Most of the conversations I have about moving start with the new house. The one that gets missed is the mortgage already sitting on the current one. In a lot of cases it can come along.
That feature is called portability, and it is one of the more useful things buried in a mortgage contract. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada puts it plainly: ask your lender if you can port your mortgage, which means “taking your existing interest rate, terms and conditions with you to your new home.”
It is worth knowing how it works before you list, because a few of the moving parts are time-sensitive.
What porting actually does
A port keeps your existing mortgage contract alive and moves the security from the home you are selling to the home you are buying. Same rate, same terms, same maturity date. Your contract simply continues on a new address.
Because the contract never ends, there is nothing to break. That is the main appeal, and it is also why the paperwork matters: the lender is amending an existing agreement rather than writing a new one, and they will want the details lined up in advance.
The two closings and the gap between them
The cleanest version is a same-day move: your sale completes in the morning, your purchase completes in the afternoon, and the mortgage lands on the new title.
Life rarely lines up that neatly, so most lenders allow a window between the two closings. How long that window runs is set in your mortgage contract and varies from lender to lender, so it is one of the first things I check when someone tells me they are thinking about moving. Knowing the number before you negotiate closing dates is a lot easier than discovering it afterwards.
If the sale and the purchase cannot be arranged close together, bridge financing is the usual answer. It is short-term borrowing that covers the down payment on the new home until the sale proceeds arrive, and lenders will generally want your sale to be firm — subjects removed — before they commit to it.
When the new home costs more
Moving up usually means needing a larger mortgage than the one you are carrying. That is handled as a port with an increase, and the new money is blended with your existing balance so you end up with a single mortgage at a single blended rate.
Two things are worth asking for in writing: how the blend is calculated, and what maturity date the combined mortgage carries. Some lenders keep your original maturity date, others extend it. Both can work well; you just want to know which one you are getting.
If your mortgage is insured, the insurance can move too
This is the part that most people have never been told, and it is the reason I like to look at a move early rather than late.
If you bought with less than a 20% down payment, your mortgage is insured, and all three Canadian insurers let that coverage travel to the next property. The rules are published, so you can read them yourself:
A few points they share. At least one borrower from the original insured mortgage has to be on the new loan. The existing mortgage needs to be in good standing. You are reassessed for the new property, so income and credit get a fresh look. And the request to move the coverage generally has to be made within six months of your existing property’s closing date.
On a straight port — same balance, same or lower loan-to-value, and an amortization no longer than what remains on your current mortgage — CMHC charges no new premium at all.
Where a straight port is not the shape of your move, the insurers publish a premium credit that is measured from the closing date of your original purchase:
- Porting within 6 months: a credit of 100% of the original premium
- Within 12 months: 50%
- Within 24 months: 25%
Past two years the mortgage stays portable — CMHC and Canada Guaranty both say so explicitly — but the credit no longer applies. If you bought recently and are already thinking about the next place, that timing is real money and it is worth putting on the table early.
One more detail: if you need a longer amortization on the new home, CMHC allows a blended amortization, and its premium schedule applies a 0.60% surcharge when you use it.
What makes a move go smoothly
Start the mortgage conversation before you list, not after your offer is accepted. Ask your lender for your portability terms in writing — the window between closings, whether increases are allowed, and how a blend would be handled. Then line up the closing dates with those terms in front of you, because that is the single decision that makes everything else easier.
The new property is assessed on its own merits too. A condo with a particular strata profile, an acreage outside Kelowna, a home with a suite you plan to rent — each of these can shape which lender is the best fit, and that is worth knowing before subjects come off.
Porting is one option, not the only one
Sometimes carrying the existing mortgage forward is clearly the right move. Sometimes a fresh mortgage on the new home opens up more room — a different amortization, a structure that suits a rental suite, or terms that fit where you are heading next. I have access to more than 50 lenders, and the useful exercise is comparing the ported version against what else is available side by side, in numbers, before you decide. On conventional mortgages that comparison costs you nothing.
If your move involves a maturity date coming up, my mortgage renewal page covers how those two decisions fit together. If you are thinking about pulling equity out as part of the move, the refinance page walks through the limits.
And if you are somewhere between “we’ve been talking about moving” and “we’re listing in the spring,” that is a good time to get in touch. Reach me at kahlonmortgages.com/contact and we can look at what your current mortgage lets you do.