Current Mortgage Rates

How Mortgage Rates Are Set in Canada

Two different engines drive the two kinds of mortgage rates. Variable rates are priced from your lender's prime rate, which moves in lockstep with the Bank of Canada's overnight rate: eight scheduled decisions a year, each one flowing through to variable-rate payments within days. Our Bank of Canada schedule guide lists every date and explains what each decision means for your mortgage.

Fixed rates don't follow the Bank of Canada directly. They're priced from Government of Canada bond yields: when the 5-year bond yield rises or falls, 5-year fixed mortgage rates follow within days to weeks. That's why fixed rates sometimes move when the Bank of Canada hasn't done anything at all. The full mechanics are in our guide to how bond yields drive mortgage rates.

What the Terms in This Table Mean

Term is the length of your current rate contract (one to ten years), not the time it takes to pay off the mortgage. That's the amortization, typically 25 or 30 years, spread across several consecutive terms. At the end of each term you renew, and every renewal is a chance to renegotiate or switch lenders without penalty.

Fixed means the rate is locked for the whole term; your payment never changes. Variable means the rate floats with prime: historically cheaper more often than not, and carrying a much smaller penalty if you ever break the term early. Our fixed vs variable guide walks through how to choose, and the mortgage glossary covers any other term on this page.

Insured vs uninsured also affects your rate: mortgages with less than 20% down carry default insurance, which protects the lender and often earns you a slightly lower rate than a comparable uninsured file, one of several reasons two borrowers with the same term can be quoted different numbers.

Posted Rates vs the Rates You Actually Pay

The big banks publish "posted" rates that almost nobody pays. The real market trades at a discount negotiated file by file. That gap matters twice. First, it means the rate you're offered depends heavily on who is negotiating for you and how many lenders they can put in competition. Second, at most major banks the discount you received gets used against you in the penalty formula if you ever break a fixed mortgage early, a mechanism most borrowers discover only when the payout statement arrives. We break down the arithmetic in our guide to how mortgage penalties are calculated.

How a Rate Hold Works

A rate hold locks today's rate for a set window (typically 90 to 120 days) while you shop for a home or wait out a renewal. If rates rise before you close, you keep the held rate; if they fall, you take the lower one. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing, which makes it one of the most underused tools in the market: renewal shoppers can hold a competing rate four months before maturity and let their current lender bid against it. If your renewal is inside that window, our Ontario renewal guide shows how to run that play step by step.

Why the Same Borrower Sees Different Rates

Advertised rates are a starting point, not a promise, which is why every rate on this page is on approved credit (O.A.C.) and subject to qualification. Lenders price each file on credit profile, income type (salaried files price differently than self-employed files), property type and use, loan-to-value, amortization length, and whether the mortgage is insured. Two neighbours with identical houses can be quoted rates half a percent apart on the same day. The practical takeaway: comparing advertised rates across websites tells you less than having one licensed professional price your file across many lenders at once, which is exactly what a free mortgage review does.