What is the minimum down payment on an $800,000 home in Canada?

$55,000 — 5% of the first $500,000 ($25,000) plus 10% of the remaining $300,000 ($30,000). That works out to 6.875% of the price.

Can I buy a $1.5 million home with less than 20% down?

No. Mortgage default insurance is not available at $1,500,000 or more, and lenders cannot issue an uninsured mortgage above 80% loan-to-value, so 20% down is the floor at that price.

Does the CMHC premium come out of my down payment?

No. The premium is normally added to your mortgage principal and amortized. What does come out of pocket is the provincial sales tax on the premium in Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which cannot be financed.

Minimum down payment in Canada, by price

The 5% / 10% / 20% tiers explained, what the minimum actually is at every price point, and what the CMHC premium adds to your mortgage.

Updated August 2026

Canada's minimum down payment is not one percentage — it is a tiered calculation that changes as the price crosses two thresholds:

5% on the first $500,000 of the purchase price
10% on the portion between $500,000 and $1,500,000
20% at $1,500,000 and above, where mortgage default insurance is not available at all

That means the effective minimum percentage creeps upward through the middle of the market. Here is what it comes to in practice, with the insurance premium that applies at exactly the minimum:

Purchase price	Minimum down	As a percent	Premium at that level
$400,000	$20,000	5.00%	4.00% of the loan
$500,000	$25,000	5.00%	4.00% of the loan
$650,000	$40,000	6.15%	4.00% of the loan
$800,000	$55,000	6.88%	4.00% of the loan
$1,000,000	$75,000	7.50%	4.00% of the loan
$1,500,000	$300,000	20.00%	None

What the premium does to your mortgage

Below 20% down, default insurance is mandatory. The premium is a one-time charge — 4.00% of the loan at 5%–9.99% down, 3.10% at 10%–14.99%, 2.80% at 15%–19.99% — and it is normally added to your principal, so you borrow it and pay interest on it for the life of the mortgage. It is not a monthly line item the way US PMI is, and it never falls off.

One cost is genuinely out of pocket: provincial sales tax on the premium in Ontario (8%), Quebec (9.975%), Manitoba (7%) and Saskatchewan (6%). That has to be paid in cash at closing.

Two limits worth knowing before you shop

Insured amortization caps at 25 years, or 30 years if you are a first-time buyer or buying a newly built home. There is a checkbox for that below.
You still have to pass the stress test. Approval is based on the higher of your rate plus 2% or 5.25% — the calculator shows that payment next to your real one.

The scenario below is set at a $700,000 Ontario home with the minimum down. Try the "Use the minimum" fix, then compare it against 20% down.

Where you are buying

Country

Province

Property type

Using Ontario averages: 1.05% property tax and $1,300 a year insurance per $300k of cover. Both are editable below.

The home

Home price

$100k $2M

Down payment & amortization

Down payment

Minimum here: $45,000 (6.4%) — 5% of the first $500k, 10% above it.

Amortization

First-time buyer or newly built home Allows 30-year amortization with less than 20% down.

Your rate

Credit score range

Interest rate

Your quote

Enter your own

Canadian rates are quoted for the term you lock, not the amortization, and are compounded semi-annually. Live from Bank of Canada (Valet API), where the chartered bank posted 5-year rate is 6.09% — the posted rate is not what borrowers actually pay.

Rate data is 31 days old — it may have moved. Check the source before relying on it.

Property tax

1.05% of price a year · $613 per payment

Home insurance

$202 per payment

Condo fees

$0 per payment

Monthly condo or maintenance fee — not part of the mortgage, but part of what you pay.

Payment options Monthly

Payment frequency

Extra per payment

Voluntary principal on top of every scheduled payment.

Total monthly payment

$4,506 /mo

$3,691 principal & interest plus $815 taxes, insurance and fees

Loan amount: $681,200
Paid off: Sep 2051
Total interest: $426.1K

A dated roadmap from these numbers — on screen or as a 2-page PDF.

Principal & interest $3,691
Property tax $613
Home insurance $202
Total per month $4,506

CMHC premium of $26,200 (4% of the loan) is added to your principal and amortized — it is not a monthly line. 8% provincial tax on the premium ($2,096) is due in cash at closing.

Cash needed up front $57,596

Down payment (6.4%): $45,000
Provincial tax on insurance premium: $2,096
Closing costs (estimate): $10,500

Closing costs are a rough 1.5% of price. Actual legal fees, inspections and land transfer tax vary by province.

