You found the next house. You also have a mortgage you quite like—decent rate, three years left, no drama. Do you really have to break it, eat the penalty and start over? Usually not. Most Canadian mortgages can be ported: picked up from the house you're selling and set back down on the one you're buying, rate and term intact. Done right, porting saves you a penalty that can run from three months' interest to a five-figure number. Done wrong—or assumed and never checked—it becomes an expensive surprise a week before closing.
Here's how porting actually works, where people get tripped up, and how to tell whether porting or breaking is the better math for your move.
What porting actually is
Porting means transferring your existing mortgage—same lender, same rate, same remaining term, same balance—to a new property. Instead of paying out the mortgage when you sell and taking out a brand-new one when you buy, the lender "moves" it. The big prize is the prepayment penalty you don't pay: on a variable that's three months' interest; on a fixed it's the greater of three months' interest or the Interest Rate Differential (IRD), and at some big banks the IRD alone can be a shocking number.
Three things people get wrong right away:
- Porting isn't automatic. You re-qualify. The lender reviews your income, credit and the new property exactly as if it were a new application, including the stress test. Porting protects your rate; it doesn't protect you from underwriting.
- Not every mortgage ports. Most standard fixed mortgages do. Many variable-rate mortgages can't be ported as-is—some lenders make you convert to a fixed first. And a lot of the ultra-low "no-frills" or restricted mortgages that looked so clever at the time either don't port at all or only within a tiny window. Your commitment letter says which one you have. If you can't find it, we can.
- The timing is the whole game. Which brings us to the catch.
The 30-to-120-day catch
Lenders give you a window between the sale of your old home and the purchase of the new one. Some want the two to close on the same day. Many allow 30 days. A generous few allow 90 or 120. Miss the window and the port is dead; you've paid out the old mortgage and you're applying for a new one at today's rates, penalty included.
Two ways the timing plays out:
- Sale closes first. Your mortgage is paid out on the sale date and the lender charges the penalty. If your purchase closes inside the port window, they refund it (or credit it) once the new mortgage funds. Budget for that gap—the money leaves your account before it comes back.
- Purchase closes first. Now you need the down payment for the new house before your equity is freed up. That's bridge financing, and it needs a firm sale on the old place. The port still works; the bridge just covers the overlap.
Our rule: know your port window before you list, and build your possession dates around it, not the other way round. The best possession date in the world doesn't help if it's day 35 of a 30-day window.
Port and increase (a.k.a. blend and extend)
Most people moving up need more mortgage, not the same one. Lenders handle this by blending: your existing balance keeps your existing rate, the new money gets today's rate, and the two are combined into one weighted-average "blended" rate. Then there's a fork:
- Blend to term: the blended rate runs to your original maturity date. Cleaner, but the new-money portion is priced a bit higher because it's a short term.
- Blend and extend: the whole thing resets to a new five-year term at the blended rate. More common, and more profitable for the lender, because you've just re-committed for five years without shopping.
Blended rates are rarely the lender's sharpest. Sometimes the blend still beats breaking; sometimes a clean new mortgage at a competitor beats both, even after the penalty. This is exactly the comparison we run for you—three columns, one page, no guessing.
Port and decrease (downsizing)
Moving to something smaller and need less mortgage? You can port the smaller amount, but the portion you're paying off is treated as a prepayment. If it fits inside your annual prepayment privilege (typically 10–20% of the original balance), no penalty. If it's bigger, you'll pay a penalty on the excess only. Sometimes it's worth timing a lump-sum prepayment before the sale to use this year's privilege first. More on the whole downsizing picture in Downsizing: What Happens to Your Mortgage.
When porting beats breaking—and when it doesn't
Porting wins when your current rate is lower than what you'd get today and the penalty to break is large. Think: a 2.5% five-year fixed with two years left, in a 4.5% market—that penalty will be enormous and that rate is worth protecting.
Breaking wins when your current rate is higher than today's, or when the penalty is small (variable, or a fixed near the end of its term) and a new mortgage gets you a better rate, better terms or a lender that actually treats you well. Occasionally you'll even get a lender to cover part of the penalty to win your business.
Also weigh the soft stuff: porting means staying with a lender you may have outgrown, on terms you may no longer love, for a term you may not want. A "free" port that locks you into a mediocre lender for five more years isn't free.
What the process looks like
- Six months out: tell us you're thinking of moving. We pull your mortgage statement and commitment letter and confirm three things—can it port, what's the window, and what's the penalty today.
- Before you list: get pre-approved for the new purchase, including the blended-rate scenario and the break-and-replace scenario side by side. Now you know your ceiling and your possession-date constraints.
- Offer accepted: we submit the port (or the new mortgage), line up bridge financing if the dates overlap, and coordinate with your lawyer so the payout, refund and new funding land in the right order.
- Closing: the old mortgage is discharged, the new one registers, and the penalty—if it was charged—comes back within the window.
Questions we get about porting
Can I port an insured (CMHC) mortgage?
Yes. The insurance is portable too, and on a port-and-increase you generally pay a premium only on the new money rather than the whole balance again. It's one of the reasons an insured mortgage isn't the disadvantage people assume.
Can I port to a rental or a cottage?
Usually not. Porting is almost always limited to an owner-occupied home, and the new property has to meet the lender's normal criteria. A recreational or rental purchase is a new application.
Can I port if I'm buying before I sell?
Yes, with bridge financing covering the down payment until the sale closes. You need a firm, unconditional sale agreement for that. Start with Bridge Financing 101.
My partner and I are separating. Can one of us port?
Sometimes, if the person keeping the mortgage qualifies on their own. More often the cleaner route is a spousal-buyout refinance on the existing home or a fresh mortgage on the new one. Tell us early; it changes the strategy.
What if my lender says no?
Then the decision is made for you, and we shop the new mortgage across every lender we work with. A "no" on the port usually means a lender that wasn't going to give you their best rate anyway.
The short version: porting is a tool, not a default. Find out early whether you have it, exactly how long the window is, and what the penalty would be. Then compare porting, blending and breaking on the same page. We'll do all three in one conversation—still deciding whether to sell first or buy first? Start there.
