Private Mortgage Options in Vaughan: What to Know

Let's start where most articles on this topic end. A private mortgage is expensive, it is short-term, and if you don't have a written plan to get out of it, you should not be taking one.

That's not a disclaimer buried at the bottom. It's the whole point. Private lending is a bridge across a specific gap for a specific length of time. Used that way, it solves real problems. Used as a permanent solution, it does damage — usually to the people who were most desperate to hear "yes."

The short answer

• Private lenders underwrite the property and the equity, not primarily your income or credit score.
• Terms are short— commonly around a year, often interest-only.
• You pay a higher rate plus fees— lender fee, broker fee, legal. All of it must be disclosed to you in writing before you commit.
• It only makes sense with a written exit: refinance to a better lender, sell, or finish the repair that got you here.
• Sometimes the answer is no. If there's no exit, a private mortgage postpones the problem and adds cost to it.

What a private mortgage actually is

A private mortgage is a loan secured against your home from a non-institutional lender — an individual investor, a group of investors, or a mortgage investment corporation — rather than a bank or a B lender.

Because they aren't federally regulated, they sit outside the federal stress test. People hear that and think "loophole." It isn't one. It describes who is willing to take a risk regulated lenders won't, and the price of that willingness is the rate and the fees. Nothing was waived; it was bought. Our private mortgages and alternative lending pages set out the tiering, and how private lenders work in the GTA covers the mechanics.

What it costs — and why we won't put a number here

Private pricing varies by lender, position, property and file. Any article giving you a specific private rate or fee percentage is out of date or guessing. Structurally, expect:

• A materially higher rate than an A or B lender.
• A lender fee, typically deducted from the advance.
• A broker fee — unlike a standard A deal, where the lender compensates the broker.
• Legal and appraisal costs.

The only thing you need to remember about cost: make them show you the total, in writing, including every fee, before you sign anything. Not the rate — the total. If anyone is reluctant, or wants you to commit before you've seen it, walk away. The reluctance is the answer.

The equity question — and the Vaughan version of it

Private lending is equity-driven. How much of your home's value a private lender will go to depends on the lender, the property, and the position — it varies, and anyone quoting you a universal ceiling is inventing it.

What's specific to Vaughan is the size of the equity in play. The detached average is $1,621,631 (TRREB, June 2026, 162 sales, down 2.2% year over year) and the all-types average is $1,185,018. Long-held homes here often carry substantial equity, which is exactly why private lending comes up in local conversations — the security is there.

That cuts both ways: the equity that makes you approvable is the equity you're putting at risk. A private mortgage is registered against your home. That's not a reason never to use one. It's a reason to be certain about the exit.

Where private actually fits in Vaughan

The situations that legitimately come up here:

• A builder closing that financing didn't survive. Vaughan runs on new construction, and your real approval happens at final closing — against your income and the rules then, not the ones at signing. When something shifted in between, or the closing appraisal comes in under the purchase price, there's a gap and a hard date. That's the classic short-term case. Sometimes the right instrument is bridge financing, not a private mortgage — they aren't the same thing, and the cheaper one wins.
• Self-employed income that doesn't document cleanly — often better served by a B lender. See self-employed mortgages before assuming private is the answer.
• Bruised credit mid-repair, where the plan is a return to better pricing — bad credit mortgage help in Vaughan.
• Registered basement-suite income an A lender won't count. Whether suite rent counts, and how much, varies materially by lender — and that variation, not your creditworthiness, is sometimes the whole problem. The fix may be a different lender, not a private one.
• Multi-generational files where co-applicant or co-signer treatment differs between lenders. Same point: shop the file first.

Notice the pattern. In most of those, private is the last option to check, not the first.

The exit is the deal

Before you take a private mortgage, you should be able to finish this sentence with a date and a mechanism: "I get out of this by ____, by doing ____." Legitimate exits:

• Refinance to an A or B lender once the specific issue is resolved — refinances are capped at 80% loan-to-value, so the equity has to support it. See mortgage refinancing.
• Sell. Unglamorous and frequently the right call.
• Complete the repair — the credit rebuild, the tax filing, the two years of business history — on a real timeline.

"Rates might drop" is not an exit. "We'll figure it out next year" is not an exit. If the plan is to renew the private mortgage indefinitely, the honest description isn't a bridge — it's a slow bleed, and you should hear that from us before you hear it from your statement.

When we'll tell you not to

If there's no exit, if the payment doesn't work on your actual cash flow, or if what you'd net after fees doesn't solve the problem you came in with — the answer is no, and we'd rather say it. Selling, waiting, or fixing the underlying issue first is often the better outcome, and nobody's commission should change that.

We're at 310-3100 Steeles Ave W, Vaughan, FSRA brokerage #13737. Take your time, ask for everything in writing, and get a second opinion if you want one. If you'd like to talk it through: private mortgages in Vaughan, or contact us. No pressure, and no timeline from our side.

Figures: Vaughan average selling prices, TRREB, June 2026 — all types $1,185,018 (333 sales, -2.9% YoY), detached $1,621,631 (162 sales, -2.2%), condo apartment $604,412 (96 sales, -8.7%). Private mortgage rates, fees, loan-to-value limits, terms and position vary by lender, property and file — no figure in this article should be read as a quote. All costs must be disclosed to you in writing before you commit; do not commit without them. Refinance loan-to-value is capped at 80% under current federal rules. Suite-income treatment and co-signer policy vary by lender. General information, not mortgage advice for your specific situation.