Canadian math · Ontario rules · Toronto's own tax

Toronto mortgage calculator

What a Toronto mortgage costs each payment, how long it runs, what it costs in total, and how much sooner it ends if you pay a little more. Built on the Canadian semi-annual convention, so the numbers match what a lender will quote you, and written beside the two closing costs this city adds that most calculators do not know about.

The purchase

20.0% down. The minimum on this price is $67,820.

Lenders qualify you at the higher of this rate plus 2 points and 5.25%: 6.34% here, a payment of $4,902.04.

Payment frequency

An accelerated schedule is the monthly payment split in two or four and paid every two weeks or every week: thirteen monthly payments a year instead of twelve, which is where the shorter amortization comes from.

The contract length, not the amortization. At the end of it you renew at whatever rates are then available.

Paying it down faster

Most lenders cap annual prepayments at 10–20% of the original principal, and charge a penalty above it. Check your own commitment before planning around a large lump sum.

Where the money goes, year by year

Early payments are almost all interest. The crossover (the year principal finally exceeds interest) is the real shape of an amortized loan, and it is much later than most people expect.

Interest and principal paid in each year of the mortgageStacked columns, one per year. The lower band is principal, the upper band is interest. The same figures are listed in the table below.
PrincipalInterest
Show the first two years of the schedule
PaymentAmountInterestPrincipalBalance
1$4,044.08$2,661.63$1,382.45$741,178
2$4,044.08$2,656.67$1,387.41$739,790
3$4,044.08$2,651.70$1,392.38$738,398
4$4,044.08$2,646.71$1,397.37$737,000
5$4,044.08$2,641.70$1,402.38$735,598
6$4,044.08$2,636.67$1,407.41$734,191
7$4,044.08$2,631.63$1,412.45$732,778
8$4,044.08$2,626.56$1,417.52$731,361
9$4,044.08$2,621.48$1,422.60$729,938
10$4,044.08$2,616.38$1,427.70$728,510
11$4,044.08$2,611.27$1,432.81$727,078
12$4,044.08$2,606.13$1,437.95$725,640
13$4,044.08$2,600.98$1,443.10$724,196
14$4,044.08$2,595.80$1,448.28$722,748
15$4,044.08$2,590.61$1,453.47$721,295
16$4,044.08$2,585.40$1,458.68$719,836
17$4,044.08$2,580.18$1,463.90$718,372
18$4,044.08$2,574.93$1,469.15$716,903
19$4,044.08$2,569.66$1,474.42$715,429
20$4,044.08$2,564.38$1,479.70$713,949
21$4,044.08$2,559.07$1,485.01$712,464
22$4,044.08$2,553.75$1,490.33$710,974
23$4,044.08$2,548.41$1,495.67$709,478
24$4,044.08$2,543.05$1,501.03$707,977

Derived from the figures above, not a lender's statement. A real schedule also depends on your closing date and the lender's rounding.

Your payment
$4,044.08
every month

Payment $4,044.08 every month. Paid off in 25 years. Total interest $470,663.

Monthly equivalent$4,044.08
Mortgage amount$742,560
Paid off in25 years
If you start now, aroundAugust 2051
Total interest$470,663
Total paid$1,213,223
Balance at renewal (5 yr)$650,202
Principal 61%Interest 39%

Why the Canadian number is different

A Canadian fixed-rate mortgage compounds twice a year, not twelve times, even though you pay monthly. That single convention is the reason a calculator written for the American market overstates the payment. On a $500,000 loan at 5% over 25 years the Canadian payment is $2,908.02; run the same loan with monthly compounding and you get $2,922.95. Fifteen dollars a month sounds trivial and comes to more than $4,000 over the amortization.

Toronto charges the land transfer tax twice

This is the Toronto-specific line, and it is large. Ontario levies a marginal land transfer tax on every purchase in the province, and the City of Toronto Act lets this one city levy a municipal one on top of it. It has done so since 2008. Below $2,000,000 the two carry identical brackets, so the effect is simply to double the tax.

On the $928,200 benchmark home that is $15,039 to the province and $15,039 to the City, or $30,078 in total, due in cash on closing day. The same purchase in Ottawa attracts the provincial tax alone. A first-time buyer can claim up to $4,000 back from the province and up to $4,475 from the City, which is $8,475 of the $30,078.

Ontario taxes the insurance premium, in cash, at closing

If you put down less than 20% the lender requires mortgage default insurance, and the premium is added to the mortgage and paid off over the amortization. The 8% provincial sales tax on that premium is not. It is due in cash on closing day, alongside both land transfer taxes and the lawyer.

On the benchmark home the minimum down payment is 5% of the first $500,000 plus 10% of the rest, or $67,820. That triggers a premium of $34,415, which goes into the loan, and $2,753 of Ontario retail sales tax, which does not. Add the two transfer taxes and a buyer at the minimum down payment needs roughly $101,000 in cash beyond the down payment itself. Budget the closing cheque before the down payment, not after.

