How a line of credit affects a mortgage application
Lenders consider factors like a borrower’s creditworthiness, income and existing debt before lending them money.
When it comes to mortgages, they want to know what percentage of your income will be spent on housing costs, to ensure you can afford your future mortgage payments. This is called the gross debt service ratio (GDS), and it is based on your mortgage principal and interest, taxes, heating costs and condo fees (if applicable) divided by your income.
But lenders also want to know that you will be able to pay your mortgage in addition to all your other existing debt. To figure this out, they use your total debt service ratio (TDS). It is calculated by adding other debt obligations, such as line of credit payments, to the expenses already included in the GDS formula, and then dividing by your income.
For many home buyers, paying down a line of credit may improve their TDS. By paying off the line of credit, their debt-to-income ratio drops, and this increases the amount they can borrow on a mortgage. In other words, paying down a line of credit can increase your mortgage affordability.
In July 2021, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reintroduced pre-COVID underwriting practices for homeowner mortgage insurance typically required for purchases in which the borrower has less than a 20% down payment.
Specifically, CMHC requires:
- At least one of borrowers on the mortgage to have a credit score of 600 or more. The same applies to a guarantor for the borrower(s).
- A borrower’s gross debt service (GDS) ratio to be under 39%.
- A borrower’s TDS ratio to be under 44%.
The “other debt obligations” part of the formula can have an impact on first-time homebuyers or those with down payments of under 20%—specifically, an increase in TDS ratio may reduce the size of a mortgage approval. But even those with large down payments may face limits on how much they can borrow when they carry a lot of non-mortgage debt.
Watch: MoneySense – Does debt impact your mortgage application
Jason Heath
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