Mortgage Renewal in Canada (2026): The Payment Shock Math and Your Options Before You Sign

Short answer: When a Canadian mortgage term ends, the lender takes the balance still owing, applies the new rate you sign for, and spreads that balance over your remaining amortization. Nothing else sets the new payment. A $650,000 mortgage taken at 1.99 percent with a 25-year amortization has a payment of $2,749.30 a month and a balance of $544,391.80 after a 5-year term. Renew that balance at a labeled hypothetical 4.79 percent over the remaining 20 years and the payment becomes $3,515.87, an increase of $766.58 a month, or 27.9 percent. You do not have to accept your current lender's first offer: a federally regulated lender must send a renewal statement at least 21 days before the term ends, renewing with your own lender does not re-apply the stress test, and since November 21, 2024 a straight switch of an uninsured mortgage to a new lender is also exempt from the minimum qualifying rate. Price your own balance and rate on the Mortgage Renewal Shock Calculator as you read.

By Finance Editorial Desk | October 17, 2026

Educational only, not mortgage or financial advice. Renewal rules below are stated from Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), and Department of Finance Canada guidance current to this guide. Every rate used in a worked example is labeled hypothetical: no example rate is a market quote, a lender offer, or a forecast. Your renewal depends on your contract, your balance, and the offers you actually receive.

1. Renewal, switch, and refinance are three different events

The words get used as if they were one event. They are not, and the difference decides which rules apply to you.

Renewal is signing a new term with your current lender for the balance you still owe, on your existing amortization schedule. The mortgage itself does not change hands. Because you are not taking a new loan, your lender does not re-apply the federal mortgage stress test when you renew in place.

A straight switch (sometimes called a transfer) moves the same mortgage to a new lender at the end of the term: same unpaid balance, same remaining amortization, no money taken out. Section 7 covers the rule change that made switches much easier in late 2024.

A refinance changes the loan itself: a larger balance, cash taken out, a longer amortization than the schedule you are on, or a different property. A refinance is a new application. The new lender qualifies you under the stress test at the minimum qualifying rate, the greater of your contract rate plus 2 percentage points or 5.25 percent, and the full underwriting starts again.

Most renewal trouble comes from blurring the second and third events. A borrower who wants a lower payment through a longer amortization is asking for a refinance, not a switch, and the stress test exemption in section 7 no longer applies. A borrower who only wants a better rate on the same balance and schedule is asking for a switch, and since late 2024 that borrower no longer has to re-qualify at the higher test rate. Know which event you want before you start calling lenders, because the paperwork, the timeline, and the approval risk are different for each.

One more contract fact matters before any math: your current term has a maturity date, and at that date your closed mortgage can be paid out, renewed, or moved without a prepayment penalty. Penalties belong to breaking a term early, not to leaving at the end of one. The renewal window is the one moment in the life of the mortgage when changing lenders costs no penalty, which is why the weeks before maturity are worth using properly.

2. The three numbers that set your new payment

Every renewal payment in Canada is built from exactly three inputs:

• Balance at renewal. The principal still owing on the maturity date. This is not the amount you originally borrowed. Five years of payments have already reduced it.
• The new rate. The contract rate in the term you are about to sign. Fixed rates are quoted as a nominal annual rate compounded semi-annually by law in Canada; the payment math below uses that convention.
• Remaining amortization. Your original amortization minus the years that have passed, if you have stayed on schedule. A 25-year amortization with a 5-year term completed has 20 years left.

The payment formula is the standard amortization formula. The monthly version of a Canadian mortgage rate is found first, because the quoted rate compounds twice a year, not twelve times:

Monthly rate = (1 + annual rate / 2) raised to the power 1/6, minus 1

Payment = balance x monthly rate / (1 - (1 + monthly rate) raised to the power of negative total remaining payments)

Two consequences follow from the formula, and both are worth understanding before the worked examples.

First, the payment responds to the rate in a fairly steady way at a given balance and amortization. Section 5 prices that response: at a 20-year remaining amortization, each additional 1 percentage point of rate adds roughly $51 to $55 a month per $100,000 of balance. There is no cliff in the math. The shock households feel comes from the size of the rate move (often 2 to 3 percentage points for 2020 and 2021 borrowers) multiplied by a large balance, not from anything hidden in the formula.

