Grow your rental portfolio without the bank's limit.
We work with lenders who count 100% of your rental income to help you qualify — and don't cap how many properties you can own. Refinance for your next down payment, finance 5+ unit apartment buildings under CMHC, or hold through a corporation.
100% rental income countsBuy, fix, refinance strategyUp to 80% borrowing5+ unit CMHC programNo property limitHold through a corporation
Most Big-6 banks cap investor exposure at 4-5 doors, even for clients with $500K+ in equity. They’ll approve your first 2 rentals enthusiastically — then suddenly your TDS ‘doesn’t work’ on the third, even though your rental cashflow is strong. The branch can’t explain why. The answer: you’ve hit their portfolio limit, not a real qualifying issue. We move you to lenders without portfolio caps before that wall appears.
Investor mortgages are different from owner-occupied files. Each lender treats rental income inconsistently (50% offset vs 80% add-back vs 100% offset can be the difference between approval and decline), each lender’s stress test on your personal residence ripples into your investment file, and DSCR-style lending (qualify on property cashflow, not personal income) is now available in Canada from a handful of alt-A lenders. We model your file across all paths — A-lender, B-lender, credit union, and DSCR — to pick the right combination for your file size and growth plan.
What you get
Why Canadians choose Mortgage Squad Advisors.
Up to 80% LTV on small residential rentals (1-4 units, uninsured)
Up to 95% LTV on owner-occupied 2-4 plex (CMHC insured) — house-hack strategy
Up to 95% LTV on 5+ unit multifamily via CMHC MLI Select with energy/affordability concessions
Lenders that use 100% rental offset (rare but powerful for scaling investors)
DSCR-style products for portfolio investors — qualify on property cashflow, not personal income
BRRRR-friendly lenders who refinance at appraised post-renovation value (not original purchase price)
Multi-property portfolios — we coordinate concurrent files and avoid simultaneous-bureau-pull issues
Stress test optimization across your personal residence + investment files
Holdco and Bare Trust mortgage structuring with your accountant + lawyer
Maya AI runs cap rate, GRM, cashflow, and break-even models on every prospect before you offer
Instant check · no credit pull
Does the rental cash-flow? (DSCR check)
Lenders increasingly qualify rentals on the property's own income. See your debt-service ratio.
0.83
Estimated DSCR
Below 1.0 — needs more down or rent
Verdict
$2,768/mo
Est. mortgage payment
Estimates only — a licensed advisor confirms your file. FSRA #13737.
Personal residence, current rentals, target acquisition. We model the qualifying ratios at the new combined level using each lender’s rental offset method. Some files qualify at lender A and fail at lender B with the same numbers — we find the ‘yes.’
2
Match the lender
Pick the lender most generous on rental offset, most flexible on portfolio limits, and competitively priced. For investors past 5 doors, we transition to lenders without portfolio caps — sometimes A-lender monolines, sometimes B-tier with DSCR-style products.
3
Close and optimize
After funding, we monitor your portfolio rates and refinance opportunistically as policies change or you build equity. Many investors refinance into MLI Select once they have 5+ door experience to lock in lower rates and longer amortization on multifamily.
How do lenders count rental income — and why does it decide how many doors I can hold?
The single biggest variable in your file isn’t the rate — it’s how a lender treats the rent. There are three methods, and they produce wildly different debt ratios on identical numbers. The 50% rental offset (most conservative) subtracts half your gross rent from the property’s carrying cost; whatever’s left as a shortfall lands in your TDS as a liability. The 80% add-to-income approach — the most common A-lender method — pulls 80% of gross rent into your qualifying income. The 100% offset (specialty alt-A and a few A-lenders) credits the full rent against the property’s carrying cost, so a cash-flowing rental becomes ratio-neutral or even positive.
The difference compounds. By door three or four, a borrower on 50% offset is ‘maxed out’ while the same borrower on 100% offset still has room. We map your file against all three before submitting, so you’re not declined by a methodology you never chose.
How much down payment do I actually need on an investment property?
It depends entirely on whether you live in the building. A non-owner-occupied 1–4 unit rental is uninsurable, so you’re putting 20% down minimum — there’s no insured path around it. But the moment you occupy one unit of a 2–4 plex, the file becomes insurable through CMHC, Sagen, or Canada Guaranty multi-unit programs, and your down payment can drop to as little as 5–10%. That ‘house hack’ is the cheapest entry into multi-door real estate in Canada, and it’s wildly underused.
At 5+ units you leave residential rules entirely and enter CMHC MLI Select, where energy, affordability, and accessibility commitments stack into higher leverage and longer amortization. We model the owner-occupied vs. pure-rental scenarios side by side so you see exactly what occupancy buys you in capital saved.
Can I qualify on the property’s cash flow instead of my personal income?
Yes — this is DSCR-style lending, and it’s the tool that unlocks experienced investors whose T1s no longer tell the real story. Instead of testing your personal income against your total debt, the lender tests whether the property’s rent covers its own debt service, typically at a ratio of 1.10–1.25× (rent must cover 110–125% of the mortgage payment). Self-employed investors with aggressive write-offs, and portfolio holders whose paper income looks thin against their real net worth, are the natural fit.
It isn’t free — expect a rate premium versus a fully-qualified A file, and most DSCR programs want to see existing investor experience (often 3+ doors). But for the right borrower it removes the personal-income ceiling entirely. We know which Canadian alt-A lenders run genuine DSCR programs and what each one demands on coverage ratio, reserves, and experience.
How do I finance a BRRRR so I can recycle my down payment?
BRRRR — buy, renovate, rent, refinance, repeat — only works if your lender will refinance at the post-renovation appraised value, not your original purchase price. Most banks won’t; they cap you at purchase price for the first year, which traps your capital in the deal and kills the ‘repeat.’ The whole strategy lives or dies on lender selection.
