Mortgage Renewal Calculator — Stay or Switch?

What the minimum qualifying rate actually is, and who sets it

OSFI's minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages is the greater of your mortgage's contract rate plus 2%, or 5.25% — whichever number is higher becomes the rate you have to qualify at, even though it isn't the rate you'll actually pay. This is the same MQR that applied when you first bought; the question at renewal is only ever whether you have to run it again.

OSFI's B-20 guideline states the rule in general form: the qualifying rate for all uninsured mortgages must be the greater of the contractual rate plus a Superintendent-set buffer, or a Superintendent-set floor — that buffer and floor are the 2% and 5.25% figures above. High-ratio (LTV over 80%) mortgages must carry CMHC or another insurer's coverage regardless of this test.

The straight-switch exemption, condition by condition

Two federal regulators cover two related but distinct pieces of this exemption. For an existing uninsured, stand-alone mortgage moving between federally regulated institutions, OSFI's exemption — effective November 21, 2024 — applies when the new lender doesn't increase the remaining amortization and the unpaid balance rises by no more than C$3,000, used only to cover transaction costs such as penalties or fees; equity take-out is explicitly not permitted under this exemption. For a mortgage applying for portfolio insurance as part of a low-ratio (LTV ≤80%) switch, the Department of Finance's parallel exemption — effective December 16, 2024 — covers applications submitted on or after that date, with the same C$3,000 transaction-cost ceiling and no equity withdrawal.

Neither exemption covers a straight switch of a high-ratio, already-CMHC-insured mortgage moving lenders on its own insurance — the registry entries behind this page found no VERIFIED source addressing that specific case, so no claim is made about it here. If your situation doesn't cleanly match the rows above, assume the full MQR applies and confirm with your lender before counting on an exemption.

Term ends at renewal; amortization usually doesn't

FCAC draws the distinction plainly: the term is the contract period — a few months up to 5 years or more — while amortization is the full payoff timeline, and a single mortgage typically runs across several terms within one amortization. Renewal resets the term and the rate; it doesn't reset the amortization clock unless you specifically ask for a change. Extending the remaining amortization at renewal lowers the payment but adds interest over the life of the loan, and — per the straight-switch table above — it also disqualifies a switch from the stress-test exemption entirely, since both exemptions require the amortization schedule to stay the same.

For a mortgage carrying CMHC-style insurance in the first place, FCAC's amortization ceiling still applies going forward: 30 years for first-time buyers and/or buyers of new builds with under 20% down, 25 years for other cases under 20% down; once you're at 20%+ equity, the lender sets the ceiling. If you're deciding whether to shorten or extend at renewal, run both scenarios in the calculator above before signing.

Worked example: a switch that stays inside the C$3,000 cap

Take a hypothetical uninsured mortgage renewing with a C$340,000 balance and 5 years' amortization remaining. The borrower moves it to a new federally regulated lender, whose discharge and legal costs plus a small penalty for switching mid-cycle total C$2,650 — under the C$3,000 cap — added to the balance, with the amortization left unchanged and no cash taken out.

If you don't qualify for the exemption: what a full renewal requalification checks

When a switch falls outside the straight-switch conditions — a bigger top-up, an amortization extension, or cash-out equity — the new lender qualifies you the same way any new insured mortgage is qualified. CMHC's own eligibility rule caps gross debt service (GDS) at 39% and total debt service (TDS) at 44% of gross household income for insured mortgages, and the OSFI minimum qualifying rate above is the interest rate used to calculate those ratios — not your actual contract rate. A borrower whose income has dropped, or whose other debt has grown, since their last mortgage was qualified can fail this test even while making every payment on time under their existing rate.

If renewal is still months away, breaking early has its own penalty math

Everything above assumes you're renewing at term end. If you're instead considering breaking the mortgage before that date to lock in today's rate, FCAC's own prepayment guidance is worth reading first: a penalty applies whenever you pay more than your annual prepayment-privilege allowance, break the contract, transfer to another lender before term end, or pay off the mortgage early — open mortgages are the exception, prepayable without penalty at any time. FCAC's own recommended sequence is to use your full annual prepayment privilege first, weigh waiting until term end if the penalty would be large, ask your current lender about porting the mortgage to a new property instead of breaking it outright, and shop both lenders and brokers before renewal rather than accepting the first offer your existing lender sends. None of that changes the requalification math above — it only changes whether you pay a penalty to get there early.