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House Hack Calculator Canada
Live in one unit and rent the rest, and your purchase is owner-occupied — 5% down with CMHC insurance instead of the 20% an investment property requires. See what you actually pay each month.
Educational calculators — always consult a licensed professional before making financial decisions.
The price of the whole property — every unit, including yours.
Owner-occupied allows as little as 5% down.
Count every rentable space — including the one you'll live in.
You occupy the rest. Your own unit earns no rent.
What one tenant unit brings in each month.
Property tax, insurance, maintenance, utilities. Exclude the mortgage.
Monthly rent on a comparable place, if you weren't buying.
Use a current owner-occupied quote from your lender.
Applied to your rented units only. ~5% is a common baseline.
25-year terms are typical in this market.
Your Effective Monthly Housing Cost
$2,157/mo
$5,767 out − $3,610 tenant rent from 2 rented units
Rent Math (Rented Units Only)
Your own unit is excluded from income and no vacancy allowance is applied to it — you can't lose rent you were never collecting. Calculators that skip this overstate both your income and your losses.
Financing
Pre-tax figure. Excludes appreciation, principal paydown, and tax treatment. Owner-occupied financing typically requires you to live in the property for about a year — check your loan terms. Estimate only; consult a licensed professional.
Your Saved Scenarios
No saved scenarios yet
House hacking in Canada — and the math most calculators get wrong
A house hack is a property you live in that also pays for itself. You buy a duplex or triplex, occupy one unit, and rent the others — or you rent out spare bedrooms in a single-family home. Your tenants' rent offsets the mortgage and operating costs, so the real question isn't “what's my return?” but “what do I actually pay each month to live here?” That's your mortgage plus operating expenses, minus tenant rent. At or below zero, you live for free.
The down payment rule is the whole advantage. In Canada, a pure investment property requires a minimum 20% down and cannot be CMHC-insured. An owner-occupied purchase requires a minimum 5% down, with CMHC insurance available to support it. Living in one unit is what moves you from the first rule to the second — the same building and the same rent roll, reachable with a quarter of the cash. In a country where high prices are the main barrier to owning a rental at all, that distinction does more work than any other lever available to a first-time investor.
Your unit isn't a rental — so don't treat it like one. This is where popular calculators quietly distort the numbers. Your own unit produces no rent, so it must be excluded from income entirely. And it must not have a vacancy allowance applied to it: vacancy is a haircut on rent you expected to collect, and you were never collecting rent from yourself. Counting phantom rent on your unit inflates income; applying vacancy to it invents a loss on income that never existed. This calculator counts rent only from the units you let out, and applies vacancy only to those units.
What happens when you move out. Once you leave, every unit can be rented — gross rent jumps and the property becomes a conventional rental, with vacancy now correctly applied across all units. You keep the low-down owner-occupied mortgage you originally qualified for, which is why the strategy compounds. This calculator shows that fully-rented scenario beside your live-in numbers. From there, run the deal through the cash-on-cash return calculator or the rental property ROI calculator to see how it stands on its own.
The honest downsides. You live next to your tenants — shared walls, shared laundry, and you are the person they call when a pipe goes at 11pm. This is not passive income; it's a job with a discount attached. Owner-occupancy financing also typically requires you to live in the property for around a year before moving out, so read your loan terms rather than assuming you can leave at will. Small multifamily inventory is thin in most Canadian markets and provincial tenancy rules govern how you handle rent increases and evictions. And low-down leverage cuts both ways: with little equity, a non-paying tenant hits your own housing budget directly.
How it works
Enter price and financing
Input price, your 5% owner-occupied down payment, rate, and amortization.
Split the units
Set total units, how many you'll rent out, and rent per unit. You occupy the rest.
See what you actually pay
Get your effective monthly housing cost and cash flow if you later rent it all out.
Why living in one unit changes the whole deal in Canada
| Factor | Owner-occupied | Pure investment |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum down payment | 5% | 20% |
| CMHC insurance | Available | Not available |
| Rent counted as income | Rented units only | All units |
| Vacancy applies to | Rented units only | All units |
Occupying one unit moves you from the 20% investment rule to the 5% owner-occupied rule on the same building.
Frequently asked questions
What is house hacking?+
House hacking means buying a property you live in and renting out the rest of it — the other units of a duplex, triplex, or fourplex, or spare bedrooms in a single-family home. Your tenants' rent offsets your mortgage and operating costs, reducing what you pay each month to live there. When the rent covers everything, you live for free; when it more than covers it, the property pays you.
Why does the owner-occupied down payment matter so much?+
It is the whole advantage. A pure investment property generally requires a large down payment — and no low-down insured option. Because you live in a house hack, you qualify for owner-occupied financing instead, which allows a far smaller down payment and typically better rate pricing. You control the same building for a fraction of the cash, which is why house hacking is a common entry point into rental property.
Should vacancy be applied to the unit I live in?+
No — and this is the single most common error in house-hack math. Your own unit produces no rent, so it contributes nothing to income. It also cannot suffer a vacancy loss, because you were never collecting rent on it in the first place. Applying a vacancy allowance to your own unit invents a phantom loss on phantom income. This calculator counts rent only from the units you actually let out, and applies vacancy only to those units.
What happens when I move out?+
Once you leave, every unit can be rented, so the property becomes a conventional rental: all units produce income, and the vacancy allowance now applies to all of them. That usually raises gross rent substantially. This calculator shows that scenario alongside your live-in numbers, so you can see whether the property still cash-flows after you're gone — which matters, since you keep the low-down owner-occupied loan you originally qualified for.
What are the downsides of house hacking?+
You live next to your tenants, which means noise, shared spaces, and being the person they call when something breaks — it is not passive income. Owner-occupancy loan programs also typically require you to live in the property for around a year before you move out, so check your specific loan terms. Small multifamily properties can be harder to find and finance than single-family homes, and if a tenant stops paying, the shortfall lands directly on your own housing budget.
How does house hacking work in Canada?+
Canadian owner-occupied purchases allow a minimum 5% down, and CMHC mortgage insurance is available to support that low down payment. A pure investment property, by contrast, requires at least 20% down and cannot be CMHC-insured. Living in one unit of a duplex or triplex is what moves you from the 20% rule into the 5% owner-occupied rule — the largest single lever available to a first-time Canadian investor.
Planning to move out later? Model it as a straight rental.
Back to the calculator ↑Cost ranges and rates here are checked against contractor quotes and published industry data. If a number still looks off, email Support@RealCostIQ.com and we'll review and fix it.