Mortgage Rates Ontario After The October 28 Hike

Three-year fixed offers ran from 3.90% to 4.89% across the whole board in October, with five-year fixed anywhere from 3.99% to 4.79% over the month and 4.24% to 4.69% among the rows shown from October 21 to 28, and five-year variables quoted as low as prime minus 1.10, according to dated offers reported on the rate board. The Bank of Canada raised its policy rate to 2.50% on October 28, 2026, and every big bank moved prime from 4.45% to 4.70% effective October 29. Banks had already lifted advertised fixed rates by about 5 to 20 basis points across various terms in October, so variable payments are where the hike itself lands immediately.

Mortgage Rates Ontario Buyers Can Compare After The Hike

The board collects dated offers from borrowers across Canada; the rows are national and do not carry a province tag. These rows landed in the two weeks around the October 28 decision. Note that most variable quotes below were priced against the old 4.45% prime, so a prime-minus-1.10 quote at 3.35% becomes 3.60% now if the discount holds and the file re-prices.

The spread on nearly identical three-year fixed terms is striking. TD offered 4.89% on a renewal while RBC offered 4.44% the same day, a gap of 0.45 points. On a $500,000 mortgage over 25 years that is the difference between $2,876.79 and $2,750.71 a month, or $126.08. If your renewal letter sits at the top of that range, request cheaper rates and ask a licensed mortgage broker to price a three-year fixed switch against your current lender's offer.

Best Mortgage Rates In Ontario Start With Insured Or Uninsured

The cheapest advertised rates around October 28 were insured ones: aggregators showed five-year fixed around 4.34% to 4.59% insured, with uninsured roughly 4.5% to 5.14%. The board reflects the same pattern. What pushes most Ontario purchases into uninsured pricing is the down payment, not the price cap. The insured cap has been $1.5 million since December 15, 2024, and both the GTA average of $1,006,409 and the Ontario average of $791,691 sit below it, so an average GTA purchase can be insured as long as the buyer puts under 20% down. With 20% or more down, the file is uninsured and priced accordingly.

Two things follow from that. First, insured files qualify under CMHC limits of 39% GDS and 44% TDS; uninsured files are underwritten to each lender's own limits, which are not published. Second, both insured and uninsured purchases still face the stress test at the higher of the contract rate plus 2 points or 5.25%, though a straight uninsured switch at renewal is exempt from the re-qualification rate at federally regulated lenders since November 2024. The insured or uninsured guide works through the tradeoffs.

Ontario buyers should also budget the PST on any CMHC premium, which is charged up front in Ontario and cannot be added to the loan.

Ontario Land Transfer Tax On A Purchase

Ontario charges land transfer tax on a sliding scale: 0.5% to $55,000, 1% from $55,001 to $250,000, 1.5% from $250,001 to $400,000, and 2% above $400,000, with an extra 0.5% above $2 million on one and two single-family residences. The provincial average price in September 2026 was $791,691, down 4.3% year over year, so a typical Ontario purchase lands well into the 2% bracket.

This cash cost sits on top of the down payment and can shape how much a buyer puts down, which in turn decides insured versus uninsured pricing.

Toronto Buyers Pay Two Land Transfer Taxes

A purchase inside the City of Toronto pays the Ontario tax and the municipal MLTT. Toronto's brackets match the province up to $2 million, then climb steeply: 2.5% from $2 million to $3 million, 4.4% to $4 million, 5.45% to $5 million, 6.5% to $10 million, 7.55% to $20 million and 8.6% above that, effective for the higher brackets from April 1, 2026.

The $1,006,409 row is not arbitrary. That was the TRREB average Greater Toronto selling price in September 2026, down 5.1% year over year. A buyer paying the average GTA price inside Toronto proper faces $33,206 in combined transfer taxes before legal fees, or $24,731 as a first-time buyer after both rebates.

What A Toronto Average Home Costs To Finance

At the TRREB average of $1,006,409, an insured purchase is possible since the cap is $1.5 million: 5% down on the first $500,000 and 10% on the remainder. Most buyers at that price put 20% down to avoid the premium, which means a mortgage near $805,127 and uninsured pricing. To keep the math on the payment table, the figures below use round loan amounts at board-typical rates.

The 4.84% five-year fixed row is not a board row: it is the advertised BMO and CIBC special that aggregators listed around October 28, included here for comparison with the borrower-reported offers above. The 30-year column is not hypothetical for everyone: first-time buyers and buyers of new builds can use 30-year amortization on insured mortgages, a policy in place since December 15, 2024, though the insurer premium rises 0.20 points. The payment formula guide shows how semi-annual compounding produces these numbers.

Mortgage Rates Toronto Buyers Should Compare

Toronto's City benchmark price was $908,200 in September, down 3.8% year over year, while the GTA composite benchmark was $917,600. Rows on the national board show the same 4.44% three-year fixed appearing at RBC and BMO on October 28, and a Scotiabank 4.64% three-year fixed quote on a purchase with 25% down on October 27. Whether you are inside the 416 or beyond it, comparing mortgage rates side by side is the whole game; a single lender's first number is rarely the floor.

First-Time Buyer Refunds In Ontario

Ontario refunds up to $4,000 of the provincial land transfer tax to eligible first-time buyers, and Toronto rebates up to $4,475 of the MLTT. On a $500,000 purchase inside Toronto, both refunds cut the combined bill from $12,950 to $4,475. Federal help stacks separately: the FHSA allows $8,000 a year to a $40,000 lifetime, the RRSP Home Buyers' Plan allows up to $60,000 per person, and the First-time Home Buyers' Tax Credit is worth up to $1,500. The shared-equity First-Time Home Buyer Incentive closed to new applications after March 21, 2024, so it should not be part of a 2026 plan. The first-time buyer page lists what is actually available.

Renewing After The Prime Move

Prime at 4.70% raises variable payments immediately, and the overnight rate may not be done: BMO expects another 25 basis point hike in January 2027, Desjardins expects one more with data-dependent timing, and CIBC sees one more but not above 2.75%. Those are bank and economist calls, not the site's. Fixed rates, meanwhile, already priced in much of this: the five-year government bond yield climbed from about 3.16% in July to 3.69% by late September before easing to 3.57% on October 27, which is why banks nudged advertised fixed rates up 5 to 20 basis points in October before the hike landed. Details are in the October 28 policy rate guide and on the prime rate page.

Renewal offers on the board still range widely, from a 4.24% five-year fixed renewal reported October 21 to TD's 4.89% three-year on October 28. The Bank of Canada has noted that the last big cohort of pandemic-era fixed mortgages renews over the 12 months to mid-2027 with average payment increases of about 15%, though those figures predate the hike. Federally regulated lenders must send your renewal statement at least 21 days before term ends, and many let you hold a rate about 120 days early, which one October 26 board row shows at Scotiabank with a 4.6% three-year hold. If your letter arrives near the top of the board's range, request cheaper rates and have a licensed mortgage broker price an uninsured switch against your renewal offer, since a straight switch skips the stress test re-qualification. More on timing is in the renewal rates rundown, and if you are weighing a variable against locking in, the lock-in analysis covers the post-hike math.

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