Mortgage Rate History in Canada: Posted and Average Rates by Year

This page tracks Canadian mortgage rates over time using Bank of Canada data: the posted 1-, 3- and 5-year rates the big banks advertise (weekly, from 1975 for the 5-year term), and the average rates chartered banks charged on the mortgages they funded, including renewals and refinancing (monthly, from 2013). For the hub’s other guides, start at Canadian mortgage rates.

Two kinds of rate appear below, and they answer different questions:

• Posted rates. The Bank of Canada’s weekly table of chartered-bank rates says: “All rates presented in this table are the most typical of those offered by the six major chartered banks.” Posted rates are the Bank of Canada mortgage series that runs back to the 1970s, so they carry the long history. They are not an average of what borrowers sign; the 5-year fixed rates guide covers how posted and offered rates differ.
• Rates on funded mortgages. A separate Bank of Canada series, “Interest rates charged for new and existing lending by chartered banks - Mortgages”, reports the average rate on the mortgage funds the chartered banks advanced each month, for insured and uninsured loans. The Bank’s notes say: “Funds advanced represents the cumulative total of new credit extended, new draws on existing credit facilities, mortgage or term-loan renewals and refinancing for a given month.” So these averages include renewals and refinancing, not only new borrowers.

Mortgage rates today

Sources: Bank of Canada Valet API: posted rates (series V80691333, V80691334, V80691335), rates on mortgage funds advanced, including renewals and refinancing (V122667776, V122667780, V122667782, V122667786), prime (V80691311) and the target for the overnight rate (V39079).

In July 2026 the posted 5-year rate was 6.09%, 1.60 percentage points above the average rate on uninsured fixed-rate mortgages of 5 years or longer that chartered banks funded. The posted rate used to anchor the mortgage stress test: from October 17, 2016, Finance Canada required high-ratio insured buyers to qualify at the greater of their contract rate or the Bank of Canada’s conventional five-year fixed posted rate. OSFI’s revised minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages took effect on June 1, 2021. Today: 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.

Posted mortgage rates by year

Year-end posted rates for the 1-, 3- and 5-year fixed terms, taken as the last weekly value of each year. The 1-year and 3-year series start later than the 5-year, and “n/a” marks years before they begin.

Source: Bank of Canada Valet API, series V80691333 (1-year), V80691334 (3-year) and V80691335 (5-year). The latest year shows the value as of September 30, 2026.

The 5-year fixed rate

Within the weekly data, the posted 5-year rate’s high was 21.75%, posted from August 1981 to October 1981. Its low was 4.64%, posted at points between April 2015 and July 2017. Year-end values can miss short-lived extremes, which is why the table’s 1981 figure is lower than the peak.

In the most recent cycle, the posted 5-year rate sat at 4.79% from August 2020 to April 2022, then rose to 7.04% from October 2023 to January 2024. Fixed rates are generally benchmarked off 5-year Government of Canada bond yields, while the Bank of Canada policy rate is the base for prime and so for variable rates; the page on how bond yields affect mortgage rates explains the link.

1-year vs. 3-year vs. 5-year

At every year-end from 1980 to 2021 except 1989 and 1990, when terms tied, the 1-year term had the lowest posted rate. That flipped at the end of 2022, when the 3-Year term was lowest, and at the ends of 2023 and 2024, when the 5-Year term was. Longer terms can price lower when markets expect policy rates to fall, since those expectations also influence long-term yields; the bond yields guide covers why the yield curve does this.

Rates on funded mortgages since 2013

The Bank of Canada’s monthly series on the mortgage funds chartered banks advanced shows the average rate on that lending, which includes renewals and refinancing as well as new loans. December of each year, uninsured mortgages, with the year-end prime rate for comparison:

Source: Bank of Canada Valet API, series V80691311 (prime, last weekly value of the year) and V122667782 and V122667786 (uninsured mortgages, funds advanced, December). The latest month, July 2026, is in the table at the top of the page.

Variable mortgage rates are often set relative to lenders’ prime rates, which helps explain why those two columns move together; the prime rate guide has prime’s full history. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada notes: “Typically, a variable interest rate is lower than a fixed interest rate for a similar term.” The table shows the exceptions, Decembers when the uninsured variable average was above the fixed one: 2016, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024. In December 2022 uninsured variable-rate mortgages averaged 6.14% against 5.22% fixed, and in December 2023 6.92% against 5.96%. The fixed vs. variable mortgage guide covers the choice itself, and variable mortgage rates covers how lenders price them.

Key periods in Canadian mortgage rate history

1981: the peak

All three posted fixed rates peaked in the same weeks: the 5-year at 21.75%, the 3-year at 21.50% and the 1-year at 21.25%, from August 1981. The prime rate reached 22.75%, and the Bank of Canada’s Bank Rate stood at 21.03% in its monthly series for August 1981. Consumer prices rose 12.5% that year (Statistics Canada CPI, annual average).

1991 to 2015: the long decline

In 1991 the Bank of Canada and the Government of Canada adopted an inflation-control target, which today aims to keep inflation at the 2 per cent midpoint of a 1 to 3 per cent range. The posted 5-year rate ended 1990 at 12.50% and reached its record low of 4.64% in April 2015.

2009 and 2020: emergency lows

The Bank of Canada cut its policy rate to 0.25% in April 2009, and the prime rate fell to 2.25%, its lowest in the series, where it stayed until May 2010. In March 2020 the Bank cut to 0.25% again, and prime dropped to 2.45%. Uninsured fixed-rate mortgages of 5 years or longer that chartered banks funded averaged 1.97% in December 2020, and uninsured variable-rate mortgages 1.48% in December 2021.

2022 to 2023: the rise

From March 2022 to July 2023, the Bank of Canada raised its policy rate from 0.25% to 5.00%. Prime rose to 7.20% and the posted 5-year rate to 7.04%. The average rate on uninsured variable-rate mortgages went from 1.48% in December 2021 to 6.92% in December 2023. For variable-rate mortgages with fixed payments, rising rates bring the trigger rate into play.

2024 to 2025: the cuts

The Bank of Canada began cutting in June 2024 and reached 2.25% in October 2025, 2.75 percentage points below the peak. The posted 5-year rate fell less, from 7.04% to 6.09% (as of September 30, 2026). The Bank of Canada rate history lists every rate change since 2009, the policy rate guide gives the next announcement date, and interest rate forecasts collects what forecasters expect next.

Are today’s rates high by historical standards?

It depends on the yardstick:

• Against the long record, no. The posted 5-year rate of 6.09% (as of September 30, 2026) is 15.66 percentage points below the August 1981 peak, and every year-end from 1975 to 1990 in the table above is higher than today’s rate.
• Against the 2010s, yes. It is 1.45 percentage points above the record low of 4.64%.
• For a borrower renewing, it depends on the starting rate. Uninsured fixed-rate mortgages of 5 years or longer that chartered banks funded averaged 4.49% in July 2026, 2.52 percentage points above the December 2020 average and 1.47 percentage points below the December 2023 average.

A $400,000 balance with 25 years left costs $1,694 a month at 2% and $2,214 at 4.5%, a difference of $520 a month. The mortgage renewal calculator runs the numbers for a real balance, and why your mortgage payment is going up covers renewal payment changes.

Rates are one half of affordability; home prices are the other. Housing affordability in Canada tracks both together.

Related calculators

• Mortgage calculator: monthly payments at any rate
• Mortgage affordability calculator: how much you can borrow at current rates
• Mortgage refinance calculator: whether refinancing at today’s rates saves money
• Mortgage renewal calculator: renewal options at current rates