Porting a Mortgage in Canada: How It Works and When It Beats Breaking It (2026)

What Porting a Mortgage Means

Porting lets you transfer your existing mortgage, its rate, remaining term, and balance, to a new property instead of discharging it and starting over. The main reason to do it: a discharge triggers a prepayment penalty, and porting avoids that penalty because the mortgage never technically closes early.

It only applies when you are selling one property and buying another. It is not available if you are simply refinancing or staying in place.

The Basic Requirements

Portability is a lender feature, not a legal right, and it comes with conditions:

• You must stay with the same lender, porting to a different lender is not possible
• Both the sale of your current home and the purchase of the new one must close inside the lender's portability window, typically 30 to 120 days apart
• You must requalify for the full new mortgage amount under the current OSFI stress test, your existing approval does not carry over automatically
• The specific mortgage product must be portable, not all of them are

When You Are Buying a More Expensive Home: Blend-and-Extend

This is the most common porting scenario, since most people who move are buying up. The lender keeps your existing balance and rate in place, then prices the additional amount you need at today's rate. The two are blended into one weighted rate on the full new mortgage, and most lenders reset the term to a new five-year period as part of the blend.

Example: a $300,000 balance at a 3.5% contract rate, plus $150,000 in new money priced at today's 5.25%, blends to a weighted rate somewhere between the two, well below what a brand-new mortgage at 5.25% on the full $450,000 would cost.

When You Are Buying a Cheaper Home

If your new mortgage amount is lower than your current balance, some lenders let you port the full rate and term onto the reduced amount with no penalty. Others treat the difference as a partial discharge and charge a prepayment penalty on the portion you are not carrying forward.

This varies by lender and is worth confirming in writing before you list your home, not after you have already accepted an offer on a smaller property.

What Disqualifies a Mortgage From Being Ported

• Many variable-rate and no-frills discount products are not portable at all, check your original mortgage documents or ask your lender directly
• Switching to a different lender always ends portability, you would be discharging and starting fresh, penalty included
• Missing the closing window between the sale and the purchase
• Failing to requalify for the full new amount under the current stress test

Porting vs Breaking: The Cost Comparison

Porting typically costs a $100-$300 administrative fee. Breaking the same mortgage outright and starting a new one can mean a prepayment penalty running from a few thousand dollars to well over $10,000 on a fixed-rate mortgage with several years left on the term, see our guide on how Canadian prepayment penalties are calculated for the full IRD-vs-three-months-interest breakdown.

For most people who are moving rather than staying, porting is the cheaper path whenever the product and timing allow it.

How to Make the Timing Work

The hardest part of porting is rarely the paperwork, it is closing two transactions close enough together to fit inside the lender's window. A few ways people manage it:

• Negotiate a longer closing period on the sale to line up with the purchase
• Use bridge financing to cover a short gap between the two closings
• Talk to your lender and broker as soon as you are seriously considering a move, not after you have already made an offer, since portability windows and requirements vary by lender

Questions to Ask Your Lender Before You Rely on Porting

1. Is my specific mortgage product portable?
2. What is the exact closing window, how many days apart can the sale and purchase be?
3. If I am buying a cheaper home, is the reduced portion subject to a penalty?
4. What happens if my purchase falls through after I have already sold?
5. Do I need to requalify under today's stress test for the full new amount?

Get the answers in writing before you count on porting as part of your moving plan.