2026

65% interest

$28,663 of interest against $15,630 off the balance.
2035

The balance tips

Year 10: equity overtakes interest, $22,902 to $21,392.
2050

Almost all yours

Interest down to $1,004, with $700,000 of equity built.
Lifetime

$426.1K

Total interest on this loan. A shorter term or bigger payments move it — priced below.

Hover or focus the chart and use the arrow keys to read any single year; every figure is also in the payment schedule.

Amortization by year: principal, interest and remaining balance.
Year	Principal	Interest	Balance
2026 year 1	$15,630	$28,663	$665,570
2027 year 2	$16,308	$27,986	$649,262
2028 year 3	$17,015	$27,279	$632,247
2029 year 4	$17,753	$26,541	$614,494
2030 year 5	$18,523	$25,771	$595,971
2031 year 6	$19,326	$24,968	$576,645
2032 year 7	$20,164	$24,130	$556,481
2033 year 8	$21,038	$23,256	$535,443
2034 year 9	$21,950	$22,343	$513,493
2035 year 10	$22,902	$21,392	$490,591

Stress test

Canadian lenders must qualify you at the higher of your rate plus 2% or the 5.25% benchmark — here that is 6.29%.

Your actual payment: $4,506/mo
Payment you must qualify at: $5,291/mo

Lenders check this second number against your income, not the first one. Most basic calculators never show it.

What you can change

Built from your numbers — every one of these is this same calculation with a single input changed. Tap to try it; nothing is saved until you change it yourself.

Put 20% down

Going from 6.4% to 20% down drops the $26,200 insurance premium off your loan and cuts your payment by $657/mo.

It needs $95,000 more at closing — saving $500/mo gets you there in 15 yrs 10 mos (around Aug 2042).

Payment down $657/moInterest saved $75.8KCash needed now $92,904
Pay three extra payments a year

Adding $923 to every payment pays this off 7 yrs 6 mos early and saves $141.4K in interest.

Same loan, same rate — the extra goes straight at the principal.

Interest saved $141.4KPaid off sooner 7 yrs 6 mos
Switch to accelerated bi-weekly

Paying half your monthly amount every two weeks is one extra monthly payment a year: 3 yrs 3 mos off the amortization and $62.8K less interest.

26 payments of $1,846 instead of 12 of $3,691 — budget-neutral if you are paid every two weeks.

Payment up $308/moInterest saved $62.8KPaid off sooner 3 yrs 3 mos
Drop to 20 years

A 20-year amortization raises your payment by $528/mo but cuts total interest by $94.8K.

Paid off in Sep 2046 instead of Sep 2051.

Payment up $528/moInterest saved $94.8KPaid off sooner 5 years
Watch for a half-point drop

At 3.79% your payment falls $185/mo and you pay $55.5K less interest overall.

Set this as your renewal watch point — a 0.5% better rate at renewal is worth chasing.

Payment down $185/moInterest saved $55.5K

The point of all this

Turn these numbers into a plan

A dated roadmap built from your scenario and the moves worth making — on screen, as a two-page PDF, and saved so you can pick it up later.

Download PDF

A personalized read on your numbers

The calculated moves below are always exact. This adds a prioritised, plain-language take on what your particular scenario calls for — written from the figures this calculator produced, not from figures the model made up.

One request, a few seconds. Nothing is stored.

Double-check this result

Run the same numbers somewhere else. Principal & interest should match to within a dollar or two; totals can differ because tools make different assumptions about insurance premiums and payment frequency.

CMHC (opens in a new tab)
The official calculator. It also compounds semi-annually, so principal & interest should match closely.
Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (opens in a new tab)
Government tool with payment frequency options — useful for double-checking accelerated bi-weekly.
Bankrate Canada (opens in a new tab)
Handy second opinion. Watch for US-style monthly compounding, which overstates a Canadian payment.

One place we are deliberately more accurate than most: Canadian fixed rates are compounded semi-annually, not monthly. Calculators that use the US formula overstate a $500,000 payment at 5% over 25 years by about $15 a month — $2,923 instead of $2,908.

Total per month $4,506

What the premium does to your mortgage

Two limits worth knowing before you shop

Stress test

Put 20% down

Pay three extra payments a year

Switch to accelerated bi-weekly

Drop to 20 years

Watch for a half-point drop

Turn these numbers into a plan

Double-check this result