Renewal is the one moment your mortgage is up for negotiation: start a few months early, get competing written offers, and know the 21-day renewal statement, the straight-switch stress-test exemption, and the costs of moving lenders before you sign.
Applies in: across Canada
Your mortgage term ending is not your mortgage ending. A term runs a few months to five years or longer, and at the end of each term you either pay the balance in full or renew. Most people renew several times before the balance is gone, and each renewal is the one moment the rate, the term, and the lender are all open at once. The renewal letter your lender sends is a starting offer, not a final price. This guide walks through the process the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada lays out: start early, gather competing offers, negotiate with proof, and choose deliberately among renewing, switching, and refinancing.
The timing of this guide is dated. On October 28, 2026, the Bank of Canada raised its policy rate by 25 basis points to 2.5 percent, its first increase since July 2023, and the next scheduled decision date is December 9, 2026. That decision does not set your renewal rate, and this guide quotes no mortgage rates: lender rates move on their own schedules and go stale within days. Recheck the Bank of Canada decision calendar before you plan around any rate expectation, and judge every offer on the numbers written in it, not on headlines.
Renewing, switching, and refinancing sound similar and are treated differently by lenders and regulators. Sorting them out first keeps the rest of the process straight.
Renewing means signing a new term with your current lender for the remaining balance. You stay where you are, with the same lender's approval process and the same registration. The renewal statement your lender sends is the offer for this path.
Switching means moving the same mortgage to a different lender at renewal, for the same loan amount and the same remaining amortization. The new lender approves a fresh application, and the mortgage is re-registered in its name. Switching is the path that lets a competing offer do real work, and it is the path with its own qualifying rule, covered below.
Refinancing means changing the mortgage itself: borrowing more, extending the amortization, consolidating other debts into the mortgage, or breaking the term early to restructure. Refinancing is a new borrowing decision with full qualifying rules, and it can happen mid-term as well as at renewal. If your plan involves more money or a longer repayment period, say so at the start, because it changes which rules and which costs apply.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's first piece of advice is timing: start shopping around a few months before the end of your term, contact various lenders and mortgage brokers, and do not wait until you receive the renewal letter. The reason is the legal floor. A federally regulated lender, such as a bank, must provide a renewal statement at least 21 days before the end of the existing term, and must also notify you 21 days ahead if it will not renew your mortgage. Twenty-one days is a deadline, not a shopping window. By the time the statement arrives, a switch application, an appraisal, and a registration may not all fit.
Starting early also opens the rate hold. A rate hold is a lender's commitment to honour a quoted rate until a set date while your application proceeds. Many lenders hold a rate for 90 to 120 days, and many let you renew early without a penalty around four months before maturity. Those are lender practices, not legal rules, and they vary: the hold length, whether a lower rate before closing is passed on to you, and whether walking away costs anything are all questions to put to each lender in writing. A hold protects you against a rate rise while you compare; it does not oblige you to borrow from that lender, and it is not the same as final approval.
Early in the process, confirm four facts from your own documents: your maturity date, your remaining balance, your remaining amortization, and whether your mortgage is registered with a standard charge or a collateral charge. The charge type decides how hard switching is, and it takes time to sort out, so ask your lender, lawyer, or notary while there are still months to run.
When the statement arrives, read it against the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's contents list. It must contain the balance or remaining principal at the renewal date, the interest rate, the payment frequency, the term, and any charges or fees that apply. It must also specify that the interest rate offered will not increase until your renewal date. You may receive a mortgage renewal contract at the same time as the statement.
Check three things beyond the rate. First, whether the statement says the renewal will happen automatically if you do nothing, and what term and rate that automatic renewal uses. Second, whether the offered rate is the lender's posted rate or a discounted rate, and what term it covers. Third, whether anything in the statement changes your payment frequency, your prepayment options, or the charges that apply. The statement is the document your negotiation starts from, not a form to sign on arrival.
This is also the moment to review your mortgage needs, as the agency suggests. Consider whether your budget allows larger payments that would pay the mortgage off sooner, whether you want to change your payment frequency, whether you are likely to make additional payments, whether you are satisfied with your current lender's service, whether consolidating higher-interest debts makes sense, and whether you still need optional life, critical illness, disability, or employment insurance tied to the mortgage. Answering those questions before you negotiate keeps the negotiation about your needs, not only about the rate.