We place the front end on financing that tolerates a property mid-renovation (sometimes a short-term or B-lender bridge), then line up the take-out refinance with a lender that recognizes forced appreciation and will pull up to 80% of the new appraised value back out as tax-positioned capital for your next acquisition. Timing the appraisal, the seasoning window, and the rent confirmation is where most DIY investors stall — Maya models the post-reno value and refinance proceeds before you ever write the offer, so you know the deal recycles before you commit.
How do I keep scaling once the stress test starts fighting me?
Past a handful of doors, the binding constraint stops being any single property and becomes the combined stress test across your whole portfolio — every door’s carrying cost, qualified at the higher of contract-rate-plus-two or 5.25%, stacks against your aggregate income. Velocity is the problem to solve. That’s when we structure: holding properties in a Holdco (or the lighter Bare Trust) to ring-fence liability and clean up personal ratios, sequencing files across lenders to avoid simultaneous bureau pulls, and using a B/alt lender deliberately for a deal or two when speed matters more than the lowest rate.
With access to 100+ lenders including specialty and portfolio shops, we route each acquisition to whoever has room — not whoever you happened to bank with. We’re FSRA-licensed (#13737), disclose our fees up front, and serve investors in 50+ languages.
“I had 4 rentals and my Big-6 bank said I’d hit my limit. Mortgage Squad Advisors moved me to a monoline that used 100% rental offset and didn’t cap doors. I closed 3 more properties in the next 18 months and refinanced two existing ones at better rates. Total portfolio cashflow up $4,200/month.”
— Daniel K., Real estate investor, Hamilton ON
FAQ
Common questions, answered.
Don’t see yours? Ask Maya — instant answer, any time.
How is rental income treated by Canadian lenders?
Each lender uses one of three methods: (1) 50% offset (most conservative — 50% of rental income reduces your TDS denominator), (2) 80% rental income added to gross qualifying income (most common A-lender approach), or (3) 100% offset (specialty alt-A and a handful of A-lenders — most powerful for scaling). The right method depends on your file’s strength and portfolio size. We pick the lender whose method gives your file the most room.
Can I use future rental income from a property I’m buying?
Yes. Most A-lenders accept 50% of a CMHC-approved appraiser’s market-rent estimate during purchase. Some accept 80-100% with a signed lease in place at closing (helpful for tenanted properties or pre-leased new builds). Specialty lenders may use a higher offset with strong investor experience.
Do I need 20% down on an investment property in Canada?
On non-owner-occupied 1-4 unit properties: yes, 20% minimum (uninsured rules). On owner-occupied duplex/triplex/fourplex where you live in one unit: as little as 5-10% via CMHC, Sagen, or Canada Guaranty multi-unit programs (great house-hack strategy). On 5+ unit multifamily: CMHC MLI Select can go as low as 15% down with energy/affordability/accessibility concessions stacked.
What is BRRRR and which lenders support it in Canada?
BRRRR = Buy, Renovate, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. Buy under-market property → renovate to force appreciation → rent at market → refinance at new appraised value to pull out down-payment capital → repeat. We use lenders who refinance at appraised post-reno value (not original purchase price) within 6-12 months: typically B-lender monolines and a handful of A-lenders with refi-friendly portfolio policies.
Can I use a HELOC for my investment property down payment?
Yes — and it’s the most common strategy for scaling investors. The new lender treats your HELOC monthly payment as a debt obligation in TDS calc, and the HELOC interest is generally tax-deductible if used for income-producing investment (consult your CPA). We coordinate the readvanceable structure on your primary residence to maximize accessible equity.
What’s a portfolio limit and when do I hit it?
Some Canadian lenders cap how many doors they’ll finance for one borrower — common caps: 4 properties at TD/RBC, 5 at Scotia, 6-10 at BMO, unlimited at certain monolines (MCAP, First National) and credit unions. Once you hit a lender’s cap, you move your next file to a lender without limits or to commercial-style underwriting for the entire portfolio.
Can my corporation or Holdco hold the mortgage?
Yes — Holdco and Bare Trust structures are common for investors at scale. Each adds complexity (corporate guarantor, additional underwriting, sometimes a rate premium of 25-50 bps). We work with your accountant and real-estate lawyer to structure cleanly. Bare Trust is the lighter option (mortgage in personal name, beneficial ownership in corp) and is generally preferred for files under 5 doors.
What is DSCR lending and is it available in Canada now?
Debt Service Coverage Ratio = qualifying based on the property’s rental cashflow rather than your personal income. Common in the US, now available in Canada from select alt-A lenders (Equitable Bank, Haventree, RFA, MCAN) for experienced investors with 3+ doors. Typical DSCR requirement: 1.10-1.25× (property cashflow must cover 110-125% of mortgage payment). Rate premium ~75-150 bps but unlocks files that can’t qualify on personal income.
How does the stress test affect investment property qualifying?
Same OSFI B-20 stress test applies: contract rate + 2% or 5.25%, whichever is greater. Stress test is calculated on the COMBINED file — personal residence + all rentals + new acquisition. As you scale, the stress test becomes the binding constraint, not appraised value. This is why rental offset methodology matters so much for portfolio investors.
What’s CMHC MLI Select and when does it make sense?
MLI Select is CMHC’s multifamily insurance product for 5+ unit residential properties. By committing to energy efficiency (10-40% improvement), affordable rents, or accessibility features, you can stack points that unlock up to 95% LTV, 50-year amortization (yes, 50), and rates 100-150 bps below uninsured commercial. Game-changer for serious multifamily investors. See /cmhc-multiplex-mortgage for the full breakdown.