Second, the interest share of each payment resets at renewal even when the payment change looks survivable. Interest for a month is the balance times the monthly rate. On a balance of $544,391.80, the interest inside the first payment is $899.06 at 1.99 percent and $2,151.66 at 4.79 percent. The principal part of the payment shrinks by the same $1,252.60. Section 6 totals that effect over a full term: the same household pays $118,783.50 of interest over the next five years at 4.79 percent against $48,358.42 at the old rate, and clears $24,430.47 less principal. A renewal is a payment change and an equity-speed change at the same time.

3. Worked example A: a 2021 mortgage renews in 2026, step by step

This example is labeled hypothetical throughout. The borrower and the rates are illustrations, and every figure was computed from the formula in section 2 with Canadian semi-annual compounding.

The starting position (2021). A household borrows $650,000 on a 5-year fixed term at 1.99 percent, with a 25-year amortization and monthly payments.

• Monthly rate at 1.99 percent: (1 + 0.0199 / 2) to the power 1/6, minus 1 = 0.1652 percent a month.
• Payment: $2,749.30 a month.

After the 5-year term (2026). Sixty payments of $2,749.30 total $164,958.00. Of that, the principal repaid brings the balance down to $544,391.80. The remaining amortization is 20 years (240 monthly payments), assuming no prepayments and no missed payments.

The renewal. The household signs a new 5-year term at a labeled hypothetical 4.79 percent, keeping the 20-year remaining amortization.

• Monthly rate at 4.79 percent: (1 + 0.0479 / 2) to the power 1/6, minus 1 = 0.3953 percent a month.
• New payment: $3,515.87 a month.
• The shock: $3,515.87 minus $2,749.30 = $766.58 more a month, $9,198.96 more a year, a 27.9 percent increase.

The same balance at a range of labeled hypothetical renewal rates:

Read the middle column as the negotiating range. Half a percentage point of rate, from 4.79 to 4.29, is worth $144.18 a month on this balance, or $8,650.80 across a 5-year term of payments. That is the dollar value of the phone calls in section 7 and section 8, before any other lever is touched.

Run the same three inputs for your own mortgage on the Mortgage Renewal Shock Calculator, which takes your balance, your old and new rates, your remaining amortization, and an optional lump sum, and returns the new payment, the monthly and annual shock, and the interest totals for the old and new terms.

4. Worked example B: a smaller balance, a smaller shock

Payment shock scales with the balance, which is why national averages describe almost nobody. A second labeled hypothetical: a household borrowed $400,000 at 2.69 percent with a 25-year amortization.

• Original payment: $1,829.93 a month.
• Balance after the 5-year term: $339,838.16.
• Renewed at a labeled hypothetical 4.49 percent over the remaining 20 years: $2,140.56 a month.
• The shock: +$310.63 a month, +17.0 percent.

Same market, same direction of rates, less than half the dollar shock of example A, because the balance is roughly five-eighths the size and the rate move is smaller (1.80 percentage points against 2.80). Before you compare your renewal to a headline figure, compare it to your own balance and your own rate gap. Those two numbers explain nearly all of the difference between households renewing in the same month.

5. A rule of thumb you can check on any offer

At a 20-year remaining amortization, the payment on $100,000 of balance rises by a nearly fixed amount for each 1 percentage point of rate:

So a household renewing a $450,000 balance whose rate rises 2 percentage points can expect roughly 4.5 x 2 x $52, about $470 a month, before running a calculator. The estimate is rough because the per-point cost creeps up as rates rise, but it is close enough to tell a plausible renewal letter from a wrong one. If the payment on your renewal statement is far from the rule-of-thumb figure for your balance and rate, one of the three inputs in section 2 is not what you think it is. The most common culprit is the amortization: a statement that quietly restarts or extends the amortization produces a lower payment that looks like a better rate. Check all three numbers, not just the payment.

The site mortgage amortization calculator shows the full month-by-month schedule for any balance, rate, and amortization, which is the tool to use when you want to see where a specific payment offer comes from.

6. The second shock: how much slower the balance falls

Households budget for the payment. The quieter cost of a higher-rate renewal is the interest total and the slower equity build over the new term. Using example A (balance $544,391.80, 20-year remaining amortization):

The renewed household pays $766.58 more each month and still ends the term owing $24,430.47 more than it would have at the old rate, because $70,425.08 of the extra cash went to interest. This is not an argument for any particular renewal choice. It is the reason the levers in section 8 are priced in interest as well as in payment: a lever that only moves the payment while quietly adding interest is a different lever from one that reduces both.

