What Three Common Ontario Salaries Actually Qualify You to Borrow

The two ratios that actually decide the number

Every lender runs the same two calculations, even though the exact ceilings can vary slightly by lender and by whether a mortgage is insured or uninsured.

Gross Debt Service (GDS) caps your housing costs — the mortgage payment, property tax, heating, and half of any condo fee — at a share of your gross monthly income, commonly 39%. Total Debt Service (TDS) adds every other debt payment you carry — car loans, student loans, credit card minimums, lines of credit — on top of housing costs, capped at a share of gross income commonly set at 44%. Whichever ratio you hit first is the one that actually limits what you qualify for.

Both ratios are calculated using a qualifying benchmark higher than what you'd actually pay, not your contract pricing. Under OSFI's rule, that benchmark is whichever is higher: 5.25%, or your contract pricing plus two full percentage points. With typical five-year fixed contract pricing well above 3.25% through most of 2026, the "plus two" side is the one governing most files right now — the same benchmark explained in full here.

The assumptions behind these examples

To make the math concrete rather than abstract, the examples below hold a few things constant. They're illustrative, not a quote for any specific lender or applicant:

• A representative contract pricing of 4.29% on an insured five-year fixed term, which puts the qualifying benchmark at 6.29% (4.29% + 2%, since that's higher than the 5.25% floor).
• A 25-year amortization.
• Combined property tax and heating estimated at $350/month — a simplification; your own municipality and home will differ, sometimes significantly.
• The minimum insured down payment: 5% on the first $500,000 of the purchase price and 10% on the portion above that, up to the $1.5 million insured ceiling.
• No mortgage default insurance premium added to the balance, to keep the arithmetic readable — in practice that premium is typically rolled into the mortgage and raises the payment slightly.

$70,000 household income

Gross monthly income of about $5,833 puts the GDS ceiling at roughly $2,275 and the TDS ceiling at roughly $2,567. With no other monthly debt in this example, GDS is the binding constraint. After the $350 property tax and heating estimate, that leaves about $1,925 available for the mortgage payment at the 6.29% qualifying benchmark.

That supports a mortgage of roughly $293,000 — which, at the minimum 5% down payment in this price range, corresponds to a purchase price around $308,000 and a down payment near $15,400. The actual payment at the 4.29% contract pricing, rather than the qualifying benchmark, works out to about $1,587 a month.

$100,000 household income

Gross monthly income of about $8,333 puts the GDS ceiling at roughly $3,250 and the TDS ceiling at roughly $3,667. Again with no other debt in this example, GDS binds first, leaving about $2,900 available for the mortgage payment after the property tax and heating estimate.

That supports a mortgage of roughly $441,000 — a purchase price around $465,000 at the minimum 5% down payment, with a down payment near $23,200. The actual payment at contract pricing works out to about $2,391 a month, a little over $800 more than the $70,000 scenario despite the income being 43% higher, because more of the qualifying room goes to a larger balance rather than a proportionally larger payment.

$140,000 household income, with a car payment

This example adds a $450 monthly car payment, which is common enough at this income level to be worth showing rather than assuming it away. Gross monthly income of about $11,667 puts GDS at roughly $4,550 and TDS at roughly $5,133. With the $450 debt payment and the $350 property tax and heating estimate both counted against TDS, the available mortgage payment comes out to about $4,200 — TDS is now the binding ratio, not GDS.

That supports a mortgage of roughly $639,000. Because this crosses the $500,000 threshold where the minimum down payment tier rises to 10% on the portion above it, the purchase price this supports is around $682,000, with a down payment near $43,200 — about 6.3% of the price rather than the flat 5% in the two smaller examples. The car payment alone didn't cost this household $450 in qualifying room; because it's judged against the 44% TDS ceiling, it effectively reduced what they qualify for by more than that.

What actually moves your own number

Four things change these figures more than anything else, in roughly this order of impact: your actual contract pricing (a lower pricing raises the qualifying benchmark's starting point and increases what you qualify for), any other debt payments you carry, your down payment size once you're past the insured ceiling, and your household's real property tax and heating costs rather than the flat estimate used here.

None of this replaces running your own numbers. Our mortgage calculators use the correct Canadian semi-annual compounding math and let you plug in your actual income, debts and target property, rather than the simplified assumptions in these examples. If you're early in a search and want a fuller picture before you start looking at listings, our First Home Hub covers the rest of what a first-time buyer's file typically needs.