Negotiation is an expected part of renewal, and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada describes exactly how it works. Negotiate with your current lender. You may qualify for a discounted interest rate that is lower than the rate quoted in your renewal letter. Tell your lender about offers you received from other financial institutions or mortgage brokers, and be ready to provide proof of those offers. Have the written offers on hand when you call.
Get every offer in writing, from your current lender and from each competitor, with the same details: rate, term, payment frequency, payment amount, charges and fees, and how long the rate is held. Comparing offers on the rate alone hides the differences that cost money over a term: a longer or shorter term, a different payment frequency, and different charges all change what you pay. Ask each lender to confirm its offer in writing before you use it as leverage, and keep the documents together in one file so the negotiation is a comparison of documents, not a recollection of phone calls.
Do not treat a broker quote and a lender quote as the same kind of document. A broker can present offers from several lenders, and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada counts brokers among the sources worth contacting. Whichever source an offer comes from, the test is the same: is it written, does it name the rate and the term, and does it state how long it holds.
If you decide to switch, the new lender approves a new application for the same loan amount. It may use different criteria than your original lender. You will sign registration documents as part of the new mortgage contract, and you may have to meet with your lawyer or notary.
Find out the costs before you commit. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada lists setup fees with the new lender, which may include discharge, registration, transfer, or assignment fees from your current lender; an appraisal fee to confirm the value of your property, if one is necessary; and other administration fees. Ask whether the new lender is willing to pay for some or all of the costs of switching, and get that commitment in writing. This guide gives no cost figures: the amounts depend on the lenders involved, the province, and how the mortgage is registered, and a figure carried from another borrower's file would mislead more than it helps.
Mortgage loan insurance needs its own check. You may have to pay a new mortgage loan insurance premium when you switch lenders if the amount of your loan increases or you extend the amortization period. If you already have mortgage loan insurance, tell the new lender, and ask your existing lender for the certificate number. The existing certificate may help you avoid paying premiums twice. A straight switch, with no increase in amount or amortization, does not trigger the new-premium cases the agency names.
The collateral charge is the part people discover late. If your mortgage is registered with a collateral charge and you want to switch, you may have to pay fees covering the removal of the charge and the registration of a new one, and you must meet criteria to remove the charge, including repaying in full or transferring to the new lender all loan agreements secured by it, which can include car loans or lines of credit. Ask your lender, lawyer, or notary whether your mortgage carries a collateral charge, and allow a few months before your renewal date to consider your options in light of how it is registered.
The most consequential rule for switchers is recent. Effective November 21, 2024, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions no longer requires a set minimum qualifying rate for uninsured straight switches at renewal. A straight switch means moving an uninsured mortgage from one federally regulated lender to another with no increase to the amortization period and no increase to the loan amount. In that case, the new lender is not required to qualify you at a prescribed higher rate.
That exemption is narrower than it sounds, in three ways. First, it covers uninsured mortgages switching between federally regulated lenders; if your mortgage is insured, ask your lender how the qualifying rules apply to your file. Second, the new lender still underwrites the application under sound residential mortgage underwriting principles, and it sets its own qualifying approach based on its risk appetite and policy, so the exemption removes a prescribed floor, not the approval step. Third, anything beyond a straight switch, an increase in the loan amount, a longer amortization, or added borrowing, takes the transaction outside the exemption and back under the regular qualifying rules.
Do not confuse the qualifying rate with the rate you pay. The qualifying rate is the rate used to test whether you can afford the mortgage. The contract rate in your offer is the rate your payments are calculated at. The exemption changes the test for a straight switch; it does not change your payments.
Renewing early, before the maturity date, is possible with many lenders, often around four months out, but the terms are the lender's, not a right. An early renewal usually means signing the new term ahead of schedule, and the rate hold or early-renewal offer will state its own conditions. Ask whether renewing early changes your maturity date, your payment amount, or any prepayment terms, and get the answers in the renewal agreement itself.
Breaking a term mid-stream is different again. Ending a mortgage before its maturity date can trigger a prepayment penalty, and the penalty calculation depends on your agreement. Your lender must disclose penalty information in your mortgage documents, and you can ask for a specific penalty quote before you decide anything. Do not estimate a penalty from another borrower's experience. If a lender offers to fold a penalty into a new mortgage, ask what that does to the loan amount and the amortization, because both changes can move the transaction out of straight-switch territory.
Keep one file for the renewal, on paper or digitally, with the documents every step above refers to. It should hold your current mortgage agreement, the renewal statement and any renewal contract, each competing written offer with its hold terms, your mortgage loan insurance certificate number if you have one, and the new lender's application documents and registration papers if you switch. If an appraisal is required, keep the appraisal instructions and the fee receipt with the file. When a lender makes a verbal promise, ask for it in writing and add it to the file. Renewal disputes are almost always document disputes, and the file is what settles them.
