30-Year Amortization Rules in Canada: Who Qualifies for an Insured 30-Year Mortgage

An insured mortgage (one with less than 20% down) can now be amortized over up to 30 years if at least one borrower is a first-time home buyer or the home is newly built. Every other insured purchase is still limited to 25 years. This page covers who qualifies for the longer amortization when buying a home. For stretching the amortization on a mortgage you already have, see extending your amortization at renewal, and for the payment and interest trade-off, see the 25 vs 30-year amortization comparison. It is one of the amortization guides in our mortgage types hub.

How the rules changed

The 30-year insured amortization arrived in two steps:

The same December 15, 2024 package raised the price cap for insured mortgages to $1.5 million. The federal government said the longer amortization would “reduce the cost of monthly mortgage payments so that more Canadians can afford a mortgage as they start their career.” The new mortgage rules roundup covers the other changes made at the same time.

Who qualifies for a 30-year insured amortization

The limit is set in the federal Eligible Mortgage Loan Regulations, which allow an insured purchase loan to be amortized over more than 25 years, up to 30, “if any of the borrowers is a first-time home buyer or if the eligible residential property against which the loan is secured is newly built.” CMHC offers it through its Home Start program, which is for high-ratio loans (more than 80% loan-to-value). The home still has to meet the other insured-mortgage rules, including a purchase price below $1.5 million and owner occupancy; the CMHC mortgage rules cover those.

One first-time buyer on the application is enough. With 20% or more down, the mortgage doesn’t need default insurance and these limits don’t apply: the lender sets the amortization, and some lenders go beyond 30 years (see extended amortizations). How insured, insurable and uninsurable mortgages differ is covered in insured vs uninsured mortgages.

Who counts as a first-time buyer

For Home Start, CMHC counts a borrower as a first-time homebuyer if, at the time of closing, they:

• have never purchased a home in Canada; or
• have not, in the current calendar year or the four preceding calendar years, lived as their principal residence in a home in Canada that they or their current spouse or common-law partner owned or jointly owned; or
• have been living separate and apart from their spouse or common-law partner for at least 90 days because the relationship broke down, and the separation began in the current calendar year or the four preceding calendar years.

The tests look at ownership history, not citizenship: Home Start also covers non-permanent residents who are legally authorized to work in Canada. Other first-time buyer programs, such as the Home Buyers’ Plan and FHSA, use their own definitions.

What counts as newly built

CMHC treats a home as newly built if it has not previously been occupied for residential purposes. For a condominium unit, a buyer who moved in on an interim basis before the condominium was registered, or before taking possession, doesn’t stop the unit from counting as newly built. A resale home is not newly built, however recently it was finished.

What the longer amortization costs

On a $500,000 mortgage at 4.5%, a 30-year amortization changes the monthly payment from $2,767 to $2,521, and total interest over the full amortization from $330,209 to $407,588. The 25 vs 30-year amortization comparison works through other loan sizes, equity build-up, qualifying power and paying a 30-year mortgage down on a 25-year schedule.

The insurance premium changes too. CMHC’s Home Start premiums add 0.20 percentage points to its standard 25-year rate at each loan-to-value band, so the same down payment costs more to insure over 30 years. The CMHC insurance calculator works out the premium for a given price and down payment.

The longer amortization doesn’t change the stress test. Lenders check that you could afford the payments at the greater of your contract rate plus 2% or 5.25%, a floor set by OSFI for uninsured mortgages and by the federal government's mortgage insurance rules (the Minister of Finance's Eligible Mortgage Loan Regulations) for insured ones. A smaller payment at that qualifying rate is what lets a 30-year amortization support a larger loan; the stress test guide explains how it is applied.

Which lenders offer it

The amortization limits come from the federal rules for insured mortgages, so the 30-year option is a feature of insured lending rather than one lender’s product. What varies is who writes insured mortgages and how long an amortization each lender allows on an uninsured mortgage:

Confirm the maximum amortization with the lender before relying on it; a mortgage broker can compare several lenders at once.

Related resources

• 25 vs 30 Year Amortization
• Mortgage Term vs Amortization
• Mortgage Amortization Extension
• CMHC Mortgage Rules
• What Is CMHC Insurance?
• Mortgage Amortization Calculator