CMHC Insurance Calculator — Calculate Your Mortgage Insurance Cost — Canada 2026

CMHC Calculator

How This Calculator Works

This calculator uses the standard reducing balance method to compute your monthly payments. The formula takes your loan principal, annual interest rate, and tenure to calculate the exact Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) or payment amount. Each monthly payment consists of two components — principal repayment and interest charges. In the early months, a larger portion goes toward interest, but as your outstanding balance decreases, more of each payment reduces the principal. This is why making extra prepayments in the early years of your loan saves significantly more interest than prepaying later.

Tips to Get the Best Loan Deal

Always compare the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) rather than just the advertised interest rate, as APR includes processing fees, insurance charges, and other costs. Negotiate your processing fee — most banks will reduce or waive it if you ask. Choose the shortest tenure your budget allows since longer tenures dramatically increase total interest paid. Check prepayment terms before signing — RBI mandates zero prepayment penalty on floating rate home loans in India. Finally, maintain a credit score above 750 to qualify for the best rates from any lender.

2026 CMHC Premium Rates by Loan-to-Value

CMHC prices mortgage default insurance on a six-tier schedule tied to loan-to-value (LTV), and the two private insurers — Sagen and Canada Guaranty — publish identical standard rates. As of mid-2026: LTV up to 65% costs 0.60% of the loan; 65.01–75% costs 1.70%; 75.01–80% costs 2.40%; 80.01–85% costs 2.80%; 85.01–90% costs 3.10%; and 90.01–95% — the classic 5%-down purchase — costs 4.00%. The premium is calculated on the mortgage amount, not the purchase price, and virtually every borrower capitalizes it: the premium is added to the loan and amortized, so you pay interest on it for up to 25 or 30 years. Minimum down payments interact with these tiers: 5% on the first $500,000 of price and 10% on the portion between $500,000 and $1,499,999. On a $700,000 home the legal minimum is $45,000 (5% of $500,000 plus 10% of $200,000), producing a 93.6% LTV and the full 4.00% rate — a $26,200 premium on a $655,000 loan. Nudging the down payment to $70,000 (10%) drops you into the 3.10% tier and cuts the premium to $19,530: the extra $25,000 down saves $6,670 in premium instantly, before counting any interest savings.

Worked Example: $700,000 Purchase, 10% Down, in Ontario

Purchase price $700,000; down payment $70,000 (10%); base mortgage $630,000; LTV exactly 90%, so the 3.10% tier applies. Premium: $630,000 × 3.10% = $19,530. Capitalized, the total mortgage becomes $649,530. Ontario charges 8% provincial sales tax on insurance premiums: $19,530 × 8% = $1,562, and unlike the premium itself this cannot be rolled into the mortgage — it is due in cash on closing day alongside land transfer tax and legal fees. Payment impact: at an illustrative 4.5% five-year fixed rate (Canadian mortgages compound semi-annually, and rates move with bond yields and Bank of Canada policy, so treat mid-2026 quotes as a moving target), a 25-year amortization on $649,530 costs about $3,595 per month, of which roughly $108 per month traces back to the capitalized premium. Over the full 25 years, the $19,530 premium ends up costing about $32,400 including interest. If the same buyer is a first-time buyer choosing a 30-year insured amortization, add the 0.20% surcharge — the premium rises to 3.30%, or $20,790 — and the monthly payment drops to roughly $3,280. The trade-off is stark: five extra years of amortization adds roughly $100,000 of interest over the life of the loan at that rate.

PST at Closing and the 30-Year Amortization Surcharge

Four provinces tax default-insurance premiums, and the tax is always cash at closing: Ontario 8%, Quebec 9%, Manitoba 7% and Saskatchewan 6%. On a $19,530 premium that means $1,562 in Ontario, $1,758 in Quebec, $1,367 in Manitoba and $1,172 in Saskatchewan — British Columbia, Alberta and the Atlantic provinces charge nothing. Budget for it: buyers fixate on the down payment and then get surprised by a four-figure tax their lender will not finance. The second surcharge is newer. Ottawa allowed 30-year insured amortizations for first-time buyers of new builds in August 2024, then expanded them in December 2024 to all first-time buyers and all new-build purchases; the insurers charge a 0.20-percentage-point premium surcharge on any insured amortization beyond 25 years. On a $630,000 loan, choosing 30 years lifts the premium from 3.10% to 3.30% ($19,530 to $20,790). Two more pricing rules worth knowing: a non-traditional (borrowed) down payment at 90.01–95% LTV is priced at 4.50% instead of 4.00%, and premium portability lets you transfer an existing policy to a new home and pay premium only on the top-up amount — worth checking before you pay a full premium twice within a few years.

The $1.5 Million Insured Cap and Down-Payment Rules

Since December 15, 2024, the insured purchase-price ceiling is $1,499,999 — raised from the $1 million cap that had stood since 2012. At or above $1.5 million, default insurance is unavailable and a 20% down payment is mandatory, full stop. Below the cap, the minimum down payment is 5% of the first $500,000 plus 10% of everything between $500,000 and $1,499,999. That change opened insured buying in Toronto and Vancouver price brackets that were previously cash-heavy: a $1.2 million purchase now needs $95,000 down ($25,000 + $70,000) instead of $240,000 — though the buyer pays the 4.00% tier on the $1,105,000 loan, a $44,200 premium, plus PST on that premium in the four taxing provinces. Insured borrowers must also pass the minimum qualifying rate: you qualify at the greater of your contract rate plus 2 percentage points or the regulatory floor (5.25% since 2021; the federal government reviews it annually each December, so confirm the current floor before locking a pre-approval). One quirk that surprises buyers: unlike US private mortgage insurance, Canadian default insurance is a one-time premium that never falls off — there is nothing to cancel at 80% LTV, because you already paid for the whole policy up front.