Apartment building & multi-family mortgages.
Purpose-built rental, acquisitions, refinances, and construction take-outs across BC and Alberta — from a six-unit walk-up to a new rental tower, insured or conventional.
Multi-family is the one commercial asset class where the government actively subsidizes your cost of capital — CMHC's MLI Select program insures 5+ unit rental housing at leverage and amortization no conventional lender can touch. But the program is point-scored, paperwork-heavy, and slow, and plenty of good buildings are better served by a conventional or bridge lane. Our job is to score your project against all three before you commit, and to structure the file so the cheapest capital you qualify for is the capital you get.
Every stage of a rental building's life.
Walk-ups, low-rise and mid-rise apartment buildings held for rental income — the core CMHC-insurable asset class.
MLI Select construction-to-permanent financing — construction and the 10-year take-out underwritten together.
Buying an existing building — insured to 95% loan-to-value under MLI Select point tiers, or conventional at 65–75%.
Repricing a maturing loan, or pulling equity for the next acquisition — MLI Select applies to refinance too.
Buildings with ground-floor commercial can still qualify for CMHC where the non-residential share stays within 30% of floor area and lending value.
Several smaller buildings financed as a program — one strategy, staged executions, one point of contact.
CMHC multi-unit programs extend to retirement homes at 50+ units or beds.
Private or conventional bridge while a building stabilizes, exiting into insured financing once the rent roll supports it.
Three ways to fund a multi-family building.
Insured, conventional, or bridge — three very different costs of capital, timelines, and qualifying rules. We size every file against all three before recommending a lane.
The lowest cost of rental capital in Canada. The trade: a 6–9 month commitment runway and point commitments (affordability, energy efficiency, accessibility) that drive your leverage and amortization. We score the project before you apply so there are no surprises.
Faster than CMHC — plan on 45–75 days — with no insurance premium and no point commitments. Costs more per month; the right choice when the timeline or the asset rules out insured financing.
A bridge, not a destination: buy or stabilize now, then exit to conventional or CMHC-insured financing once the rent roll supports it — the refinance window is usually 12–24 months of trailing performance.
Rates, ratios, and leverage are typical ranges for illustration — program assumptions last reviewed July 2026 — and depend on the asset, the sponsor, and market conditions. Run the numbers with our commercial mortgage payment calculator and cap rate calculator, then we confirm your file's numbers in writing.
A file like yours.
Challenge: Sponsor wanted maximum leverage and long amortization to hold long-term.
Structure: MLI Select scoring on affordability and energy commitments; documentation run in parallel with appraisal to compress the timeline.
Outcome: 95% leverage band, sub-conventional insured pricing, 45-year amortization.
Details simplified and anonymized. Every file is different — outcomes depend on the asset, the sponsor, and market conditions. Read full case studies →
Common apartment-financing questions.
How many units make a building a commercial multi-family mortgage?+
Five or more residential units puts a building into commercial multi-family territory, underwritten on the property's income rather than yours alone. One-to-four unit properties are financed as residential mortgages — often a better fit for a first rental. We place both, so you don't need to know the lane before you call.
How much down payment do I need for an apartment building in BC or Alberta?+
Conventional lenders typically want 25–35% down (65–75% loan-to-value). CMHC MLI Select changes the math entirely: as little as 5% down (95% LTV) on purchase or refinance for projects that score well on affordability, energy, or accessibility commitments under its 50 / 70 / 100 point tiers.
What is CMHC MLI Select?+
CMHC's flagship multi-unit insurance program for 5+ unit rental housing. Projects earn points for affordability, energy efficiency, and accessibility commitments; higher tiers (50 / 70 / 100 points) unlock up to 95% loan-to-value and amortization up to 50 years, at insured spreads typically 100–175 bps inside conventional pricing — the lowest cost of rental capital in Canada.
What debt-service coverage (DSCR) do multi-family lenders require?+
Conventional banks and credit unions typically require 1.20–1.35x, stress-tested at a rate above contract — commonly contract plus roughly 150–200 bps. CMHC MLI Select underwrites to a 1.10x coverage floor under its point-tiered framework, which is a big part of why insured leverage goes so much higher.
How long does a multi-family mortgage take to close?+
Plan on 45–75 days for a conventional file and 60–120 days for CMHC MLI Select — CMHC's turnaround drives the timeline, and a full commitment runway can run 6–9 months. We run documentation, appraisal, and environmental in parallel to compress it wherever possible.
Can a mixed-use building qualify for CMHC financing?+
Yes, within limits: the non-residential portion must stay within 30% of both gross floor area and lending value. A typical main-street building with ground-floor retail and apartments above often qualifies. Beyond that threshold, the file is placed conventionally or through private capital.
Can I refinance a private or high-rate multi-family loan into CMHC?+
Yes — it's one of the most common files we run. Stabilize the building (rent roll, leases, expenses), order a current appraisal and Phase I, then place the file with an insured or conventional lender. The right window is usually 12–24 months after the bridge funded, once trailing financials support the coverage test.
Does MLI Select cover new rental construction?+
Yes — up to 95% loan-to-cost on construction, with the long-amortization take-out underwritten in the same approval. The commitment runway is longer (plan 9–12 months), so the application starts well before the shovel does.
Financing a building? Have these ready.
A complete package gets a term sheet weeks faster — and on MLI Select files, early preparation is the whole game.
- Current rent roll with lease terms and any vacancy detail
- Last 2 years property operating statements (income & expenses)
- T1s/T2s and Notices of Assessment for all sponsors
- Personal net worth statement per sponsor
- Property tax and insurance statements
- Recent appraisal and environmental Phase I if available — we can order both
- Purchase contract or existing mortgage payout statement
- Corporate org chart if the building sits in a holdco/opco structure
- For MLI Select: any affordability, energy, or accessibility commitments you're prepared to make
Have a building in mind? Score it first.
Tell us about the property — units, rents, and your plan — and we'll tell you which lane fits and roughly what MLI Select could unlock, before you spend a dollar on reports.