Hamilton is an investor market, and multiplex financing has a rule most buyers miss
More than most Ontario cities of its size, Hamilton's mortgage flow is driven by small-scale investors — duplex conversions in the lower city, purpose-built two- to four-unit properties, and renovation-and-hold files across the Durand and Stoney Creek stock. The federal rule that matters most here is the one that made those deals dramatically easier: an owner-occupied 2-to-4-unit property can be financed on the insured tiered minimum down payment — 5% on the first $500,000 plus 10% on the balance — on purchases up to $1.5 million. That is a fundamentally different cash requirement than the 20% floor that applies to a non-owner-occupied rental, and it is the reason a first property in Hamilton is so often a duplex rather than a single-family home. The catch is the phrase owner-occupied: you have to live in one of the units. Buy the same building as a pure investment and default insurance is unavailable, 20% down is the floor, and the file is underwritten on the property's economics as much as yours. Rental income is then counted one of two ways — a rental add-back of roughly half the gross rent onto your income, or a rental offset netting a larger share directly against the property's carrying costs — and which method a lender uses can decide whether the ratios clear. Our multiplex financing page sets out the program in full.