Toronto Mortgage Rates

Although there are many mortgage lenders in Toronto considering that it is Canada's largest housing market, high home prices mean high mortgage amounts, which may make qualifying for a mortgage to buy a home very difficult. With the average household income in Toronto being ~$78,000 per year in 2021, the average home price in Toronto is more than 13 times that at over $1.08 Million. This means that the average mortgage in Toronto is unaffordable for many people and will be hard for the average Torontonian to pass a mortgage stress test to purchase a home. As well, even if you were to have the income required to pass a mortgage stress test for the average home in Toronto, you would still need a very large down payment, which would be in excess of $200,000 for the average home price. This is because with many homes priced above $1,000,000, you will not be able to qualify for CMHC mortgage insurance. As well, Considering the high cost of living in Toronto, it may be difficult to save up this amount while also covering your monthly living expenses.

Getting the best mortgage rate starts by researching your options for mortgage lenders in Toronto, and finding more information on the rates that each lender offers. From here, getting the best rate can be done by shopping around across multiple lenders, which can include banks, mortgage brokers, and credit unions. When you are shopping around for the best rate, lenders may be able to negotiate as a way to win your business. This especially makes meeting with multiple lenders a good way to save on your mortgage rate, considering that some lenders may be willing to negotiate down to a lower rate than their competitors, especially if they know you are shopping around for the best rate.

If you do not want to go through the hassle of meeting with different lenders to see what rates they can offer you, a mortgage broker can help negotiate on your behalf and compare many of the mortgage rates Toronto has to offer across many different lenders.

There are over 340 Toronto mortgage brokers and over 2700 Toronto mortgage agents. In contrast, the province of Ontario has over 1600 licensed mortgage brokers and over 12,400 licensed mortgage agents, according to the Financial Services Commission of Ontario. The reason for there being so many Toronto mortgage brokers is because the city and region attract many of the new immigrants that come to Ontario every year, with the GTA attracting over 115,000 people in 2019 before the pandemic. The many newcomers that come to live in Toronto will mean more people who are new to the process of finding a mortgage in Canada, who may also have certain challenges to purchasing a home such as lack of credit history and complicated incomes, that mortgage brokers may be able to help with. As well, the rise in first time home buyers as the millennial generation continues to enter homeownership has also helped increase the demand for the services that mortgage brokers and mortgage agents provide.

A mortgage broker is classified as a licensed person or firm that helps you to find a mortgage across multiple lenders with your current financial situation, while a mortgage agent is someone who works on behalf of a mortgage broker that helps you to find a mortgage.

In total, there are over 500 different lenders that are working in Toronto. Many of these lenders have multiple locations that they work out of, including bank and credit union branches and mortgage offices. The main types of lenders in the city are:

All big 6 banks and many of the medium and smaller sized banks in Canada have operations in Toronto where you can get a mortgage. As well, all of the digital banks such as Equitable Bank, Simplii Financial and MotusBankwill offer you the ability to search for a Toronto mortgage from the comfort of your home. Between the big 6 banks of RBC, TD Bank, Scotiabank, BMO, CIBC, and National Bank, there are over 500 locations in Toronto that you can get a mortgage from. When you do have a meeting with any bank, it's especially important to discuss your mortgage options and see if there is any room for negotiation. Especially for the largest banks, mortgage representatives may have some ability to offer you a better rate to close the deal.

The main Toronto credit unions that you may be able to get a mortgage at are:

The benefit of going through a credit union is that you will not need to pass a mortgage stress test as a requirement for getting a mortgage. This can make getting a mortgage in Toronto much easier. As well, credit union mortgage rates will usually be very competitive options, considering that the amount of profit a credit union earns is not the only thing that they care about.

As a newcomer to Canada and Toronto, you will have certain obstacles to getting a mortgage, which can include:

• A lack of Canadian credit history,
• A low down payment, and
• Missing pieces of documentation needed for a mortgage

This won't stop you from getting a mortgage however, with programs in place at multiple Canadian banks to help make getting a mortgage as a newcomer possible.

If you have at least 2 years of employment history in Canada, enough money saved for at least the minimum down payment amount, and the income requirements for a mortgage, you can qualify for a normal RBC mortgage. If you don't have at least 2 years of employment history, a permanent residence status, and have immigrated to Canada in the past 5 years, you will be eligible for a newcomers RBC mortgage, which will require a 35% or more down payment.

