How long until
you can actually buy?

Two ratios. GDS caps your housing costs at 39% of gross income — and in Canada that includes principal, interest, property tax, heat, and half your condo fee. TDS adds every other debt payment and caps the total at 44%. We use whichever binds tighter.

Then the stress test: qualify at the greater of your contract rate plus two points, or 5.25%. So you're approved on a rate you won't actually pay. We apply it to both routes, because a bank applies it to an assumption too.

One caveat we'd rather state than hide: the stress test comes from OSFI Guideline B-20, which binds federally regulated lenders — the big banks and most monolines. Provincially regulated credit unions, MICs and private lenders are not bound by it and set their own qualifying rules. If a credit union is your lender, your real number may be better than what we show.

This is the part most coverage of assumable mortgages gets wrong in a Canadian context.

American mortgages are fixed for thirty years, so assuming a 2.9% loan there locks that rate for decades. Canadian terms run about five years. You keep the assumed rate only until that term ends — often a matter of months — and then you renew at whatever the market is doing, like everybody else.

So we don't sell you a rate. We show the monthly saving honestly, note that it expires, and point at the thing that actually changes your life: not needing a down payment.

The mortgage is already funded. You're stepping into it rather than originating a new one, so there's no down payment on the loan itself — you cover land transfer tax, legal fees, and any assignment fee.

The catch: if the home is worth more than the balance owing, you must cover that difference in cash. Which is why this only works on homes where the balance is at or above the value — and that is exactly the inventory we focus on.

Ontario charges a tiered land transfer tax, and Toronto charges a second, municipal one on top — so a Toronto buyer pays it twice. BC charges a Property Transfer Tax. Alberta charges neither, only small registration fees.

Toronto's municipal tax matched the provincial tiers until Council introduced graduated rates on 17 December 2025, in force since 1 April 2026 — reaching 8.6% at the top.

These apply to condominiums too. The bylaw defines a "single-family residence" to include a unit under the Condominium Act, so a condo is caught. What's excluded is land with three or more residences, commercial property, and homes on farmland.

It's payable in cash on closing and cannot be added to the mortgage, which makes it one of the biggest barriers to entry — and a large part of why assumptions are far more common in Alberta than anywhere else in the country.

First-time buyer rebates are included where you've ticked the box: up to $4,000 provincially in Ontario, $4,475 in Toronto, and a full or partial exemption in BC depending on price.

Included: CMHC/Sagen premium capitalised into the loan, semi-annual compounding (Canadian mortgages don't compound monthly — using the American formula overstates every payment), property tax, heat, condo fees, land transfer tax and rebates, legal fees, and a typical builder assignment fee.

Not included: maintenance, utilities beyond heat, special assessments, moving costs, GST or HST on a new build, and any CRA anti-flipping consequences on an assignment. This is a qualification estimate, not a budget.

No, and please don't treat it as one. It's the same arithmetic a mortgage broker runs in the first five minutes, done in the open. A real approval depends on your credit file, how your income documents, your employment history and the specific property — and on the lender agreeing to the assumption. Talk to a broker before you make an offer.