30-Year Amortization Eligibility
Also known as: 30-year amortization · 30-year mortgage
Insured mortgages can be amortized over 30 years instead of 25, but only for first-time buyers and for anyone buying newly built housing. The change took effect December 15, 2024, and it raises what a buyer qualifies for by stretching the payment out.
Effective December 15, 2024, CMHC-insured mortgages permit a 30-year amortization (vs. the standard 25-year maximum) for two specific borrower categories: (1) all first-time home buyers regardless of property type, and (2) any buyer — first-time or repeat — purchasing newly constructed housing. The longer amortization reduces the monthly principal-and-interest payment by roughly 8-12% versus a 25-year amortization at the same rate, improving affordability and qualifying capacity at the cost of more lifetime interest paid.
Work it out with your own numbers
Affordability and stress-test calculatorRelated terms
- CMHC Default Insurance Cap — The maximum home purchase price eligible for CMHC default mortgage insurance — raised from $1,000,000 to $1,500,000 effective December 15, 2024.
- OSFI Mortgage Stress Test (B-20) — OSFI Guideline B-20 requires federally-regulated lenders to qualify mortgage borrowers at the greater of (a) the contract rate plus 2 percentage points or (b) the Bank of Canada qualifying rate (5.
- Gross Debt Service Ratio (GDS) — The share of your gross income that housing alone takes up: the mortgage payment, property tax, heat, and half of any strata fee.
- Total Debt Service Ratio (TDS) — Gross debt service widened to every debt you carry: car payments, credit cards, lines of credit and student loans on top of the housing costs.
See also
Use any of these formats. Codex content is licensed under CC BY 4.0 — attribution required.
@misc{bronsonjob-cmhc_amortization_30yr_eligibility,
author = {Job, Bronson},
title = {{30-year amortization eligibility (insured mortgages)}},
howpublished = {BC Real Estate Codex},
year = {2024},
url = {https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#cmhc.amortization_30yr_eligibility},
urldate = {2026-09-05},
note = {Fact ID: cmhc.amortization_30yr_eligibility, version 1.}
}Job, B. (2024). 30-year amortization eligibility (insured mortgages). *BC Real Estate Codex*. Retrieved 2026-09-05, from https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#cmhc.amortization_30yr_eligibility
30-year amortization eligibility (insured mortgages) — Bronson Job PREC, BC Real Estate Codex (2026-09-05). https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#cmhc.amortization_30yr_eligibility
Fact id: cmhc.amortization_30yr_eligibility · v1 · machine-readable: /api/v1/facts/by-id/cmhc.amortization_30yr_eligibility.json
Verified sources (1)· re-verified 2026-09-05Click to expand
Every claim on this page is sourced to a primary government, regulator, or industry-association URL. We re-verify quarterly; the verification dates below show when each source was last confirmed against the live government page.
- Government of Canadaretrieved 2026-09-05· published 2024-09-16Government Announces Boldest Mortgage Reforms in Decadeshttps://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2024/09/government-announces-boldest-mortgage-reforms-in-decades-to-unlock-homeownership-for-more-canadians.html
cmhc.amortization_30yr_eligibility · v1View in Codex →License: This definition is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cite as: "30-Year Amortization Eligibility", BC Real Estate Glossary by Bronson Job, https://www.bronsonjob.com/glossary/cmhc-30yr-amortization.
