CMHC Insurance Calculator

On October 29, 2026, CMHC mortgage insurance on a $700,000 purchase with 10% down costs $19,530, a 3.10% premium applied to the $630,000 loan. That is the single most useful way to think about CMHC premiums: a percentage of the loan, set by your loan-to-value ratio, and usually added to the mortgage itself. This CMHC insurance calculator page shows the premium math on your own numbers.

CMHC Premiums By Down Payment

The table below is the full CMHC homeowner premium schedule, expressed as a percentage of the loan amount. The bands follow your loan-to-value ratio, which is the loan divided by the purchase price. A smaller down payment pushes you into a higher band and a larger premium.

Two bands deserve attention. The jump from 85.01-90% to 90.01-95% is the steepest on the schedule, 3.10% to 4.00%, so an extra percentage point of down payment can drop the premium by close to a point on the whole loan. And a non-traditional down payment in the top band carries 4.50% rather than 4.00%, half a point more on the whole loan.

The premium itself can be added to the mortgage, so most borrowers finance it. Provincial sales tax on the premium cannot be. In Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan, PST on the premium is payable up front, in cash, at closing. The PST rate varies by province and is not published on the CMHC premium page, so budget for it as a separate closing cost rather than a financed one.

How Much Is CMHC Insurance On A Real Price

To calculate CMHC insurance on a real file, take the national average price from CREA's October 16, 2026 release, $666,538, or a rounder $700,000, and run both common down payment scenarios. The table below shows the math end to end.

Note on the third row: a 30-year insured amortization is only available to first-time buyers and buyers of new builds, so it does not apply to every file.

Read the second row carefully, because the minimum down payment is not 5% of the whole price above $500,000. It is 5% on the first $500,000 plus 10% on the portion from $500,000 up to $1.5 million. On $700,000 that is $25,000 plus $20,000, or $45,000. Stretching from $45,000 to $70,000 down moves the LTV from 93.57% to 90%, cuts the premium rate from 4.00% to 3.10%, and saves $6,670 in premium. It also shrinks the loan, which lowers the payment at any given rate.

Insured files often price better than uninsured ones, which is why an insured quote can beat an uninsured quote even after the premium. On the board, one borrower reported a BMO renewal letter on October 13, 2026 offering a 5-year variable at 3.58% on an insured mortgage, described as an insured renewal offer. That row was quoted when prime was 4.45%, before the October 28 hike took prime to 4.70%, so the effective payment rate on that discount today would be higher. When you compare offers, ask a licensed mortgage broker to price your file both ways, insured and uninsured, at your actual down payment, because the premium and the rate cut in opposite directions. You can request cheaper rates and ask specifically for an insured-versus-uninsured comparison at your down payment level.

The Minimum Down Payment Rule

Since December 15, 2024, the insured price cap is $1.5 million, and the tiered minimum applies across that whole range: 5% on the first $500,000 and 10% on the portion from $500,000 to $1.5 million. At $1.5 million or more a purchase cannot be insured at all, so it needs 20% down and no premium.

Insurance is mandatory at federally regulated lenders whenever the down payment is under 20%. Whether insuring is better or worse for your specific file is a longer question, and the insured or uninsured mortgage explainer covers it in detail. This page sticks to the numbers.

One more rule matters at qualification: insured mortgages must pass the stress test at the higher of the contract rate plus 2 points or 5.25%, and CMHC caps GDS at 39% and TDS at 44%. Those caps apply to insured files only; uninsured limits are each lender's own and are not published. If you want to sense-check what income a given loan needs, the income for a $400,000 mortgage walkthrough shows the math.

30-Year Amortization And The 0.20 Surcharge

Since December 15, 2024, insured mortgages can stretch to a 30-year amortization for all first-time buyers and all buyers of new builds. CMHC charges 0.20 percentage points extra on the premium for any amortization over 25 years, so the 90.01-95% band goes from 4.00% to 4.20%. On the $655,000 loan above, that is $27,510 instead of $26,200, an extra $1,310 financed into the mortgage.

The trade is payment versus premium. Take a $600,000 loan at an example rate of 4.10%, not an actual quote: the payment table shows $3,188.73 per month over 25 years and $2,887.16 over 30, a difference of $301.57 every month. Whether that monthly relief is worth the surcharge plus five extra years of interest depends on your budget; the calculator above lets you run both amortizations side by side.

Payments themselves move with rates, and rates just moved. Prime rose from 4.45% to 4.70% on October 29 after the Bank of Canada hiked its policy rate to 2.50% on October 28, which lifts every variable payment the next cycle. The prime rate page tracks the change, and the rate board shows what borrowers are actually being quoted this week across fixed and variable terms.

Ready to see real numbers on your own file? Request cheaper rates and ask the broker to price your purchase at two down payment levels, so you can see the premium, the rate and the payment change together before you commit to a number.

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