Vancouver mortgage calculator
What a Vancouver 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.
The purchase
20.0% down. The minimum on this price is $83,880.
Lenders qualify you at the higher of this rate plus two points and 5.25% — 6.34% here, a payment of $5,750.21.
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.
Show the first two years of the schedule
| Payment | Amount | Interest | Principal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $4,743.80 | $3,122.15 | $1,621.65 |
| 2 | $4,743.80 | $3,116.34 | $1,627.46 |
| 3 | $4,743.80 | $3,110.50 | $1,633.30 |
| 4 | $4,743.80 | $3,104.65 | $1,639.15 |
| 5 | $4,743.80 | $3,098.77 | $1,645.03 |
| 6 | $4,743.80 | $3,092.88 | $1,650.92 |
| 7 | $4,743.80 | $3,086.96 | $1,656.84 |
| 8 | $4,743.80 | $3,081.02 | $1,662.78 |
| 9 | $4,743.80 | $3,075.06 | $1,668.74 |
| 10 | $4,743.80 | $3,069.08 | $1,674.72 |
| 11 | $4,743.80 | $3,063.08 | $1,680.72 |
| 12 | $4,743.80 | $3,057.05 | $1,686.75 |
| 13 | $4,743.80 | $3,051.01 | $1,692.79 |
| 14 | $4,743.80 | $3,044.94 | $1,698.86 |
| 15 | $4,743.80 | $3,038.85 | $1,704.95 |
| 16 | $4,743.80 | $3,032.74 | $1,711.06 |
| 17 | $4,743.80 | $3,026.61 | $1,717.19 |
| 18 | $4,743.80 | $3,020.45 | $1,723.35 |
| 19 | $4,743.80 | $3,014.27 | $1,729.53 |
| 20 | $4,743.80 | $3,008.07 | $1,735.73 |
| 21 | $4,743.80 | $3,001.85 | $1,741.95 |
| 22 | $4,743.80 | $2,995.61 | $1,748.19 |
| 23 | $4,743.80 | $2,989.34 | $1,754.46 |
| 24 | $4,743.80 | $2,983.05 | $1,760.75 |
Derived from the figures above, not a lender's statement. A real schedule also depends on your closing date and the lender's rounding.
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.
The $1.5 million line matters here
Mortgage default insurance is unavailable at $1,500,000 and above, where the minimum down payment jumps to 20%. In most Canadian cities that line is an edge case; in Vancouver it cuts straight through the detached market, whose benchmark sits near $1.82 million. Below the line, the minimum is 5% of the first $500,000 and 10% of the rest, with a premium of 2.80% to 4.00% of the loan added to the mortgage. There is no BC sales tax on that premium; in Ontario there is 8%, payable in cash at closing.
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 Vancouver home that one setting takes about three years off the loan.
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 Vancouver-sized principal, a one-point move at renewal changes the payment by hundreds of dollars a month, which is why that number deserves more attention than it usually gets.
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, strata fees, heat and home insurance are not in the payment either — and neither is BC's property transfer tax, which adds five figures at closing. For those, and for the comparison against renting, use the rent versus buy calculator.
Sources
- Metro Vancouver home sales lose brief momentum — July 2026 statistics · Greater Vancouver REALTORS® · retrieved Supports: Composite benchmark price of $1,088,800, Benchmark prices by property type
- Rental Market Survey — Vancouver (CY), average rent by bedroom type, October 2025 · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: One-bedroom average rent of $1,860, Two-bedroom average rent of $2,638, Metro vacancy rate of 3.7%
- Property tax rates · City of Vancouver · retrieved Supports: 2026 total residential levy of $3.36394 per $1,000 of taxable value
- Home owner grant · Province of British Columbia · retrieved Supports: The grant of up to $570 on an eligible principal residence
- Premium information for homeowner and small rental loans · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: Mortgage default insurance premium rates by loan-to-value
- 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
- 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%
- 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
- Property transfer tax · Province of British Columbia · retrieved Supports: Transfer tax brackets, First-time buyer and new build exemptions
- Rent increases · Province of British Columbia · retrieved Supports: 2026 rent increase guideline of 2.3%
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.