Mortgage Stress Test FAQs

A rule that makes lenders check you could still afford your mortgage at a higher rate than the one you'll pay: the greater of your contract rate + 2 points or 5.25%. Your housing costs at that rate must fit the lender's GDS and TDS limits.

There's no single rate: it's your contract rate + 2 points, or 5.25% if that's higher. At the Bank of Canada's average insured 5-year rate of 4.12% it's 6.12%; at the uninsured average of 4.58% it's 6.58%.

OSFI (the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions) sets the minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages at federally regulated lenders in Guideline B-20. The federal government sets the same test for insured mortgages through its mortgage insurance rules. The Bank of Canada does not set it.

There's no announced end date. OSFI said in November 2024 that it would reconsider whether a prescribed qualifying rate is still needed once its loan-to-income limits are fully in place, and it reviews the rate at least annually. Until a change is announced, the test applies as described here.

Yes at a bank or other federally regulated lender: OSFI's B-20 applies to uninsured loans. Some provincially regulated credit unions and private lenders use their own qualifying rules for uninsured loans.

No for a renewal with your lender. No for a straight switch (same amount, same amortization) to another federally regulated lender: OSFI dropped it for uninsured loans on November 21, 2024, and insured loans are covered by the federal Mortgage Charter. Yes if you borrow more or extend the amortization, and possibly at a Quebec caisse, whose regulator has no switch exemption. Even where the exemption applies, a lender can still choose to requalify you, so ask.

Lower the price, add income (a co-borrower or co-signer), cut monthly debts, put more down, use a 30-year amortization if you're eligible, find a lower contract rate, or, for uninsured loans only, use a lender that doesn't apply the federal test. The calculator solves each lever for your numbers.

Yes, with the same formula: the variable contract rate + 2 points, or 5.25% if higher.

Yes. A new home equity line of credit at a federally regulated lender is underwritten under B-20, which caps the revolving portion at 65% of the home's value and the total at 80%.

Private lenders and mortgage investment corporations aren't federally regulated, so OSFI's B-20 doesn't apply to them. They lend on their own terms, usually at higher rates and with fees.

For insured mortgages the limits are 39% and 44% at the qualifying rate. Lower is safer; CMHC's own affordability standard is housing under 30% of before-tax income.

It's an informal lender guideline about credit history (often described as two credit accounts, each open about two years, with limits around $2,000). It isn't a regulation and lenders apply it differently; it's separate from the stress test.

Yes, if their income outweighs their own debts: lenders add their income and their debt payments to the ratios. They become fully responsible for the mortgage.

For insured mortgages and for banks, yes. For uninsured mortgages at provincially regulated credit unions, the provincial regulator's rules apply, so it can differ. See our province page.