What does the mortgage stress test do to my numbers?
Compare the payment at your quoted rate with the payment used to qualify you.
Amounts are Canadian dollars. Change any number to update your answer.
What is the contract rate?
The contract rate is the interest rate agreed with your mortgage lender.
It determines your actual mortgage payment during that mortgage term.
For example, entering 4.49% means your payment uses that rate.
The stress test uses 6.49% in this example to check affordability.
You pay the contract-rate payment, not the higher stress-test payment.
Your payment shown here excludes property taxes, heating and condo fees.
What rate is used?
For most newly underwritten mortgages, the stress test uses the greater of the contract rate plus 2% or 5.25%.
Official sources
Example: why the qualifying payment is higher
On a $560,000 mortgage over 25 years, a 4.49% contract rate gives an actual payment near $3,096 monthly. The 6.49% qualifying rate gives a stress-test payment near $3,748 monthly.
The roughly $651 difference is used to test affordability. It is not added to the payment your lender charges at the contract rate.