Variable-rate borrowers meet a version of this effect inside a term rather than at renewal. On a variable mortgage with fixed payments, a rate rise does not change the payment; it changes the split, sending more to interest and less to principal, and stretching the effective amortization. If the rate rises far enough that the payment no longer covers the interest, the payment must increase: that point is the trigger rate named in variable-rate contracts. If your amortization on a lender statement has grown well past the schedule you signed, this is the mechanism, and renewal is the moment the stretched schedule gets reset into a real payment. The variable vs fixed break-even calculator works that comparison directly.

7. The timeline and the rules that protect your side of it

Renewal has a regulated shape. Knowing the dates turns a letter you react to into a process you run.

Four to six months before maturity. The Canadian Mortgage Charter, the federal government's published expectations for how lenders treat mortgage borrowers, expects lenders to contact you four to six months before renewal to discuss your options. Treat that window as your working window whether or not the call comes: it is when rate holds are typically available (many lenders will hold a quoted rate for up to 120 days; the exact hold is the lender's policy, not a rule, so get it in writing) and when a switch application has time to complete without rushing.

At least 21 days before the term ends. If your lender is a federally regulated financial institution, such as a bank, FCAC states it must send you a renewal statement at least 21 days before the end of the existing term. The statement carries the same type of information as your mortgage agreement: the interest rate offered, the payment, the term, and the effective date, and it may be combined with a renewal agreement. If the lender will not renew, it must tell you that in the same timeframe. Twenty-one days is a legal floor, not a plan. A borrower who starts at the statement has three weeks to do what this guide spreads over four months. FCAC's own renewal guidance says to start shopping around a few months before the end of the term and not to wait for the renewal letter.

You do not have to renew with the same lender. FCAC states this directly. At maturity there is no prepayment penalty for moving, and your current lender's offer is an opening position, not a final price. Lenders expect renewal offers to be negotiated; the statement rate and the rate a borrower who has competing offers actually signs are frequently different numbers.

What happens if you do nothing. Many mortgage contracts renew automatically at maturity if you have not signed anything, typically into a new term chosen under the contract's default terms, which may not be the product or rate you would have picked. The exact default is set by your contract, so read it before maturity rather than after. Doing nothing is itself a choice of lender, product, and rate, made without comparison.

The stress test at renewal, current rules. Three cases:

• Renew with your current lender: no new stress test. The lender already holds the loan.
• Straight switch to a new lender: since November 21, 2024, OSFI no longer requires the minimum qualifying rate to be applied to straight switches of uninsured mortgages at renewal. The federal government aligned the mortgage insurance rules for low-ratio insured mortgages switching lenders as well, with parameters effective for insurer applications on or after December 16, 2024. A straight switch has a strict shape: the mortgage was originated at a federally regulated lender, you move it to a new lender at renewal, the contractual amortization schedule is maintained, no equity is taken out, and the unpaid balance may rise by at most $3,000 to cover transaction costs such as fees. The new lender still underwrites the application under its own standards; the exemption removes the prescribed qualifying-rate hurdle, not the approval.
• Refinance (more money, longer amortization, cash out): the minimum qualifying rate applies in full, the greater of the contract rate plus 2 percentage points or 5.25 percent, and the application is underwritten as a new loan.

The practical effect of the November 2024 change is large: an uninsured borrower who could not have passed a qualifying test at contract-plus-2 can still move to a lender offering a lower rate, as long as the loan itself does not grow. Before that change, the test effectively locked many uninsured borrowers into their current lender's renewal offer. The site mortgage stress test guide works the qualifying-rate math itself, and the stress test calculator runs your income against it.

Switching costs exist, and they are the small print to compare. Moving lenders can involve a discharge fee from the old lender, legal and registration costs, and sometimes an appraisal. Under the straight-switch parameters, up to $3,000 of related transaction costs can be folded into the new balance. Some lenders cover some switching costs as an inducement; that is an offer detail to confirm in writing, not a rule. A switch that saves $144.18 a month, the half-point in example A, recovers $1,500 of switching costs in about ten months of payments. Run that payback arithmetic for any switch you are quoted, using your own numbers.

8. The levers you actually hold, each one priced

Every figure in this section is example A continued: balance $544,391.80, renewing at a labeled hypothetical 4.79 percent, 20-year remaining amortization, new payment $3,515.87 against an old payment of $2,749.30.