Accelerated payments are not a trick of the arithmetic

A regular bi-weekly payment is the amortized payment converted to a fortnightly schedule; it finishes at the same time a monthly one would. An accelerated bi-weekly payment is the monthly payment cut in half and paid twenty-six times a year. Thirteen monthly payments' worth of money instead of twelve. The shorter amortization is not clever compounding, it is simply paying more. On a benchmark-priced Toronto home with 20% down, that one setting takes the loan from 25 years to about 21.8 and saves roughly $69,800 in interest.

The term is not the amortization

The amortization is how long the loan takes to disappear. The term is how long your rate is locked: five years, usually. At the end of it you renew whatever is left at whatever rates exist then, which is why the calculator shows the balance at the end of the term as prominently as the payment. On a $742,560 principal you would still owe about $650,202 after five years, and a one-point move at renewal would add roughly $349 a month to the payment.

What this cannot tell you

A lender qualifies you at the higher of your rate plus two points and 5.25%, so the payment you can afford and the payment you must qualify for are different numbers; both are shown above. Property tax, condo fees, heat and home insurance are not in the payment either, and in Toronto two of those deserve particular care. The property tax line is charged on a 2016 assessment, so the rate on a bill is not a rate on what you paid. And a condominium fee is not a fixed cost: it is set by a budget and backed by a reserve fund, and the status certificate is the document that tells you whether either is in trouble. For those, and for the comparison against renting, use the rent versus buy calculator.

Sources

  1. Market Watch, July 2026 · Toronto Regional Real Estate Board · retrieved
    Supports: A City of Toronto MLS® HPI composite benchmark of $928,200 in July 2026, down 3.83% year over year, City of Toronto benchmarks of $1,455,200 single-family detached (down 4.40%), $1,146,300 single-family attached (down 4.00%), $725,300 townhouse (down 5.75%) and $551,900 apartment (down 7.09%), An All TRREB Areas composite benchmark of $934,600, down 4.63%, covering the region rather than the City, A GTA average selling price of $1,003,956 in July 2026, down 4.5% year over year, 5,995 sales, 14,484 new listings (down 17.8%) and 26,098 active listings (down 12.1%) in July 2026, District benchmarks for Toronto C02 ($1,302,900 composite, detached down 2.15%, apartment down 14.65%), C14 ($888,100), E07 ($735,600) and W06 ($814,300)
  2. Rental Market Survey: Toronto, average rent by bedroom type, October 2025 · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved
    Supports: Toronto CMA average purpose-built rents of $1,491 bachelor, $1,761 one-bedroom, $2,045 two-bedroom and $2,294 three-bedroom-plus, An overall purpose-built average of $1,917, A Toronto CMA purpose-built vacancy rate of 3.0%, the highest since 2021
  3. Property tax rates and fees, 2026 · City of Toronto · retrieved
    Supports: A 2026 total residential rate of 0.767311%: 0.605295% city, 0.153% education and 0.009016% City Building Fund, The City's own worked example of $692,140 of assessment at 0.767311%, which is $5,311, Education rates set by the province and city rates set by council
  4. City of Toronto's 2026 Budget now final · City of Toronto · retrieved
    Supports: A combined 2026 residential property tax and City Building Fund increase of 2.2%, MPAC's average Toronto current value assessment of $692,140, An increase of $91.53 a year, or $7.63 a month, on that average assessment
  5. Municipal Land Transfer Tax rates and fees · City of Toronto · retrieved
    Supports: A municipal land transfer tax charged on top of the provincial one, on Toronto purchases only, Brackets of 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5% and 4.4%, with further bands above $3,000,000, A first-time buyer rebate of up to $4,475 of the municipal tax
  6. Premium information for homeowner and small rental loans · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved
    Supports: Mortgage default insurance premium rates by loan-to-value
  7. Regulations amending the Insurable Housing Loan Regulations and the Eligible Mortgage Loan Regulations (SOR/2025-55) · Canada Gazette, Part II · retrieved
    Supports: The $1.5 million insured price cap, 30-year amortization for first-time buyers and new builds
  8. Minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages · Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions · retrieved
    Supports: The qualifying rate of the contract rate plus two points, or 5.25%
  9. Interest rates charged for new and existing lending by chartered banks · Bank of Canada · retrieved
    Supports: The default mortgage rate of 4.34%, uninsured five-year-plus fixed, funds advanced May 2026
  10. Calculating Land Transfer Tax · Ontario Ministry of Finance · retrieved
    Supports: Provincial transfer tax brackets, The conditional 2.5% band
  11. Municipal Land Transfer Tax rates and fees · City of Toronto · retrieved
    Supports: Toronto municipal transfer tax brackets, First-time buyer rebate
  12. Residential rent increases · Government of Ontario · retrieved
    Supports: 2026 rent increase guideline of 2.1%, The 2018 occupancy exemption
  13. Retail Sales Tax · Government of Ontario · retrieved
    Supports: 8% retail sales tax on insurance premiums

These are estimates built from published figures, not a lender quote, a pre-approval or financial advice. Rates, premiums and provincial rules change; confirm anything you plan to act on with a mortgage professional and read the sourcing methodology.