincial tax applies where you're buying, and how the premium affects your total borrowed amount gives a complete picture before you commit to a specific down payment plan.

Run your own real numbers through the calculator above rather than relying on a generic national example, since your province and down payment percentage both meaningfully change the final figure. Revisit the numbers whenever your savings, target home price, or provincial tax rules shift, since even a small change to any of these inputs can move you into a different premium tier entirely.

Working with a mortgage broker on CMHC costs

A mortgage broker familiar with the current insurer landscape can occasionally spot small savings opportunities specific to your file — a slightly different down payment structure, a particular lender-insurer pairing, or a program specific to your buyer profile — that a generic online calculator can't account for.

This doesn't change the standardized premium tiers themselves, but a good broker earns their keep by making sure nothing gets missed on the surrounding underwriting details — a service worth considering even for a straightforward purchase, since the fee is typically paid by the lender rather than the borrower in most standard mortgage transactions.