Mortgages
Understanding Mortgages

What’s better? Fixed or variable? The best one is the one that’s going to fit your needs the most.

With a variable rate mortgage, your interest rate change with CIBC’s prime rate—the amount you pay changes as the prime rates go up and down. It’s a good option when interest rates are low and you’re expecting them to stay low. 

With a fixed rate mortgage, you’ll know exactly what your rate will be for your term—you don’t have to worry about your interest payments changing. This option can help when planning and budgeting for the future.

See all rates

Before you go house hunting, it’s important to know much you can afford. Get all your information together: personal, employment and what you owe. You can apply to get pre-approved over the phone or online. 

Once that’s done, you can shop with confidence knowing how much you can actually spend on your home. And when you’re ready to buy, just contact us to complete a full application. 

Get a preapproval

You have a lot of options when you’re putting a down payment—you can put as little as 5% down¹ or as much as you want. Just remember how much you can afford and if your down payment is less than 20% of the price of the home, you’ll need mortgage insurance. You can find out more about Mortgage Default Insurance - General Disclosure (PDF, 41 KB) 

If you’re a first-time home buyer, you may even have the option of borrowing up to $25,000 from your RSP funds to put towards your down payment. You can visit the RSP Home Buyers Plan to learn more.

¹The minimum down payment amount is determined by the purchase price and other factors. Please contact us for details.

What is it? It’s the time it would take for your regular payments to fully pay off your mortgage. To keep your payments the lowest possible, you can choose up to 30 years². If you’d rather do it sooner, you can pay off your mortgage faster by choosing 25 years or less. Whatever you want to do, the choice is yours—the longer the amortization, the more interest you pay.

Prepayment Options

Become mortgage free sooner with flexible prepayment options that are available on most Simplii Financial mortgages. 

• You can make lump sum payments of up to 20% of your original principal each year
• Fixed rate mortgages: increase your payments (up to 25%) once each mortgage year
• Variable rate mortgage: increase your payment amount (provided that the amortization is not reduced to less than 5 years)
• Pay as much as possible at renewal—mortgages become open at renewal. This means you can pay as much as you want on your mortgage before you renew.

*Certain prepayment charges and limits apply to the Convertible mortgages. Ask for details.
 

Payment Frequency

Choose a payment frequency that will help balance your mortgage payment with your other bills and expenses. There are many payment frequency options that will fit your budget.

Creditor Life Insurance for Simplii Financial Mortgages

Creditor Life Insurance for Simplii Financial Mortgages³ helps provide you comfort in knowing your family home will be protected in the event you pass away. Simply put, Creditor Life Insurance is an affordable way to help protect one of your largest financial obligations.

Claims form

Life Insurance claim on your Simplii Financial Mortgage (PDF, 200 KB)

It’s better to know all your outside additional expenses so that you can factor them into the cost of purchasing your home.

Besides your down payment and mortgage, here are some other expenses to consider:

• Mortgage Default Insurance: If your down payment is less than 20% of the purchase price of your home you will be required to pay for mortgage default insurance. For more information visit Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)
• Legal fees: these include the cost of hiring a real estate lawyer to negotiate the purchase agreement and close the deal, as well as out-of-pocket expenses incurred by the lawyer for such things as title searches and registrations.
• Property insurance: This is an ongoing expense of owning a home and your lender will require you to provide proof of insurance before advancing funds.
• Property Appraisal: Lenders typically require a property appraisal be completed at the buyer's expense before finalizing your mortgage.
• Taxes payable on purchased land: Most provinces levy a one-time tax, usually called Land Transfer Tax or Property Purchase Tax, when you buy a home. This tax is usually based on a percentage of the purchase price of the home.
• Survey: It may be wise to obtain an up-to-date survey of the property you intend to purchase that outlines the exact size and boundary of your property, and shows the location of the home, fences and other structures on the property.
• Home Inspection: A home inspection by a qualified professional may save you headaches in the long run. A home inspector will be able to identify potential problems with the home or outline repairs that need to be made.
• Title Insurance: You may wish to purchase a title insurance policy to cover title-related issues such as certain types of fraud, encroachments or zoning non-compliance that may arise in connection with your new property.
• New Furnishings: Don't forget you'll want to furnish your new home. It makes sense to take these additional expenses into account.

Understand the registered charges for Real Estate Secured Lending (PDF, 2.3 MB)