Down payment
Down Payment: How Much You Need to Buy in Calgary
The down payment question has a short answer and a long one.
The short answer is a percentage. The long answer is what that percentage changes.
Down payment
The down payment question has a short answer and a long one.
The short answer is a percentage. The long answer is what that percentage changes.
In Canada the minimum down payment is set as a percentage of the purchase price, and it steps up as the price rises. Homes above a certain price threshold require a larger minimum, and above a higher threshold mortgage default insurance is not available at all — which means a substantially larger down payment.
These thresholds are set federally and can change, so treat the figures below as current rather than permanent. The calculator applies the current rules, and Al confirms them against your specific purchase before you rely on them.
Lenders care about the source, not just the amount, and they will ask for it to be traced. Common sources include:
Money that appears in an account shortly before closing without a traceable history tends to create delays. If a gift is coming, tell your mortgage professional early.
Putting every available dollar into the down payment can leave you without a cushion for closing costs, moving, immediate repairs or an emergency.
There is a real trade-off between a lower monthly payment and having money left after possession day. It is worth deciding deliberately rather than by default.
Put down less than 20% and your mortgage must carry default insurance. It protects the lender, not you — and it is also the reason a lender will lend at 5% down at all. CMHC is the best-known insurer; Sagen and Canada Guaranty provide the same cover, and your lender chooses which one.
Do not treat “avoid mortgage insurance at all costs” as a rule. Waiting years to reach 20% has its own cost in rent paid and time out of the market, and insured mortgages often carry slightly lower interest rates than uninsured ones, which offsets part of the premium. Near the line, the FHSA or the Home Buyers’ Plan can sometimes carry you over 20% and remove the premium entirely.
The break-even depends on your price, your rate and how long you will hold the mortgage — a calculation to run with a broker on real numbers rather than settle with a rule of thumb.
The thresholds below are the ones in force as we write this. They are set federally and they do change, so treat them as a starting point and let Al confirm them for your purchase — but buyers plan better with the actual figures in front of them than with a description of a rule.
Because the tiers stack, the minimum climbs faster than the price. On a $700,000 home it is $45,000 — $25,000 on the first $500,000 plus $10,000 on each $100,000 above it. On a $900,000 home it is $65,000. And crossing $1,500,000 does not nudge the requirement, it jumps it, because insurance disappears and 20% becomes the floor.
Two consequences worth planning around. If you are shopping just under $500,000, a modest price increase costs you more cash than you expect. And if you are shopping near $1,500,000, the minimum on a $1,499,000 home is just under $125,000, and on a $1,501,000 home it is just over $300,000.
Source: Department of Finance Canada and CMHC, current as at September 2026. See also what else you need in cash at closing and how the down payment interacts with what you qualify for.
Al can confirm the minimum for your price range and how the amount affects what you qualify for.
Free account · no cost, no obligation
One free account opens the whole toolkit — the guides we write for Calgary buyers and sellers, the checklists we actually use on deals, the video library, and a concierge that answers your questions any time of day.
Takes about twenty seconds. Unsubscribe any time.