Purchase
First-time home buyer mortgages
A pre-approval tells you the price range you can actually shop in, and holds a rate while you look. It is the first thing to sort out, not the last.
Pre-qualification is not a mortgage approval or a commitment to lend. All mortgages are subject to lender approval.
Start with a pre-approval, not a listing
A pre-approval does two things. It establishes what a lender is prepared to advance on your income and credit, so you and your realtor are shopping in a real price range. And it holds a rate for a set window, so a move in the market during your search does not quietly reprice the house you were planning to buy.
It is not an approval of a property. Once you have an accepted offer the lender still underwrites the purchase itself — the appraisal, the condition of title, the condominium status certificate if there is one. Keeping a financing condition in your offer is what protects you in that gap.
What the down payment actually has to be
The minimum down payment in Canada is tiered by purchase price, and anything under 20% requires default insurance, which is added to the mortgage rather than paid up front. Insured files usually price better than uninsured ones, which surprises people — a larger down payment is not automatically the cheaper path once the rate difference is counted.
Where the money comes from matters as much as the amount. Lenders want to see a 90-day history on savings, a signed letter for a gift from an immediate family member, and confirmation of any registered-plan withdrawal. Sorting that out early is the difference between a smooth condition removal and a scramble.
The costs nobody quotes you
Land transfer tax is the large one, and Ontario offers a first-time buyer rebate on it — with a second, separate rebate inside the City of Toronto. Beyond that, budget for legal fees and disbursements, title insurance, a home inspection, an appraisal where the lender orders one, and the adjustments your lawyer calculates on closing.
We will put real numbers against each of these for your specific purchase before you commit to anything, so the closing statement holds no surprises.
What we never ask for online
No SIN, no date of birth, no credit score and no banking detail is collected through this website. When a lender formally needs those, you provide them directly through the lender’s own secure system.
How we handle your information
Find out what you qualify for.
Takes about two minutes. No credit inquiry to start, and no SIN required — we only ask for that when a lender formally needs it.
Pre-qualification is not a mortgage approval or a commitment to lend. All mortgages are subject to lender approval.