How much is CMHC insurance on a $500,000 home with 5% down?

The premium is $19,000 — 4.00% of the $475,000 loan. That gets added to your mortgage rather than paid up front. But in Ontario you also owe 8% provincial sales tax on the premium, which is $1,520, and that must be paid in cash on closing day. It cannot be added to the mortgage.

Can CMHC insurance be added to your mortgage?

The premium itself, yes — it is capitalised into the loan and you pay it off over the amortisation. The provincial sales tax on the premium, no. In Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan that tax is due in cash at closing, and it catches people out because almost no calculator shows it.

What is the minimum down payment in Canada?

5% of the first $500,000, then 10% of the portion between $500,000 and $1,500,000. Above $1,500,000 nothing is insurable, so you need 20%. On a $700,000 home the minimum is $45,000 — 5% of the first $500,000 plus 10% of the remaining $200,000.

CMHC insurance calculator

In short 3 min read

CMHC insurance on a $500,000 home with 5% down is $19,000 — 4.00% of the $475,000 loan, added to your mortgage rather than paid up front. But in Ontario you also owe 8% sales tax on that premium, $1,520, and it must be paid in cash on closing day. It cannot be financed.

Your premium gets added to the mortgage. The provincial sales tax on that premium does not — it is cash, due on closing day, and most calculators never mention it.

Purchase price Down payment Province Only Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan tax the premium. Amortisation longer than 25 years $19,000

$1,520 of that is cash. In Ontario the 8% sales tax on a $19,000 premium is due on closing day and cannot be financed.

CMHC premium rates for 2026

Loan-to-value	Premium	Down payment
Up to 65%	0.60%	35%
65.00% to 75%	1.70%	25%
75.00% to 80%	2.40%	20%
80.00% to 85%	2.80%	15%
85.00% to 90%	3.10%	10%
90.00% to 95%	4.00%	5%

Add 0.20% if your amortisation runs past 25 years. A non-traditional down payment — borrowed, or gifted by someone other than an immediate relative — raises the top band to 4.50%.

The minimum down payment is tiered, not a flat percentage

5% of the first $500,000, then 10% of the portion between $500,000 and $1,500,000. On a $700,000 home that is $45,000 — not $35,000, which is what a flat 5% would suggest. Above $1,500,000 nothing is insurable at all, so you need a full 20%.

What calculators get wrong here

The sales tax on the premium is cash. The premium is capitalised into your mortgage; the tax on it is not. Ontario charges 8%, Quebec 9%, Saskatchewan 6% — on a typical high-ratio purchase that is well over a thousand dollars of closing money nobody warned you about.
The minimum down payment is marginal, not a flat rate. Applying 5% to the whole price understates what you need on anything over $500,000.
Crossing an LTV band is a cliff, unlike land transfer tax. Going from 80.01% to 80.00% loan-to-value drops the premium rate from 2.80% to 2.40% on the entire loan. Finding a little more down payment near a band edge is worth real money.
Insurance is not available above $1,500,000 at any down payment under 20%, and it never applies at 20% or more down regardless of price.
Manitoba is unresolved. Some sources say it taxes the premium at 7%; we could not confirm it to the standard we hold everything else to, so this calculator does not apply it. If you are buying in Manitoba, ask your lawyer — we would rather admit a gap than invent a number.

The number this all adds up to

Premium, sales tax, land transfer tax, legal fees — the reason people can't buy isn't the monthly payment, it's the pile of cash needed on day one. Taking over a mortgage that already exists costs closer to $7,500.

See what you can afford →

Premium rates from CMHC's published premium schedule for homeowner and small rental loans, current 2026-08-04. Sagen and Canada Guaranty publish materially similar schedules. This is information, not advice — your lender confirms the final premium.