For an $800,000 home, this page sets the payment you qualify on beside the payment you’d actually make.
Household income needed
Down payment
CMHC insurance premium
Mortgage (with premium)
Qualifying (stress test) rate
Payment at the qualifying rate
Actual payment at your rate
Income needed
| Down payment | CMHC premium | Payment at the qualifying rate | Income needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum: $55,000 | $29,800 | $4,962 | $177,800 |
| 10%: $80,000 | $22,320 | $4,754 | $171,400 |
| 20%: $160,000 | None | $4,229 | $155,200 |
With the minimum $55,000 down, qualifying takes about $177,800 a year; with 20% down, about $155,200.
Qualifying payment versus actual payment
At the 6.01% stress-test rate the payment is $4,962 a month; at the 4.01% contract rate it’s $4,080. Lenders use the first to set the income you need, so the income is higher than your real payment alone would suggest.
Related pages
Sources
The figures and rules on this page come from these sources, last checked against them between September 24, 2026 and September 25, 2026. How we check facts.
- Bank of Canada: Data table
- CMHC: Calculating GDS / TDS
- CMHC: CMHC Purchase
- CMHC: Home Start
- CMHC: CMHC Improvement
- Department of Finance Canada: Technical backgrounder mortgage insurance rules income proposals revised october 14 2016
- Department of Finance Canada: Government announces boldest mortgage reforms in decades to unlock homeownership for more canadians
- Department of Finance Canada: Straight switches and portfolio insurance
- Department of Finance Canada: Boldest mortgage reforms in decades come into force today
- Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: Down payment
- Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: Buying home
- OSFI: Minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages
4 more sources
- OSFI: Final Revised Guideline B-20: Residential Mortgage Underwriting Practices and Procedures
- OSFI: Amendments to the minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages
- OSFI: OSFI exempts uninsured mortgage straight switches from the prescribed MQR andβ¦
- OSFI: Loan-to-income limits for uninsured mortgage portfolios