Lever 1: a lower rate, by negotiating or switching. At 4.29 percent the payment is $3,371.69, which is $144.18 a month less than at 4.79 percent, and interest over the 5-year term falls from $118,783.50 to $106,041.19, a saving of $12,742.31. Even a quarter point, to 4.54 percent, is worth $72.47 a month. Rate is the only lever that cuts the payment and the interest at the same time with no cash required, which is why the timeline in section 7 spends months on it. Get competing offers in writing, take them back to your current lender, and compare the full contract (prepayment privileges, penalty method, portability), not the rate alone. The mortgage refinance break-even guide prices the related question of when paying costs to change a mortgage pays back.

Lever 2: a lump sum at renewal. Renewal is a penalty-free moment to pay the balance down. A $25,000 lump sum at renewal cuts the balance to $519,391.80 and the payment at 4.79 percent to $3,354.42, which is $161.45 a month less, every month, for the whole amortization, with interest saved on top. Whether the cash should go to the mortgage rather than stay invested or sit in a registered account is a separate household decision; the renewal-specific point is narrow: if you intend to make a lump sum anyway, making it at renewal applies it to every payment of the new term from the first one, and it cannot trigger a prepayment penalty because the old term has ended.

Lever 3: extra payments before renewal. The same logic works in advance, inside your current contract's prepayment privileges. In example A, adding $200 a month for the final 24 months of the old term (a $4,800 outlay) lowers the balance at renewal by $4,892.28 (the extra payments plus the interest they stop accruing at 1.99 percent) and cuts the renewed payment to $3,484.28, which is $31.59 a month less. Modest, but it compounds with lever 1 and costs nothing in penalties if it stays inside your prepayment allowance. Check your allowance before using it: privileges are contract terms, commonly an annual lump-sum percentage and a payment-increase percentage, and exceeding them mid-term is what penalties are for.

Lever 4: extend the amortization (payment relief at a printed price). Renewing example A over 25 years instead of 20 drops the payment to $3,101.45, which is $414.42 a month of relief. The price, from section 6's table method: interest over the next 5 years rises from $118,783.50 to $121,917.34 (an extra $3,133.84), principal repaid falls, and the balance after 5 years is $480,222.40 instead of $452,222.85, which is $27,999.55 more still owing. Total interest over the full life of the loan rises much more than the 5-year figure suggests, because the balance runs for five extra years. Extending is sometimes the right call for a household budget; it should never be presented, by a lender or by this guide, as free. Note the rule from section 7: extending the amortization at a new lender breaks the straight-switch shape and turns the move into a refinance with a full stress test. With your current lender it is a contract change the lender must agree to.

Lever 5: shorten the amortization or raise the payment (pay more now, much less interest). The mirror image. Renewing example A over 15 years instead of 20 raises the payment to $4,232.46, and in return principal repaid over the next 5 years rises to $140,582.49 and the balance after 5 years falls to $403,809.31. Interest over those 5 years is $113,364.84, lower despite the higher rate period, because the balance falls faster. Few households facing a payment shock choose this lever at the same renewal; it belongs in the guide because at the following renewal, when the shock has been absorbed, it is the fastest way to rebuild the equity speed lost in section 6. A smaller version of the same lever is switching to accelerated biweekly payments: half the monthly payment every two weeks, which adds the equivalent of one extra monthly payment a year. On example A's renewed mortgage, accelerated biweekly payments of $1,757.94 clear the balance in about 17.6 years instead of 20. The accelerated biweekly guide works that arithmetic in full.

Lever 6: term length. A shorter term (2 or 3 years) and a longer term (5 years) price differently and bet differently on where rates go next; this guide makes no rate forecast and neither should your renewal decision depend on one you cannot verify. The checkable differences are contractual: how soon you will face this process again, what the penalty would be if you had to break the term (shorter terms and variable rates generally carry smaller break costs, and the method differs by lender), and whether the product's prepayment and portability terms fit your plans. Compare terms on those facts, not on a prediction.

9. If the new payment does not fit the budget

Work the problem in this order, cheapest and most reversible first.

