Owner-occupied commercial mortgages.
Stop paying your landlord's mortgage — buy the premises your business runs from, underwritten on the business itself. BC and Alberta.
Every month, your rent cheque retires a little of someone else's mortgage. Owner-occupied lending exists to flip that: because your business is both borrower and anchor tenant, the lender underwrites the operation rather than the real-estate market — which is why leverage runs higher, pricing runs better, and specialized buildings that scare investment lenders finance cleanly. The rent-vs-own question isn't sentiment; it's a spreadsheet, and for established businesses it usually only points one way.
The building your business calls home.
The shop, clinic, office, or bay your business already rents — owned instead, with rent becoming equity.
Owner-run industrial from a single strata bay to the whole building — see our industrial pages for asset detail.
Food-service, clinics, salons, and trades premises — underwritten on the operation inside them.
Occupy the majority, lease the rest — tenant income blends into your qualifying.
Equity out of premises you already own — funding expansion without touching the operating line.
The standard architecture: holdco owns, opco rents from it — structured with your accountant.
Three ways to own the premises.
The core product: your company's financials do the qualifying, so the building's investment metrics matter less than your operation's strength. The operating line stays untouched.
The federally backed lever that lets a growing business buy premises with minimal cash in — within its dollar caps. Perfect for the strata bay or small building; irrelevant above the cap.
Buys the building on the vendor's timeline, then refinances onto owner-occupied terms once the dust — or the fiscal year — settles.
Rates, ratios, leverage, and program caps are typical figures for illustration — last reviewed July 2026. Run the ownership math with the rent-vs-own-your-shop calculator and commercial payment calculator.
Files like yours.
Common own-your-premises questions.
What counts as an owner-occupied commercial mortgage?+
Financing for premises your business operates from — typically when it occupies the majority of the rentable area. The lender underwrites your company's cash flow blended with any tenant income, which is why leverage and pricing usually beat pure investment commercial: the building comes with its anchor tenant built in — you.
How much can my business borrow on its premises?+
Owner-occupied deals usually fund to about 75–80% of value, higher on strong files. Below the program caps, the federal CSBFP can push to 100% of eligible costs — real-property term loans max at $1,000,000 within a $1,150,000 per-borrower limit — which is often the difference between buying this year and renting three more.
Should my business rent or own its building?+
Run the actual numbers — our rent-vs-own-your-shop calculator does exactly this comparison. The pattern: rent is gone forever, while a mortgage payment part-builds equity in a holdco your accountant will thank you for; the trade is the down payment's opportunity cost inside the business. It's arithmetic, not philosophy.
Can I buy a building bigger than my business needs?+
Yes — occupy the majority, lease the rest, and the tenant income blends into your qualifying. It's a common growth play: the business buys its ceiling-height future, and tenants pay for the patience.
Why buy through a holding company?+
The standard structure — holdco owns the building, your operating company pays it rent — separates the asset from operating risk and sets up estate and tax planning cleanly. We finance inside these structures routinely and coordinate the details with your accountant; expect personal guarantees regardless.
How long does an owner-occupied purchase take to close?+
Plan on 45–75 days conventional — financial review of the business plus appraisal and any environmental set the pace. Where a vendor won't wait, a private bridge closes first and the owner-occupied mortgage follows.
Ready to own it? Have these ready.
Your accountant has most of this — forward the list, or have them call us directly; these files are built together anyway.
- Business financial statements — last 2 years
- T1s/T2s and Notices of Assessment for all owners
- Current lease (what you pay now makes the ownership case)
- The building — purchase contract or refinance details, and roughly what share you'll occupy
- Any tenant leases for space you won't occupy
- Corporate structure — holdco/opco chart from your accountant
- Personal net-worth statement per owner
- Environmental Phase I where the use calls for it — we can order
Your rent is someone's equity. Make it yours.
Send your current rent, the building (or the one you're eyeing), and two years of financials — we'll show you the own-vs-rent math and what your business qualifies for.