Mortgage Rates In Alberta After The October Hike

Mortgage rates in Alberta on October 29, 2026 sit in a wide band for three-year fixed terms, with quotes on the national board between 3.90% and 4.89% across October, and variable quotes from 3.35% to 4.48% that were mostly priced against the old 4.45% prime before it rose to 4.70% today. The Bank of Canada hiked its overnight target to 2.50% on October 28, and the big banks moved prime the next morning, so every variable rate just got a quarter-point more expensive unless the discount widens.

This page pulls together what borrowers actually reported on the national board in October, sets those quotes against the advertised specials, and runs Calgary and Edmonton prices through real payment math. The board itself is national, not Alberta-specific. It is a rate board, not a lender and not a broker. For the full picture, start with the rate board.

Mortgage Rates On The National Board After The Hike

The clearest signal on the board right now is three-year fixed. On October 27 and 28, several rows clustered tightly: RBC at 4.44% described as just offered, BMO at 4.44% posted as available, and a National Bank offer at 4.59% through a broker. A B2B rate sheet from October 21 showed 4.34% on a three-year. Across the whole October board, three-year fixed rows run from 3.90%, a rate the writer said they got on October 23, to the TD renewal at 4.89% on October 28, and that 3.90% to 4.89% range holds over October 21 to 28 as well, which is roughly where the market clears on the term most people are signing.

Variable quotes tell a messier story, because almost all of them were set before prime moved. A prime minus 1.10% broker quote at 3.35% on October 28, and a Scotia five-year variable at 3.40% flagged approval ready the day before, were both quoted against 4.45% prime. With prime at 4.70%, the same discounts imply roughly 3.60% if they hold. Whether they hold is exactly the question, and the borrower usually cannot answer it alone.

Here is the range of recent quotes from the national board, with the prime caveat noted where it applies.

Two things stand out. First, the gap between the B2B broker quote and the TD renewal letter, 4.34% against 4.89%, is 55 basis points, which on a $400,000 mortgage is the difference between $2,178.45 and $2,301.44 a month, or $122.99. Second, the renewal channel and the purchase channel price differently. The TD 4.89% renewal offer and the RBC 4.40% renewal offer were both three-year fixed, both late October, both for existing customers. Sitting still at renewal is expensive.

No Land Transfer Tax In Alberta

Alberta charges no land transfer tax. Buyers pay Land Titles registration fees instead, which include a value-based component, but the province does not levy the percentage-of-price tax that Ontario, BC and Quebec do. For a rough sense of what that is worth, a buyer in Toronto paying $750,000 faces $22,950 in combined Ontario LTT and Toronto MLTT before rebates, and $14,475 even as a first-time buyer after both refunds. A buyer in Calgary or Edmonton pays none of that.

This matters when comparing mortgage rates alberta shoppers see against rates elsewhere. Two borrowers with identical income and down payment qualify for the same loan in both markets, but the Alberta buyer's cash at closing is thousands of dollars lighter, which can mean a bigger down payment or more cushion after closing. The rate is the same national product; the closing math is not.

For context on what comparable buyers pay elsewhere, see the Ontario and BC pages at mortgage rates Ontario and mortgage rates BC, where the transfer tax tables are laid out bracket by bracket.

Calgary And Edmonton Prices And Payments

September data released in October put Calgary's residential benchmark at $566,700, down about 1% year over year, and Edmonton's average selling price at $466,080, up 2.9%, with a composite benchmark of $423,100. Both cities sit well below the national average price of $666,538, and even further from Toronto's $1,006,409 average or Greater Vancouver's $1,075,900 benchmark, and the payment gap is where it shows up.

The table below runs board-quoted rates against loan sizes that match the two cities. Monthly payments use Canadian semi-annual compounding over 25 years, straight from the payment table.

Read the last two rows as a warning. On a $500,000 loan, the posted 6.19% five-year costs $3,255.72 a month against $2,723.07 at the 4.34% broker-sourced three-year fixed, a gap of $532.65, and still $307.72 more than the RBC 5.14% advertised special at $2,948.00. Posted rates also matter for penalty math later. On how payments are built, see how a Canadian mortgage payment is calculated.

A Calgary borrower weighing variable against fixed right now should ask a licensed mortgage broker to price the same $500,000 file both ways: a three-year fixed near the 3.90% to 4.89% band the board shows for October, and a variable at prime minus whatever discount is actually available today, not the discount quoted last week. You can request cheaper rates and have both numbers side by side within days.

Fixed Or Variable In Alberta After Prime Moved

Prime went from 4.45% to 4.70% effective October 29 after the overnight target rose to 2.50%, the first hike since July 2023. Every variable-rate borrower in Alberta with a floating payment just saw it increase, and every variable quote on the board dated before October 28 is now 25 basis points stale unless the discount changed too.