This guide describes process only. It does not recommend a fixed or variable rate, a term length, a lender, or a broker, and it does not forecast where rates are going. The Bank of Canada's October 28, 2026 decision is stated as a dated fact with the next decision date, December 9, 2026, as the recheck point for the rate context in this guide. Everything else in the guide is process that does not expire on a decision date, but the offers you receive do: judge each offer on its written terms at the time you receive it, and recheck the official pages in the Sources list before you rely on any rule stated here.
Figures this guide deliberately does not carry: no lender mortgage rates, no prime rate, no switching cost totals, and no penalty figures. Those numbers are specific to a lender, a province, and a file, and they change constantly. Where this guide names a number, it is a rule or a date verified on an official page: the 21-day renewal statement rule, the November 21, 2024 straight-switch effective date, the 90-to-120-day range lenders commonly use for rate holds, and the October 28 and December 9, 2026 Bank of Canada dates.
No. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada states plainly that you do not have to renew with the same lender, and that you can move your mortgage to another lender if its conditions better suit your needs. The new lender will need to approve your mortgage application, and it may use different criteria than your original lender used. Starting a few months before your term ends gives you time to compare offers and complete an application with a new lender before the renewal date, instead of deciding from the single offer in your renewal letter.
Your mortgage may renew automatically. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada warns that if you do not take action, the renewal of your term may be automatic, which means you may not get the best interest rate and conditions. If your lender plans on automatically renewing your mortgage, it will say so in the renewal statement. Read that statement for the automatic-renewal wording before you assume nothing will happen, and treat the statement as a deadline: a federally regulated lender must send it at least 21 days before the end of your term, and 21 days is very little time to shop around if you have not started.
For a straight switch of an uninsured mortgage, no set minimum qualifying rate is required. Since November 21, 2024, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions no longer requires a set minimum qualifying rate when a borrower switches an uninsured mortgage from one federally regulated lender to another, provided neither the amortization period nor the loan amount increases. That is the whole definition of a straight switch. The new lender still applies sound underwriting under Guideline B-20 and sets its own qualifying approach, so approval is not automatic. If you increase the loan amount or extend the amortization, the move is no longer a straight switch, and the regular qualifying rules apply. If your mortgage is insured, ask your lender how the qualifying rules apply to your file rather than assuming the uninsured rule covers you.
Start a few months before the end of your term, and do not wait until you receive the renewal letter. That is the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's advice, and the reason is arithmetic: the renewal statement only has to arrive 21 days before your term ends, which leaves almost no time to gather competing offers, apply with a new lender, and finish an appraisal if one is needed. A rate hold is a lender's promise to honour a quoted rate until a set date. Many lenders hold a rate for 90 to 120 days, but the length, the conditions, and whether a lower rate before closing is passed on vary by lender and product, so ask each lender for its exact hold length and terms in writing. A hold is not final approval, and it does not oblige you to take that lender's mortgage.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada lists the cost types to find out before you decide: setup fees with the new lender, which may include discharge, registration, transfer or assignment fees from your current lender; an appraisal fee to confirm the value of your property, if one is necessary; and other administration fees. Ask whether the new lender is willing to pay some or all of these costs, and get the answer in writing with the offer. Two further cost checks matter. First, mortgage loan insurance: you may have to pay a new premium if the loan amount increases or the amortization period is extended, so tell the new lender you already have mortgage loan insurance and ask your existing lender for the insurance certificate number, which may help you avoid paying twice. Second, registration: if your mortgage is registered with a collateral charge, switching can mean extra fees to remove the old charge and register the new one, and every loan secured by that charge may have to be repaid in full or transferred. This guide states no switching cost figures, because the amounts depend on your lender, your province, and how your mortgage is registered.
Ask your lender, your lawyer, or your notary. That is the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's answer, and it is the only reliable one: the charge type is a registration fact about your mortgage, not something you can tell from your payment amount. It matters because a collateral charge secures more than the mortgage balance alone, and switching lenders may require paying fees to remove the charge and register a new one, and repaying in full or transferring to the new lender all loan agreements secured by the collateral charge, which can include a car loan or a line of credit. The agency advises allowing a few months before your renewal date to sort this out, so ask the question early in the process, while you still have time to weigh the costs against the rate saving.