There is no physician rate.
There is your rate.

There is no single physician mortgage rate or resident home loan interest rate in Canada. The rate a lender offers is set by the same inputs it uses for every borrower: the length of the term, fixed or variable, the lender's posted rate and any discount, whether the mortgage is insured, your down payment, your credit history, how your income is documented, and the lender itself. A physician program mainly changes how your income is read, so comparing offers only works when those inputs match.

Searches for physician mortgage rates, physician loan interest rates and resident home loan rates all assume there is one number for doctors. There is not. Lenders price each file from its parts, and two physicians on the same day can be offered different rates for good reasons.

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada lists what the rate a lender offers may depend on:

• The length of the mortgage term.
• The type of interest you choose, fixed or variable.
• The lender's current posted rate.
• Your credit history.
• Whether you are self-employed.
• Whether you qualify for a discounted rate.
• The type of lender, such as a bank or credit union.
• The specific lender.

Where a physician program helps is qualification. It can read projected attending income during training, or corporate income once you are incorporated. That changes how much you can borrow and which lenders will look at the file. The pricing inputs above still apply.

Down payment decides whether the mortgage is insured. Under 20% down, mortgage default insurance is required, and the lender usually passes the premium on to you. Insured and uninsured mortgages sit in different pricing groups because the insurance changes who carries the risk of default.

Two Ontario details matter at closing. The provincial sales tax on the premium is charged in Ontario, and it cannot be added to the loan, so it is a cash cost. And the amortization changes: with less than 20% down the maximum is 30 years for a first-time buyer or a new build, and 25 years otherwise. A longer amortization lowers the payment but not the rate.

Terms run from a few months to five years or longer. The term you pick sets the rate, whether it is fixed or variable, the penalty if you break the mortgage early, and how soon you renew.

A fixed rate stays the same for the whole term and is usually higher than a variable rate for a similar term. A variable rate can rise or fall during the term. Variable rates follow the lender's prime rate, and prime can change when the Bank of Canada changes its policy rate. The Bank sets that rate on eight fixed dates each year.

• Shorter or longer term: a different rate, a different renewal date and a different penalty exposure.
• Fixed: one rate for the term, usually higher than variable at the start.
• Variable with fixed payments: the payment stays put while the interest share moves.
• Variable with adjustable payments: the payment changes when the rate changes.

None of this tells you which way rates are going. It tells you which number you are actually comparing.

Three things in your file show up in pricing more than physicians expect.

• Credit history. Your credit history is on the federal list of rate factors. Pull your own report before you apply so nothing on it is a surprise to you or the lender.
• How income is documented. Self-employment is on the federal list for a reason. A locum or incorporated physician whose income is read from returns or corporate statements can see different pricing from a salaried one.
• Other products. By law a bank cannot require you to take another product to approve a mortgage. It can offer better terms if you also take one, such as a lower rate when you open other accounts with it.

The stress test does not set your rate, but it sets how much you qualify for at that rate. Uninsured mortgages are tested at the greater of the contract rate plus 2% or 5.25%. At renewal, an uninsured straight switch to another federally regulated lender with no increase to the amount or amortization does not need to be stress tested again, which makes shopping at renewal easier.

Most rate comparisons fail because the offers are not built the same way. Line them up before you look at the number.

1. Same term length.
2. Same rate type, and for variable, the same payment style.
3. Same insured status and the same down payment.
4. Same amortization.
5. Then compare the penalty to break the mortgage, prepayment privileges and portability, since those decide what the mortgage costs if your plans change after training.
6. Ask whether the rate depends on any other product, and what happens to it if you close that product.

For a resident or new attending in Ontario, the useful question is not what the physician rate is. It is what rate your file earns on the term and structure you actually want. That takes one call with your stage, down payment and line of credit balance.

Figures in this guide come from the sources below. Each entry shows the date the source published it, or the date it was accessed when the source does not state one. The page carries a review-by date; after November 2027 treat any number as a starting point and check the source.