The first purchase
Where the levers live: the tiered down payment, the 30-year insured amortization, FHSA and Home Buyers' Plan money, and the new-build rebate. Sequenced right, they compound.
Most files on this desk start with a purchase — a first home, the next one, or the rental that starts a portfolio. The rate matters less than two decisions made before the offer: which lane the file belongs in, and whether the mortgage is structured so the wealth strategies can bolt on later without breaking anything.
Every purchase lands in one of two worlds. Insured — smaller down payments, a government-backed insurance premium added to the loan, available on owner-occupied homes priced under the federal cap. Conventional — twenty percent down or more, no premium, longer amortizations available, and the only lane rentals and seven-figure properties can use. The lane decides the down payment, the amortization menu and often the pricing, so it's decided first.
Where the levers live: the tiered down payment, the 30-year insured amortization, FHSA and Home Buyers' Plan money, and the new-build rebate. Sequenced right, they compound.
Port the existing mortgage or break it — a penalty question before it's a rate question. The desk prices both against the new purchase before the offer goes in.
Conventional lane, typically 20% down — and qualification turns less on the rate than on how the lender treats the rent. That treatment varies enormously, and placing the file well is the job.
Inside the insured cap: 5% of the first $500,000 and 10% of the rest. A $700,000 home needs $45,000; a $1.2 million home needs $95,000. From $1.5 million the answer is 20%, and above that the high-net-worth and net-worth programs take over — down payments from 20% with assets standing in for income where the file needs it.
You qualify not at your contract rate but at the higher of that rate plus 2% or 5.25% — which trims maximum purchase price meaningfully. It's the same test everywhere, so it's not a reason to pick a lender; it's a reason to model the real budget before falling for a house. The payment tool shows both numbers honestly.
Yes — but lenders count it differently. Some add a share of the rent to your income; some offset it against the property's costs; the difference between those treatments can be an approval or a decline on the identical file. This is the quiet reason investor files belong with a broker: the desk knows which lender reads your rent most generously, before anything is applied for.
If there's any chance the wealth strategies are in your future — the Smith Manoeuvre, cash damming — then structuring the purchase on a readvanceable chassis costs little now and saves a full refinance later. It's the single cheapest piece of foresight on this desk.
Anonymized case studies for this program are being prepared from real funded files — nothing invented, ever. The federal figures above — the $1.5M insured cap, the tiered down payment, the stress-test formula — are verified against the current rules (the December 2024 insured reform, confirmed unchanged by OSFI in January 2026) and get re-verified as they move.
The offer is the loud part. The lane, the structure and the stress-tested budget are the quiet parts that decide how it goes.
Arrange a confidential introductionRamin Hallaji, Principal — licensed in British Columbia (BCFSA) and Alberta, Dominion Lending Centres Group · 778-879-6768 · ramin@privatewealthfinancing.ca
Information, not advice, and not an offer of financing. Federal rules and program parameters change and vary by lender and file; everything is confirmed against current requirements per file before anything is committed. All lending subject to approval, verification, and property valuation. Private Wealth Financing arranges mortgage financing only.