The board's variable quotes ran from 3.35%, the prime minus 1.10 broker quote on October 28, to 4.48%, a Scotiabank three-year variable early renewal on October 23, across the month. At 3.66%, roughly where a prime minus 1.04 discount lands now, a $500,000 loan costs $2,538.76 a month. The B2B three-year fixed quote at 4.34% costs $2,723.07 on the same loan. The fixed costs $184.31 more per month, and that difference is the price of certainty that the next Bank of Canada decision, scheduled for December 9, cannot touch it.

On the other side, the forecasts are not uniform. BMO expects another 25 basis point hike in January 2027, to 2.75%. Desjardins expects one more hike with data-dependent timing. CIBC sees likely one more and no move above 2.75%. Those are attributed views, not this desk's. The decision framework is laid out in fixed or variable after a rate hike, and the specific payment mechanics of a prime move are in what prime at 4.70% does to a variable payment.

Best Mortgage Rates Come From Shopping The File

Look again at the first table. On October 27 and 28, three-year fixed offers on the board ran from 4.32% to 4.89%, and the difference between the B2B sheet rate and the TD renewal letter on a $400,000 loan is $122.99 every month for three years. The best mortgage rates borrowers report are rarely the first number a bank volunteers; they are the second or third number produced after a competing offer exists.

A few patterns from the October rows:

• Broker-sourced quotes beat or matched bank offers on the same terms: B2B at 4.34% three-year on a rate sheet dated October 21, versus a TD 4.54% posted offer from October 9.
• Rate holds exist: a Scotia 120-day hold at 4.6% three-year and 3.6% five-year variable was posted October 26, with the variable quoted at the old prime.

None of this says any single lender is cheapest on every file. Insured versus uninsured, amortization, property type and switch-versus-purchase all move the number, and uninsured GDS and TDS limits are each lender's own, not published. The broker-versus-bank mechanics are covered in which gets you the lower rate, and the stress test you must clear, the higher of contract rate plus 2 points or 5.25%, is explained in the mortgage stress test on a new loan. On qualification, CMHC's limits for insured mortgages are 39% GDS and 44% TDS.

Renewing In Alberta

Roughly 60% of outstanding mortgages renew in 2025 or 2026 according to a Bank of Canada staff note from July 2025, and the last big cohort of pandemic-era five-year fixed terms, about 12% of outstanding mortgages, renews over the 12 months to mid-2027 with average payment increases of about 15%, per the May 2026 Financial System Review. Those figures predate the October hike. Many Alberta renewers are facing a letter at a time when fixed rates have already crept up: banks raised advertised fixed rates by about 5 to 20 basis points across terms in October, and the conventional posted five-year sits at 6.19%.

The board's renewal rows this month are instructive. An RBC renewal at 4.40% three-year and 3.75% five-year variable on October 23, a BMO insured renewal letter at 4.79% five-year fixed, 4.54% three-year and 3.58% five-year variable on October 13, and a Scotia early renewal menu on October 23 running from 4.39% two-year to 4.69% five-year, plus 3.65% five-year variable and a 4.48% three-year variable. These are all real letters, from real lenders, and the spread between the best and worst three-year offer is over 40 basis points.

Federally regulated lenders must send the renewal statement at least 21 days before term ends, and many let you hold a rate about 120 days early. A mid-page nudge that applies to most Alberta renewers: before signing anything, request cheaper rates and ask the broker to price an uninsured switch at the same balance and amortization, since switches at renewal no longer face the federal minimum qualifying rate at OSFI-regulated lenders. The timing details are in when to shop a mortgage renewal and the offers themselves in mortgage renewal rates.

What To Watch Next

The next Bank of Canada decision is December 9, 2026, with the full 2027 schedule posted for anyone planning a rate hold around announcement dates. Bond markets have already priced part of the move: the five-year GoC yield rose from about 3.16% in late July to 3.57% by October 27, which is why fixed rates climbed before the hike, not after. That dynamic is unpacked in why fixed rates rose before the Bank of Canada hiked.

For Alberta specifically, the practical takeaway is that this province's advantage is structural: no land transfer tax, benchmarks well below the national average of $666,538, and payment math that leaves room even after prime moved. The rate you are offered, though, is national. A TD renewal letter at 4.89% and a broker quote at 4.34% can coexist on the same day, and the only way to know which file you are is to have yours priced: request cheaper rates and ask specifically for a three-year fixed quote, a five-year variable at today's prime discount, and an uninsured switch price at the same balance, so the comparison is apples to apples across lenders.

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