At Lotus Loans & Mortgages Corp, we often receive questions about minimum down payments so we are proving helpful information based on the 3 most popular scenarios:

  1. The Standard 20% down payment is the minimum down payment to avoid the CMHC insurance premium and the 8% sales tax that goes with it. It is also a way to benefit from lower monthly payments because you can opt for a 30 year amortization since with less money down you are limited to a maximum 25 year amortization.
  2. Then there are down payments from 7.5%-19% where you can buy a property for less than $1M. Rates are actually lower on these CMHC deals vs non-CMHC deals but you have to pay the mortgage insurance premium. Maximum amortizations are 25 years.
  3. Last but not least, there is the lowest down payment option where you only need a 5% down payment so on a $500K condo let’s say, you only need $25K down. This does result in higher monthly payments and a mortgage insurance premium of 4% of the total mtg amount. And of course, you are limited to a 25 year amortization.

If you or someone you know someone who needs to understand how much they need to save for their dream home, contact us at Lotus Loans & Mortgages Corp, we’d love to help!