What Credit Score Do You Need for a Mortgage? (2026)

CMHC's published minimum for an insured mortgage is a 600 credit score for at least one borrower or guarantor, confirmed directly on CMHC's own eligibility sheet. That's a regulatory floor, not the number that gets you a good rate. Most A-lenders set their own bar higher, Equifax Canada's own "good" band starts at 660, and CMHC's own housing-market data tracks the share of new mortgages held below 660 as a separate risk line. A practical target for someone shopping for a mortgage in the next year is comfortably above 680, not the bare 600 minimum.

What score actually gets you approved

CMHC's eligibility sheet for its Purchase program states it plainly: "At least one borrower (or guarantor) must have a minimum credit score of 600," alongside a maximum 39% gross debt service ratio and 44% total debt service ratio, calculated at the stress-test rate. Sagen and Canada Guaranty, the two other Canadian mortgage insurers, run similar underwriting. Below that score, CMHC's own guidance says it "may consider alternative methods of establishing creditworthiness" for people without a credit history at all, such as newcomers or recent graduates, a different situation from having a low score, which we cover separately in our newcomer mortgage guide.

600 is a floor a lender can go to, not a number most of them want to sit at. Individual banks and monoline lenders layer their own internal minimums on top of the insurer's rule, and those overlays aren't published the way CMHC's are. CMHC's own market-monitoring data uses 660 specifically as the line for tracking "new mortgage holders with credit score below 660," which is a useful signal of where the industry itself sees meaningful risk starting, even though it isn't a hard underwriting cutoff on its own.

What's actually on your credit report

Equifax Canada, one of the two bureaus lenders pull from, publishes its own score bands directly:

Source: Equifax Canada, "What is a good credit score." Checked 23 September 2026. TransUnion Canada uses a separate model with its own boundaries, which is why the same person's TransUnion and Equifax scores can look different even when nothing on either report has changed.

The bureaus weight a small set of factors, in roughly this order of impact: payment history (Equifax's own advice is blunt — "pay your bills on time, every time"), credit utilization (how much of your available limit you're using, with balances kept well under the limit rated better than balances near it), the length of your credit history, and the mix and recency of new credit applications. None of these are secret or gamed easily. They're also not equally fast to move: utilization can improve within one statement cycle, while length of history only gets longer one way.

What to do before you apply

Rate shopping itself is close to free, credit-wise. Equifax groups multiple hard inquiries for the same type of credit, mortgages included, within a window of 14 to 45 days (the exact window depends on the scoring model) and counts them as a single inquiry rather than several. A hard inquiry can stay on your report for up to 36 months, but Equifax's own guidance describes the score impact from shopping around as "likely minimal" next to what a better rate is worth. Concentrate your mortgage shopping into a short window instead of spacing pre-approval calls out over months, and don't apply for a car loan or a new credit card in the middle of it.

Utilization is the lever that moves fastest and is worth working first: pay down revolving balances at least one statement cycle before you expect a lender to pull your report, since the balance reported to the bureau is usually whatever showed on your last statement, not your current balance today. After that, clear anything actually late or in collections, since payment history carries more weight than almost anything else and a single missed payment can sit on the report for years. Don't close old credit cards you're not using right before applying; closing an account can shorten your average account age and reduce available credit, both of which can pull the number the wrong way at exactly the wrong time. None of this needs six months to work in most cases, but utilization and any collections need at least one full reporting cycle to show up corrected, so give it more than a few days.

Applying with someone whose credit is stronger

A lender can qualify a mortgage application on the strongest applicant's credit when two people apply jointly, which is why a partner, parent, or co-signer with a higher score sometimes solves a qualification problem faster than months of score-building would. It isn't automatic: the lender still looks at both credit reports and both incomes, and a second applicant with a thin file or a high utilization ratio of their own can drag the combined picture down instead of lifting it. That route also comes with real liability for the other person, not just a favour on paper. Whoever co-signs is on the hook for the full mortgage payment if you miss one, and the debt shows up against their own borrowing power the next time they apply for anything. Our co-signer obligations guide covers what they're actually taking on before you ask, and it's worth reading together before either of you signs anything.

R. Tiwari, founder of CostToClose, wrote and maintains this page. Every score threshold above is checked directly against CMHC's and Equifax Canada's own published pages, not against secondhand summaries of them. Last reviewed: 23 September 2026.

This guide gives general information for Canadian home buyers and sellers, checked against the sources listed above on the date shown. It is not legal, tax, or mortgage advice. Rules and rates change; confirm the current figures with your lawyer or notary, lender, or the government office that administers the tax before you rely on them.