Tool

See what you can buy.

Enter two numbers, your net worth and your liquid cash, and we’ll estimate the size of building you could buy with CMHC MLI Select. Not sure of your numbers? Read the simple guide below first.

Buying power

Your numbers

CMHC wants your net worth to be at least 25% of the building price, plus about 10% of the price kept as liquid cash (on top of your 5% down payment). Enter what you have to see the building size that fits.

Total net worthEverything you own minus everything you owe.

Liquid assets (includes down payment)Cash and things you can sell fast. Include your down payment — CMHC counts it as part of your liquidity.

Heads up: we don’t look at buildings under $2.0M. That means you generally need at least $550K net worth and $200K liquid to get started.

Estimated building you could buy

$2.0M

Limited by your liquidity.

Down payment (5%)

$100,000

Liquidity to keep (10%)

$200,000

Est. insured loan (95%)

$1,900,000

Net-worth ceiling

$2.2M

Liquidity ceiling

$2.0M

Your equity in

$100,000

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The simple guide

Net worth vs. liquidity, made easy.

What is net worth?

Net worth is everything you own minus everything you owe.

Example: Your house is worth $1,000,000 and you owe $800,000 on the mortgage. Your net worth from that house is $200,000 ($1,000,000 − $800,000).

For MLI Select, your net worth should be at least 25% of the building price.

What is liquidity?

Liquidity is cash, or things you can turn into cash quickly. CMHC counts cash, stocks, half of your RRSP, a small amount of gold, HELOCs, and other lines of credit. You need at least 10% of the building price in liquidity, 15% is even better.

Key point: Liquidity is on top of your down payment. If you have $100,000 in cash and use all of it for the down payment, you have $0 liquidity left , and you would not qualify.

Liquidity also counts toward your net worth (but not the other way around). On a $10M building you’d need about $1M liquid; that same $1M also counts as 10% of your 25% net-worth requirement, so you’d only need to show another 15% in other assets.

When you’re ready to book a building with us, we’ll send you a detailed personal net-worth sheet and a real-estate portfolio sheet to fill out. These calculators are just a quick estimate to get you started.

This calculator is an illustrative tool, not an offer of financing or financial advice. Program parameters are set by CMHC and subject to change; actual terms, premiums, and approval depend on the specific building and applicant.