Total Debt Service Ratio (TDS)
Also known as: TDS · TDS ratio · Total debt service · Debt service ratio
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. Lenders generally want the total under 44%. Credit-card and line-of-credit minimums usually go in at 3% of the balance, whether or not that is what you actually pay each month.
Total Debt Service (TDS) is the share of a borrower's gross annual income consumed by ALL debt obligations at the qualifying rate, not just housing. The numerator includes everything in the GDS calculation (the mortgage principal and interest at the stress-test rate, property tax, heat, 50% of strata) PLUS minimum payments on car loans, credit cards (typically 3% of balance), lines of credit (typically 3% of balance), student loans, and any other reportable debt. Federally-regulated lenders generally cap TDS at 44% for high-ratio CMHC-insured deals; uninsured deals can stretch but rarely past 50%.
TDS is a lender-policy threshold, not statute — enforced through OSFI Guideline B-20 and CMHC underwriting. Lenders qualify on the worse of GDS or TDS: a borrower with a manageable mortgage but a $700/month car payment can fail TDS while passing GDS. Paying off a car loan or a credit-card balance in the weeks before you apply moves a debt-service-constrained pre-approval further than shopping for a slightly better rate does. The 44% threshold is tested at the qualifying rate; cash-flow at the contract rate is typically more comfortable.
Related terms
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
See also
Use any of these formats. Codex content is licensed under CC BY 4.0 — attribution required.
@misc{bronsonjob-osfi_b20_stress_test,
author = {Job, Bronson},
title = {{OSFI Guideline B-20 mortgage stress test}},
howpublished = {BC Real Estate Codex},
year = {2018},
url = {https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#osfi.b20.stress_test},
urldate = {2026-09-05},
note = {Fact ID: osfi.b20.stress_test, version 2.}
}Job, B. (2018). OSFI Guideline B-20 mortgage stress test. *BC Real Estate Codex*. Retrieved 2026-09-05, from https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#osfi.b20.stress_test
OSFI Guideline B-20 mortgage stress test — Bronson Job PREC, BC Real Estate Codex (2026-09-05). https://www.bronsonjob.com/codex#osfi.b20.stress_test
Fact id: osfi.b20.stress_test · v2 · machine-readable: /api/v1/facts/by-id/osfi.b20.stress_test.json
Verified sources (2)· 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.
- OSFIretrieved 2026-09-05Guideline B-20: Residential Mortgage Underwriting Practices and Procedureshttps://www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca/en/guidance/guidance-library/residential-mortgage-underwriting-practices-procedures
- Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutionsretrieved 2026-09-05Minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages: "The greater of the mortgage contract rate plus 2% or 5.25%"https://www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca/en/supervision/financial-institutions/banks/minimum-qualifying-rate-uninsured-mortgages
osfi.b20.stress_test · v2View in Codex →License: This definition is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cite as: "Total Debt Service Ratio (TDS)", BC Real Estate Glossary by Bronson Job, https://www.bronsonjob.com/glossary/total-debt-service-ratio.
