All the Numbers

A home you already own

From the All the Numbers wiki · Housing

A home you own today is not a purchase in the plan. There is no down payment, land transfer tax or lender check. It starts the plan at what it is worth today and keeps growing at its appreciation rate.

The mortgage

Your mortgage statement or renewal letter has what the plan needs: the balance, the rate, the monthly payment and when the term ends.[1] The plan works out how many months are left from the balance, rate and payment, the same way a lender does for a mortgage payment.[2] If you know the years left instead, enter those. With neither, the plan takes the standard 25-year amortization from the year you bought the home, less the years since, and never less than one five-year term, until you enter the payment on your statement.[3]

Renewal

When the term ends, the rest of the mortgage renews at the rate you set for renewal, which starts at All the Numbers' default mortgage rate. The balance and the time left carry on; only the rate changes.[4] A lender does not re-qualify you to renew, whether you stay or switch to another federally regulated lender.[5]

Property tax

Enter your yearly property tax bill. It grows with inflation. Property tax is charged on an assessed value set by the province or city, not on what the home would sell for, so the bill is better than a share of today's value.[6] Leave it blank and the home's running-cost rate is used.

Tax when you sell

Every year you have owned the home counts toward the principal residence exemption, including the years before the plan. A home you live in and designate for every year is tax-free when sold, so what you paid does not matter. It matters for a cottage or a home with a rented suite, so the plan asks for it there. Left blank, today's value stands in, and none of the gain before the plan is taxed.[7]

Selling it and buying the next home

If you sell this home and buy the next in the same year, both can be fully exempt. The new home takes that year, and the extra year in the exemption formula covers the year of the sale. If the two overlap for longer, the new home takes every shared year and part of the old home's gain is taxed.[8]

Not modelled

  • Biweekly or weekly payments: enter the monthly equivalent.
  • More than one renewal: after the first, the renewal rate runs to the end.
  • Prepayments, refinancing, and the penalty for breaking a mortgage early.

See also

  • Buying a cottage · A cottage is a second home for you and your family, kept alongside the home you live in. It can be bought with as little as 5% down if it is usable all year, or 10% if it is seasonal, but first-time buyer help, the Home Buyers' Plan and the FHSA cannot pay for it.
  • Home prices over time · A home's value is projected by growing it at one assumed rate, 3.5% a year by default, which is PWL Capital's 1% real return on a house plus 2.5% inflation. It is an editable assumption, not a forecast, and the Simulation view shows how widely a real home's value varies around it. A home added to a plan starts at $600,000 with 20% down until you enter its own figures.
  • How a mortgage payment is worked out · A fixed-rate Canadian mortgage compounds its interest twice a year, not monthly, so the monthly payment comes from a rate slightly lower than the quoted rate divided by twelve. The default rate is 4.27%, and the rate stays fixed for the whole amortization.
  • Selling a home · A sale turns the home's projected market value into cash after selling costs (your province's typical commission, the sales tax on it and legal fees) and the mortgage payout. The gain on a principal residence is exempt from tax, apart from the part that was rented out when the exemption does not cover it.
  • What a house costs to hold · Property tax, maintenance, insurance and utilities are estimated as rates against the home's value, with sourced defaults. Property tax then grows with inflation, maintenance and insurance with the home's value, and utilities with inflation.

References

  1. ↑FCAC — Renewing your mortgage · Federally regulated lender must send a renewal statement at least 21 days before the term ends (balance at renewal, rate, payment frequency, term, charges), or notice that it will not renew; renewal may be automatic · 21 days · effective 2022-06-30
  2. ↑Interest Act s.6 (semi-annual convention); annuity inversion checked against mikesukmanowsky.com worked example ($700,000, 2.34%, 30 years → $2,703.90; 359 months after one payment) · Months left on an existing mortgage = −ln(1 − B·i/P) ÷ ln(1 + i) with i = (1 + r/2)^(1/6) − 1, rounded up to a whole month; refused when the payment does not exceed the month's interest · effective 2026-10-09
  3. ↑Our convention; FCAC, "Choosing a mortgage": with less than 20% down the maximum amortization is "25 years in all other cases" than a first-time buyer or a new build; "the longer you take to pay off your mortgage, the more interest you pay" · A mortgage on a home already owned, entered with its balance but neither its payment nor its years left, is taken to have the standard insured amortization of 25 years less the whole years since the home was bought left, and at least one five-year term; reported on the run · effective 2026-10-28
  4. ↑PWL Capital — Financial Planning Assumptions, Table 3 (a 30-year expectation); FCAC Renewing your mortgage; OSFI (no requalification at renewal) · An existing mortgage renews once, at the end of its term, at the default mortgage rate unless the user enters one; the balance and the remaining amortization carry over and nothing is re-qualified · effective 2026-10-09
  5. ↑OSFI — Minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages ("We do not expect lenders to apply the minimum qualifying rate for uninsured straight switches at renewal"); OSFI letter, Final Revised Guideline B-20, 2017-10-17, Annex item 2 · A renewal is not re-qualified at the minimum qualifying rate: federally regulated lenders are not expected to re-apply it to borrowers renewing, nor to uninsured straight switches to another federal lender at renewal · effective 2018-01-01
  6. ↑City of Toronto — Property assessment and appeals ("based on the fully phased-in January 1, 2016 value"); MPAC Notices and notifications · A home already owned takes its annual property tax bill in dollars, grown with inflation; the default (value × the municipality's rate) is shown as an estimate to replace, because the tax base is the assessed value, not today's price · effective 2026-10-09
  7. ↑CRA Guide T4037, ACB definition · The cost of a home already owned is what was paid, asked only for a cottage or a home with a rented suite; a home lived in and designated for every year is fully exempt whatever the cost. Left blank, today's value stands in, so none of the gain before the plan is taxed · effective 2026-10-09
  8. ↑Income Tax Folio S1-F3-C2, Principal Residence ("The effect of the one plus in variable B … is to treat both properties as a principal residence in such a year") · When one home lived in is sold and another bought in the same year, the home sold is designated to the year before its sale and the +1 covers the sale year; the new home is designated from that year, so both are fully exempt; when they share more than one year the newer home takes them all and only the sale year is covered for the older one · effective 2026-10-09
  9. CMHC — Purchase (homeowner mortgage loan insurance): "Maximum amortization period is 25 years" · Longest amortization of an insured purchase mortgage · 25 years · effective 2012-07-09