Even if you do not have a credit history in Canada, you may be able to qualify for a TD mortgage loan if you meet other requirements, such as:

• You are a permanent resident or have applied to be one,
• You have been in Canada 5 years or less,
• You have the necessary income to pass a mortgage stress test and cover monthly mortgage payments, and
• You have a large enough down payment to purchase a home

To discuss your options for a TD Newcomers Mortgage, a TD mortgage representative can be very helpful.

You are able to get a specialized mortgage as a newcomer through Scotiabank, as long as you have been a permanent resident for 3 years or less. You will be able to choose from fixed or variable interest rates and be able to choose between many of the same mortgage terms as on a conventional Scotiabank mortgage.

BMO offers newcomers the ability to get a mortgage with the help of a BMO mortgage advisor. Similar to someone who has been in Canada a long time, you will need sufficient income and a large enough down payment to make purchasing a home possible.

CIBC offers 3 different programs to help newcomers to Canada get a CIBC mortgage and purchase a home:

With the average home prices in many areas of the GTA and in Toronto being unaffordable for many home buyers, some cities that are more affordable in the GTA are:

Located a 1 hour drive to the city centre of Toronto, Oshawa has much more affordable housing options, however its housing market has been exceptionally strong lately. The average price of a home in Oshawa is $796,883 as of June 2021, which means you will need a down payment of at least $54,700 on the average priced home. This makes getting a mortgage in Oshawa much more attainable than in other areas of the GTA.

Located 45 minutes west of Toronto, Brampton is home to over 600,000 people and offers lower priced options for those comfortable with a commute to the city centre. The average Brampton home price is $1,012,039, which is slightly more affordable than the Toronto average of ~$1,080,000.

Across 3 regions in the west end of the city of Toronto, home prices are much more affordable than most other areas of the GTA. In Etobicoke North, the benchmark price is only $725,409, the lowest in the city of Toronto. Other more affordable regions of the city include the Black Creek & York University Region, with an average price of $815,078, and the Yorkdale area region, with the average price being $880,843.

With a population of over 721,000 people, Mississauga is the 2nd largest city in the GTA, behind only the city of Toronto. The average home price in Mississauga is $1,019,325, which is slightly lower than the average price in the GTA.

Located north-east of Toronto, Ajax offers slightly more affordable homes than the Toronto average, with the average home price being $926,767. Compared to Toronto’s median income of ~$78,000, Ajax is slightly more affordable at ~11.9 times the median income.

Located on Lake Ontario and north-east of Toronto, Clarington has an average home price of $875,077. This is much cheaper than Toronto at $1.08 Million, which also means you will need a much lower down payment to purchase, at $62,480 versus $216,000 for Toronto.

If you are looking to purchase a Toronto pre-construction condo, you will need to be pre-approved shortly after you agree to purchase the condo. The reason this is the case is so that the builder doesn't have to worry about you not being able to afford the condo when it does get built. Although you will need to be pre-approved on most pre-construction condo purchases in Toronto, some builders may not require you to get a pre-approval depending on how many units in the building are already sold.

Usually a builder will require you to be pre-approved for purchase ~60 days after you have signed to purchase the unit. Although you don't need it before you agree to the contract, the best time for you to get pre-approved can be during your 10 day cooling off period. Since this period is when you have 10 days to review your purchase before it becomes final, making sure you can afford the property before the contract is official can save you a lot of problems down the road if you cannot get the mortgage amount you need.

Usually it is most common for homebuyers to get fixed mortgage rates in Toronto so that the interest rate stays the same over the entire mortgage term. However, variable mortgage rates have been the better mortgage rate option over the last few decades.

The reason for this is because interest rates and bank prime rates have continued to fall over the past 40 years, meaning that those who got variable rate mortgages would have seen their interest rates decline over their term. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that variable mortgage rates will continue to be the best option for home buyers in Toronto, considering that it is unlikely that interest rates will fall even more. This is because the overnight rate in Canada is already near 0%, which is partially what determines the prime rate.

On the contrary, variable mortgages may have a lower interest rate than a fixed rate mortgage, meaning as long as interest rates don't rise drastically, a variable rate mortgage may be cheaper over your term.

Pros & Cons of a Variable Rate Mortgage

The reason that 5-year fixed mortgages are common in Toronto and across Ontario is because home buyers like the ability to not worry about their mortgage or interest rate for a fairly long time period. As well, lenders like to give out this type of loan because it still leaves them with the ability to capitalize on higher interest rates if the prime rate rises by the time the term is up. A combination of both of these reasons has led to 5 year fixed mortgages being the most popular option on the mortgage market, causing lenders to compete for home buyers with their best rates being on these products. This means that if you are shopping for a mortgage rate on a home in Toronto, it is most likely you will see the most advertising for the 5 year fixed rate a lender offers, and it will be one of your best options.

