Mortgage rates in Canada

Posted rates are the banks’ sticker prices — the Bank of Canada’s conventional 5-year posted benchmark sits well above what any negotiating borrower actually pays. Banks discount from posted (the "special offer" rate), and brokers and monolines undercut that again. The catch: the posted rate isn’t harmless. Big banks calculate fixed-rate IRD penalties from posted-minus-your-discount, which is how a $450,000 mortgage can owe a five-figure penalty. Our penalty calculator shows that math.

Not the one you’ll pay. Federally regulated lenders test your income at the greater of your contract rate plus 2% or 5.25% — so a 4.4% offer is qualified at 6.4%. Since November 21, 2024, uninsured straight switches at renewal (same amount, same amortization) are exempt. The stress-test calculator shows your hurdle, and the affordability calculator turns it into a maximum price.

A mortgage with less than 20% down must carry default insurance (CMHC or private), which transfers the default risk off the lender — so lenders price insured ("high-ratio") mortgages lower than uninsured ones, often by 0.1–0.3 points. You pay for it differently: the insurance premium (2.8%–4.0% of the loan at high ratios) is added to your mortgage. Above $1.5 million, insurance isn’t available at all, so jumbo borrowers always pay uninsured pricing.

The honest answer is nobody knows the path of rates — but the structure is knowable. Variables float on prime (currently 4.45%) and win if the Bank of Canada cuts; their break penalty is capped at three months’ interest. Fixed rates price the bond market’s forecast and win if rates rise or hold; their IRD break penalties can be brutal. Shorter fixed terms (3-yr) have become the popular hedge between the two. What matters more than the prediction: the cost of being wrong.

The benchmark rates are pulled from the Bank of Canada’s official Valet API at every site build — they update automatically when the BoC publishes (weekly for posted rates, immediately after announcements for the policy rate). Lender specials are a hybrid: monolines and digital lenders (First National, Nesto, Tangerine, DUCA, National Bank) are scraped from their own pages every morning with sanity gates that reject any suspicious number; the big banks’ pages can’t be read by machine, so those rows are verified by hand and re-checked after every Bank of Canada announcement. Posted and special rates change without notice — always confirm on the lender’s page before locking.