1. Re-run the math with your real numbers. Headline shock figures are averages. Your gap might be $310 a month (example B), not $766. The calculator exists so this step takes minutes, and it comes before any decision made in a mood.
2. Use the shopping window. Four to six months of competing offers is the single largest free lever. A half point on a mid-sized balance is worth more than most budget cuts.
3. Talk to your current lender early, before any missed payment. The Mortgage Charter sets out the expectation that lenders work with borrowers facing hardship at renewal, including measures such as extending the amortization or other tailored relief, and FCAC directs borrowers in difficulty to contact their lender to discuss options. Lenders have far more room to help before a payment is missed than after.
4. Price the amortization extension with its full cost using lever 4's method, so the relief and its interest cost are both on the table when you decide.
5. Be careful solving a mortgage problem with unsecured debt. Carrying a monthly shortfall on a credit card at a card rate to protect a mortgage at a mortgage rate reverses the rate order and usually makes the total position worse each month. If debts beyond the mortgage are part of the problem, the debt consolidation cost guide prices that route with its own math, and a licensed insolvency trustee or a non-profit credit counsellor can lay out the formal options. Mortgage advice from a licensed mortgage professional, and financial advice from a qualified advisor, are the right channels for a decision this size; this guide is the arithmetic underneath those conversations, not a substitute for them.

10. Renewal checklist

A printable sequence, in order. The dates are counted back from your maturity date.

• 6 months out: Find your maturity date, your current balance, and your remaining amortization from your lender's statement or portal. Write down your current rate and payment.
• 6 months out: Run your balance at two or three labeled hypothetical rates on the Mortgage Renewal Shock Calculator so you know your shock range before anyone quotes you.
• 4 to 6 months out: Collect written offers: your current lender, at least one other lender or a mortgage broker. Ask each for the rate hold period in writing, the prepayment privileges, the penalty method, and any switching costs it will or will not cover.
• 3 months out: Decide whether you want a renewal, a straight switch, or a refinance, using section 1's definitions. If a switch, confirm it fits the straight-switch shape in section 7.
• 2 months out: Negotiate. Take the best written offer back to your current lender. Compare total cost over the term, not rate alone.
• At least 21 days out: Your renewal statement must have arrived if your lender is federally regulated. Check its three numbers (balance, rate, amortization) against your own records and against section 5's rule of thumb.
• Before signing: Confirm the term, the rate type, the payment amount and frequency, the amortization, the prepayment privileges, and the maturity date of the new term. Confirm any lump sum you plan to make is applied at renewal.
• At maturity: If switching, confirm the new lender funded and the old mortgage was discharged, and that your property insurance names the new lender as loss payee.
• After the first payment: Check the first statement against the agreement: rate, payment, balance, and new maturity date. Set a reminder for six months before the new maturity date, and start this checklist there next time.

11. Mistakes this guide is built to prevent

• Signing the renewal statement without comparing. The statement is an offer with a deadline, not a bill. The 21-day floor exists because the law expects you to have the terms in hand, not because three weeks is enough time to shop.
• Comparing payments without comparing amortizations. A lower payment built on five extra years of amortization is a more expensive mortgage wearing a cheaper costume. Section 8, lever 4 prints the exchange rate.
• Assuming the stress test blocks a switch. For a straight switch it no longer does, insured or uninsured, under the late-2024 rules. Assuming you are locked in is the most expensive renewal mistake available, because it hands your current lender a negotiation with only one side.
• Assuming a switch is free. No penalty is not no cost. Discharge, legal, and appraisal costs are real, sometimes covered, and recoverable through rate savings in months when the rate gap is real. Price the payback.
• Breaking a term early to chase a rate without pricing the penalty. Everything in this guide is free of penalties because it happens at maturity. The same moves mid-term can carry a prepayment charge that erases the benefit. Renewal timing is the strategy.
• Letting the mortgage auto-renew by default. The default term is chosen by the contract, not by you, and it starts a new period during which leaving costs a penalty again.

12. Frequently asked questions

Do I have to renew my mortgage with my current lender? No. FCAC states that you do not have to renew with the same lender. At the end of a term you can renew in place, switch the same mortgage to a new lender, or refinance. There is no prepayment penalty for leaving at maturity.

Do I have to pass the mortgage stress test when I renew? Not if you renew with your current lender, and not if you make a straight switch to a new lender: since November 21, 2024, OSFI does not require the minimum qualifying rate on straight switches of uninsured mortgages at renewal, and the insurance rules were aligned for low-ratio insured switches effective December 16, 2024. A straight switch keeps the same balance (up to $3,000 may be added for transaction costs) and the same remaining amortization, with no cash out. If you borrow more or extend the amortization, that is a refinance and the stress test applies at the greater of your contract rate plus 2 percentage points or 5.25 percent.