Mortgage rates in Mississauga and Brampton will be very similar and in most cases, the same as in the city of Toronto. Throughout the GTA, homebuyers will have access to the same lenders, which means that there won't be a difference in the mortgage products they are offered. As well, since Mississauga and Brampton home prices are not drastically lower than home prices in Toronto, you will need a similar mortgage amount and will still have similar negotiating powers in all three cities. Overall, understanding that your mortgage rate will be the same or very similar throughout all three cities is important to decide where you want to live and get a mortgage to purchase in.

Although getting a pre-approval for a mortgage will mean that a lender has committed to providing you funding for a home purchase, it is fairly common for some home buyers in Toronto to include a financing condition. A financing condition is when you indicate in your offer that the agreement is conditional upon you being able to get the funding you need to purchase the home. If you have this condition and are unable to get financing, you will be able to walk away from the agreement without penalty. If you do not include this condition in the agreement and you can’t get the financing needed, legal action can be taken against you.

The main reason that including a financing condition is common when making an offer on a home when you are pre-approved is out of an abundance of caution. Many home buyers want to be sure that they can walk away if for some reason their bank does not agree to fund them for the mortgage, so that they have no risk of not having the funds when the time comes to close.

A common reason why financing conditions are not used all the time however is because it makes an offer look worse. If there are 2 offers with similar terms and one has a financing condition and the other doesn't, the home buyer will almost always choose the one without the condition, as it means there is less risk of the sale not closing.

Since you are able to cover anything you want with conditions in your purchase and sale agreement, it can be common for some people to include conditions based on:

With very low inventory levels of homes in Toronto on the market, building new homes at a fast pace will be important to cooling the housing market. In the second quarter of 2021, new home construction being started in Toronto was 8588 new units, which was a decline from 11,090 units in the second quarter of 2020. The main reason for this decline is that the second quarter of 2020 likely saw pent-up demand for home construction as initial lockdowns were lifted. In total, there were 78,346 housing units under construction as of the second quarter of 2021, which was a small increase from 77,667 in the second quarter of 2020.

The most common closing costs that all home buyers in Toronto will need to pay for are: lawyer costs, a property survey certificate, a home appraisal, title insurance and a home inspection.

As the only city in Ontario to have a municipal land transfer tax in addition to a provincial land transfer tax, buyers in Toronto can expect to have much higher closing costs than other Ontario cities. This effectively makes the land transfer tax in Toronto double the rate of the rest of Ontario, with the following tax rates:

For Toronto first time home buyers, you may be eligible for a combined rebate on land transfer taxes for up to $8475. This rebate covers a portion of the transfer taxes that you will owe and effectively makes any purchase under $368,333 transfer tax-free. With the average price of a home in Toronto much higher, this rebate will likely only cover a portion of your transfer tax amount. This means the rest of the tax should be planned for when you are getting a mortgage.

With Toronto having the second most expensive housing market in all of Canada, shopping around for the cheapest rate can mean huge savings. For example, If you were to get a mortgage amount of $1,000,000, you would save $1000 a year with just a 0.10% reduction in your mortgage rate. Over the life of your mortgage, shopping around for the best rate can effectively save you tens of thousands of dollars!

Toronto has a competitive rental market in many areas, shown broadly by the average vacancy rate in the region being 3.4% in October 2020. Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the vacancy rates in the city have risen from 1.5% in October 2019, with more people moving further away from the downtown and central core to rent in surrounding suburbs with more space. This has led to the city of Toronto having the highest vacancy rates among GTA cities:

The cost of living in Toronto is one of the highest in Canada. A three person family can expect to spend on average $5523 per month. This breaks down to $2745 for housing, $1185 for food, $386 for transportation, and $1207 for preschool (if you have a kid 4 years old or younger).

Toronto is the largest city in Canada, with a population of over 2,900,000 people and a population of over 7 million in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The projected population for Toronto by 2046 is 3,734,900 people, while the GTA is projected to grow to over 9.5 million people. Toronto also happens to be the capital of Ontario, and home to many corporate head offices, including TD Bank, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Manulife Financial, Rogers Communications, Apple Canada, Microsoft Canada, and Google Canada. These companies employ tens of thousands of people, meaning that as they continue to grow and create more jobs, it will only increase the housing demand in the city.

Property tax rates in Toronto for 2020 are some of the lowest in Ontario, however, having the highest housing prices in the province means that Torontonians still pay similar tax amounts compared to the rest of the province. For homebuyers with a mortgage and a down payment of less than 20%, it's likely your lender will collect your property taxes with your monthly mortgage.