Mortgage Affordability · Canada
Mortgage Affordability Calculator (2026)
Find the maximum home price you can afford in Canada. This calculator applies the mortgage stress test (you qualify at a higher rate than you actually pay) and the GDS and TDS debt-service ratios lenders use, then works backward from your income, down payment, and monthly costs to the largest purchase price that still passes. Every threshold is read from the same versioned dataset our methodology cites.
Last verified: Effective for Canadian mortgage qualification rules, 2026 by Fiscal Moose
- Stress-test floor
- 5.25%
- Max GDS
- 39%
- Max TDS
- 44%
Your finances
What you can afford
- Maximum home price
- $646,846.00
- Max mortgage payment
- $3,350.00/mo
- Mortgage before insurance
- $546,846
- Down payment
- $100,00015.46% of the price
- Amount amortized (incl. premium)
- $562,158
The mortgage stress test
You must qualify at the minimum qualifying rate of 5.25%, the greater of your contract rate plus 2% or the 5.25% floor, even though you pay at your contract rate. The 5.25% floor applies because your rate plus 2% is below it.
- Qualifying payment (at 5.25%)
- $3,350.00/mo
- Your payment (at 2.25%)
- $2,448.83/mo
What limits your budget
Binding constraint: Gross debt service (housing costs, 39% max)
- Gross debt service (max 39%)
- 39%
- Total debt service (max 44%)
- 39%
- Monthly housing costs (tax + heat + ½ condo)
- $550.00
- Resulting payment (at your contract rate)
- $2,448.83 / monthly
This price puts your down payment under 20%, so CMHC insurance applies: $15,311.69 premium (2.8% of the loan), added to your mortgage and amortized.
Show how this price was reached
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Maximum home price | $646,846 |
| Less your down payment | −$100,000 |
| Mortgage before insurance | $546,846 |
| CMHC premium (capitalized) | +$15,312 |
| Amount amortized | $562,158 |
| Resulting payment (monthly) | $2,448.83 |
Estimate only. Not a lender pre-approval or financial advice. Uses the federal stress test and the 39% / 44% debt-service maximums; individual lenders apply their own (often stricter) rules. Excludes land-transfer tax, closing costs, and first-time-buyer rebates.
You qualify at the stress-test rate, not your contract rate
This is the detail that surprises buyers. To get a mortgage from a federally regulated lender you must prove you can afford payments at a minimum qualifying rate (the greater of your contract rate plus 2 percentage points or a 5.25% floor). You still pay at your lower contract rate, but you have to qualify at the higher one. So a 4% mortgage is tested at 6%. Skipping this test overstates what you can afford by roughly a fifth, in the direction that gets people in trouble, so this calculator always qualifies you at the stress-test rate.
GDS and TDS: the two debt-service limits
Lenders cap two ratios. Your gross debt service (GDS), the mortgage payment plus property tax, heating, and half your condo fees, can’t exceed 39% of your gross income. Your total debt service (TDS), all of that plus your car loans, credit cards, lines of credit, and student loans, can’t exceed 44%. Whichever limit you hit first sets your maximum payment, and the calculator tells you which one it was.
The down payment can be the real limit
Sometimes your income would support a bigger mortgage than your cash allows. Canada’s minimum down payment is 5% on the first $500,000, 10% on the portion to just under $1.5 million, and 20% at $1.5 million and above, so a given amount of cash caps the price you can buy regardless of income. When that’s the binding constraint, the calculator says so. It also reuses our mortgage payment engine to compute the CMHC insurance premium at the price you land on, so the numbers tie out end to end. For your registered accounts, see the RRSP calculator, TFSA calculator, and FHSA calculator.
The debt-service ratios this calculator applies
These are the federal maximums for a qualifying mortgage. Many lenders use stricter internal guidelines (often around 32% and 40%), so treat these as a ceiling, not a target. The qualifying payment in both ratios is calculated at the stress-test rate.
| Ratio | What it includes | Maximum |
|---|---|---|
| Gross debt service (GDS) | mortgage payment + property tax + heating + 50% of condo fees | 39% |
| Total debt service (TDS) | GDS costs + all other monthly debt payments | 44% |
How the stress test rate is set
The minimum qualifying rate is the greater of your negotiated contract rate plus 2 percentage points or a 5.25% floor. At a 4% contract rate you qualify at 6%; at a 2.5% contract rate the 5.25% floor binds and you qualify at 5.25%. This applies to both insured and uninsured mortgages.
Sources and methodology
Sources
Known limitations
- Estimate only, not a lender pre-approval. Uses the federal GDS ≤ 39% / TDS ≤ 44% maximums and the stress-test qualifying rate (greater of contract + 2% or 5.25%). Individual lenders apply their own, often stricter, guidelines (e.g. 32%/40%) and additional credit criteria.
- You qualify at the minimum qualifying rate (MQR) but pay at your contract rate. The maximum price assumes you can carry the higher MQR payment even though your actual payment is lower.
- Excludes land-transfer / property-transfer tax and first-time-buyer rebates, closing costs, moving costs, and ongoing maintenance beyond property tax, heating, and condo fees.
- Variable-rate qualification nuances (the trigger rate), self-employed and commission income haircuts, and rental-income offsets are not modelled.
- Reuses the mortgage payment engine: semi-annual compounding; CMHC premium capitalized onto the loan; the non-traditional down-payment premium tier (4.50%) is not applied; CMHC premium provincial sales tax (ON/QC/SK) is not added.
- For a down payment between roughly $125,000 and $300,000 the maximum price can pin just below the $1.5 million insured-mortgage cap: that cash satisfies the minimum down payment for every insurable price, but a home priced at $1.5 million or more needs 20% down (at least $300,000), so the result stops just under the cap until your cash reaches that conventional threshold.
- The 5.25% qualifying-rate floor, the 2% spread, and the 39% / 44% debt-service maximums were last verified against the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada page on 2026-05-29; re-check after any FCAC, OSFI, or Department of Finance change.