When will I receive my renewal offer? A federally regulated lender must send a renewal statement at least 21 days before the end of your term, showing the offered rate, payment, term, and effective date. The Mortgage Charter expects lenders to contact borrowers four to six months before renewal, and many lenders send offers and rate holds well before the 21-day floor. Start shopping a few months ahead, as FCAC advises, rather than waiting for the statement.

What happens if I do nothing at renewal? Many contracts renew automatically into a default term set by the contract if you have not signed a renewal or arranged a switch. The default product and rate may not be what you would choose, and once the new term starts, leaving it early can carry a prepayment penalty. Check your contract's maturity terms before the date, not after.

How much will my payment go up at renewal? It depends on your balance, the rate change, and your remaining amortization. At a 20-year remaining amortization, each 1 percentage point of rate adds roughly $51 to $55 a month per $100,000 of balance. On a $544,391.80 balance renewing from 1.99 percent to a labeled hypothetical 4.79 percent, the payment rises from $2,749.30 to $3,515.87, an increase of $766.58 a month. Enter your own figures in the Mortgage Renewal Shock Calculator for your number.

Can I extend my amortization at renewal to lower the payment? You can ask, and the math works: on the guide's example balance at 4.79 percent, extending from 20 to 25 years lowers the payment from $3,515.87 to $3,101.45. The cost is more interest (an extra $3,133.84 over the next five years in the example) and a balance that falls more slowly ($27,999.55 more still owing after five years). With your current lender it is a contract change subject to approval; at a new lender it breaks the straight-switch shape and becomes a refinance, with a full stress test.

Is there a penalty or fee for switching lenders at renewal? There is no prepayment penalty at the end of a term. Switching can still involve costs such as a discharge fee, legal and registration fees, and possibly an appraisal; some lenders cover some of these to win the switch, so confirm in writing. Under the straight-switch parameters, up to $3,000 of transaction costs can be added to the new balance.

Can I make a lump-sum payment at renewal? Yes, and renewal is the cleanest time to do it: the old term has ended, so a lump sum applied at renewal does not run into the old contract's prepayment limits or penalties. In the guide's example, a $25,000 lump sum at renewal lowers the new payment at 4.79 percent from $3,515.87 to $3,354.42 and reduces interest for the rest of the loan's life. Confirm with the lender how and when the payment will be applied.

13. Related reading

• Mortgage Renewal Shock Calculator - your balance, old rate, new rate, remaining amortization, and an optional lump sum, priced the way this guide prices its examples.
• Mortgage Refinance Break-Even in Canada - when paying costs to change a mortgage mid-stream pays back, and when it cannot.
• Mortgage Stress Test in Canada - the qualifying rate, the 5.25 percent floor, and who the test applies to after the renewal-switch exemption.
• Accelerated Biweekly Mortgage Payments in Canada - the payment-frequency lever that adds one monthly payment a year.
• CMHC Insurance in Canada - how the insured side of the market works, for borrowers whose mortgages carry default insurance.
• Land Transfer Tax in Ontario - the closing-cost tax for readers whose renewal coincides with a move instead.

14. Sources

Renewal rules in this guide are drawn from official Canadian sources retrieved October 17, 2026: the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada guidance on renewing a mortgage term (canada.ca), which states that a federally regulated lender must provide a renewal statement at least 21 days before the end of the existing term containing the interest rate, payment frequency, term, and effective date, that you do not have to renew with the same lender, and that borrowers should start shopping around a few months before the end of the term; the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions fall Quarterly Release of November 21, 2024 (osfi-bsif.gc.ca), whose Minimum Qualifying Rate industry letter confirms that the prescribed minimum qualifying rate for uninsured straight switches at renewal is no longer required; the Department of Finance Canada backgrounder of December 2024 on straight switches and portfolio insurance (canada.ca), which sets the straight-switch parameters used in section 7, including the maintained contractual amortization schedule and the allowance to increase the unpaid principal balance by up to $3,000 for related transaction costs, effective for mortgage insurance applications on or after December 16, 2024; and the Canadian Mortgage Charter (Department of Finance Canada), which sets the expectation that lenders contact borrowers four to six months before renewal and work with borrowers facing hardship. All dollar figures in the worked examples are computed from the amortization formula in section 2 with Canadian semi-annual compounding, at rates labeled hypothetical in the text; they are illustrations of the math, not market data, lender offers, or forecasts.