Nearly Six in Ten New Insured Mortgages Now Run Longer Than 25 Years

What CMHC's own data shows

Mortgages amortized over more than 25 years accounted for 58.6% of new CMHC-insured homeowner volume in the second quarter of 2026, according to CMHC's data supplement reported by Canadian Mortgage Trends. That is down slightly from 60.4% in the first quarter, but it is more than eleven times the 4.6% recorded at the end of 2024 — before the current eligibility rules took effect.

CMHC's average amortization at origination reached 27.9 years in the quarter, essentially flat against 28.0 years in Q1 and up from 27.5 years a year earlier and 25.1 years at the close of 2024. In under two years, the typical new insured mortgage in Canada moved from a 25-year schedule toward something closer to 28.

The insurer wrote 18,309 transactional homeowner mortgages in the quarter, according to CMHC's own second-quarter results release — up 1% from a year earlier — but the dollar value of that volume rose 9% to $7.6 billion, a much faster pace. Some of that gap reflects higher purchase prices: the average price on an insured purchase climbed to $434,434 from $404,958 a year earlier, and homes priced above $600,000 grew from about 21% of insured properties to just over 25%. The share above $1 million nearly rose to 3.1% from 2.2%.

Why the share moved so fast

The trigger is a specific federal policy change. In December 2024, Ottawa expanded eligibility for 30-year insured amortizations — previously limited to a narrow slice of the insured market — to include every first-time buyer and every buyer of a newly built home, insured or not. At the same time, the maximum purchase price eligible for mortgage insurance was raised to $1.5 million, up from $1 million.

The two changes work together. A buyer who could not previously insure a 30-year amortization at all can now qualify for one, and a buyer who was priced just above the old insured ceiling can now put less than 20% down on a more expensive home and still spread the balance over a longer schedule. The 4.6% reading in late 2024 reflects the tail end of the old rules; every quarter since has been under the expanded ones.

Fixed-borrowing mortgages continued to account for the majority of new insured purchase activity in the quarter, at 71.2%. Variable-payment mortgages took a larger share than a year earlier — 28.8%, up from 19.7% — though that was down from 36.6% in the first quarter, consistent with borrowers moving back toward fixed terms as the year progressed.

What a longer amortization actually costs

A longer amortization does exactly one thing directly: it lowers the required monthly payment on a given balance, because that balance is being repaid over more months. It does not change what is borrowed, and held constant, it does not change what is ultimately paid for borrowing that money — it changes how long you are paying it.

Two caveats matter here. First, almost nobody pays the same borrowing cost for the full life of a mortgage — renewals happen every term, and pricing moves with them, so this comparison is illustrative rather than a forecast for any real file. Second, the gap above assumes neither borrower ever makes a lump-sum prepayment. Most fixed mortgages carry an annual prepayment privilege, and using it against a 30-year amortization is one of the more effective ways to keep the lower required payment as a cushion while still shortening the real payoff timeline when cash allows it.

This is exactly the kind of comparison worth running on a specific balance rather than an illustrative one — our own mortgage payment calculator on /calculators uses the same semi-annual compounding Canadian lenders are required to use, so the numbers it returns match what a lender's own documents would show.

Who this actually helps, and its real limit

The expanded eligibility is narrower than the headline suggests. A longer insured amortization is only available on a purchase with mortgage default insurance, which in practice means less than 20% down and, since December 2024, a purchase price up to $1.5 million. Move above that ceiling, or put down 20% or more, and the insured amortization rules do not apply — the amortization available depends on the individual lender's own uninsured guidelines instead.

• A first-time buyer stretching to reach a purchase, for whom the lower required monthly payment is the difference between qualifying and not
• A buyer of newly built housing, where the same eligibility applies regardless of first-time buyer status — part of the federal effort to support new construction specifically
• A repeat buyer with less than 20% down on an eligible newly built home, who may not have expected to qualify for the longer schedule at all

It is worth saying plainly what a longer amortization is not: it is not a discount, and it is not free flexibility added on top of a mortgage. It is a structural choice made when the mortgage is set up, and shortening it again later generally means a refinance, a lump-sum prepayment, or simply outpacing the schedule with extra payments once cash flow allows. For a buyer who needs the lower payment to qualify today, that is still often the right trade — but it is a trade, made with eyes open, not a feature that comes at no cost.