Amherst
Amherst duplex as a rental: 20% down, no insurance
How much do I need down for a non-owner-occupied duplex in Amherst, and how is the rent counted?
How much do I need down for a non-owner-occupied duplex in Amherst, and how is the rent counted?
20%, because no government-backed insurer covers a rental you will not live in, a rule since April 19, 2010. On a $330,000 Amherst duplex that is $66,000 down plus $4,950 of deed transfer tax. How much of the $2,600 monthly rent counts is each lender’s own policy; none publishes the percentage.
Illustrative example
The situation
- Location
- Amherst, Cumberland County
- Borrower
- A registered nurse who owns her home in Amherst, buying a first rental
- Income
- $82,000, salaried; her own mortgage costs $1,350 a month
- Credit
- Mid-700s; no other debt
- Purchase price
- $330,000
- Down payment
- $66,000
- Mortgage
- $264,000
- Payment at 4.45%
- $1,454 a month
- Down payment $66,000
- Mortgage $264,000
Amherst, Cumberland County; Northern Nova Scotia region, where the August 2026 NSAR average was $332,251.
The challenge
A nurse who owns her home in Amherst wanted a first rental: a side-by-side duplex in the east end with both units tenanted. She had $66,000 saved and assumed 5% or 10% down would work as it had on her own house. Her own mortgage of $1,350 a month had to be carried alongside the new one.
What the lender looked at
- 20% down from her own or gifted funds, traceable over 90 days; the home she lives in stays as it is.
- Rental income: lenders either add a percentage of the gross rent to her income or offset a percentage against the payment. That percentage is each lender’s own policy and is not published. CMHC’s insured, owner-occupied approach counts 100% of gross rent on a two-unit and 50% on three or four, a contrast rather than the rule here.
- Both mortgages qualified at the greater of the contract rate plus 2% and 5.25%: $1,760 a month on the duplex, plus her own housing costs.
- The bounds: with none of the rent counted her total debt service is 55%; with all $2,600 added to income it is 40%, against a 44% ceiling. Each lender lands somewhere between.
- Signed leases, a rent roll and the last twelve months of deposits; a vacant unit is counted at the appraiser’s market rent, sometimes discounted.
What was done
The file was placed with a lender whose rental treatment brought the ratios under the ceiling on the leases as signed, at 20% down and no insurance. The two leases, the rent deposits and the appraiser’s market-rent schedule went in with the application. A fifth unit would have made it a commercial mortgage; a duplex stays residential, on residential pricing.
The outcome
Illustrative outcome: a $264,000 conventional mortgage over 25 years at 4.45% (chartered-bank prime rate, Bank of Canada, 2026-09-16), about $1,454 a month against $2,600 of gross rent, before tax, insurance, maintenance and vacancy. Cash on closing: $70,950 for the down payment and Town of Amherst deed transfer tax, plus legal fees.
Go deeper
The detail, if you want it
What to take from it
- Ask the lender for its rental-income policy in writing before the offer; between two lenders it can be the difference between 55% and 40% total debt service.
- 20% is the floor for a rental you will not live in; live in one unit at purchase and CMHC insures at 95% financing with 100% of the other unit’s rent counted.
- At the $332,251 Northern Nova Scotia average, gross rent of $2,600 covers the $1,454 payment with room for tax and repairs; run the same arithmetic before buying at HRM prices.
- Five or more units is a commercial mortgage, underwritten on the building’s income rather than yours; that work lives at indicapital.ca, not here.
How the figures were computed
This is an illustrative example. The people, the property and the outcome are not real; the rules and the arithmetic are. Prices are the August 2026 regional averages from Nova Scotia Association of REALTORS® / CREA monthly statistics, or a stated example price; the deed transfer tax is the municipal rate on the provincial schedule; premiums are CMHC’s published schedule; qualifying uses OSFI’s rule. The contract rate is named in the outcome with its source. Legal, recording and title figures are typical ranges, not quotes.
- www.canada.ca: https://www.canada.ca/en/news/archive/2010/02/government-canada-takes-action-strengthen-housing-financing.html
- www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca: https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/professionals/project-funding-and-mortgage-financing/mortgage-loan-insurance/mortgage-loan-insurance-homeownership-programs/rental-income
- www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca: https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/professionals/project-funding-and-mortgage-financing/mortgage-loan-insurance/mortgage-loan-insurance-homeownership-programs/cmhc-purchase
- www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca: https://www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca/en/supervision/financial-institutions/banks/minimum-qualifying-rate-uninsured-mortgages
- novascotia.ca: https://novascotia.ca/sns/pdf/ans-property-dtt-rates.pdf
- creastats.crea.ca: https://creastats.crea.ca/board/nsar/
How it works
From first call to keys, in four steps
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A 15-minute call
You say what you’re trying to do and roughly what you earn.
Riley tell you the price a lender will support, the cash you need to close, and what to fix first.
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Documents and pre-approval
You send the short list through a secure upload link.
Riley package the file and come back with a pre-approval letter and a rate held 90 to 120 days.
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Lenders, side by side
You read the comparison and pick.
Riley place one application with banks, credit unions and monolines, and show you every answer.
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Approval, lawyer, keys
You sign with your own local lawyer.
Riley hold the lender, appraiser and lawyer to the closing date.
Why a broker
Licensed, independent, paid by the lender
- Licensed in Nova Scotia Associate broker 3001134, verifiable on the provincial register
- $0 broker fee On a standard residential mortgage the lender pays, not you
- Banks, credit unions, monolines One application, one credit check, placed with the lender that reads your file best
- Every part of the province Bedford office, remote process: Yarmouth to Sydney, the same four steps
Questions people ask
Could she have bought it with 5% down by moving in?
Yes. Owner-occupied two-unit homes are insurable at 95% financing, so $16,500 down instead of $66,000, with the premium added and 100% of the other unit’s rent counted. The occupancy rule is about the day you buy; she would have had to move.
Why is there no CMHC premium on the rental?
Because since April 19, 2010 government-backed mortgage insurance has not been available on a non-owner-occupied property, so there is no premium to pay and no way to borrow above 80%. The 20% is the whole of the protection the lender has.
What if one unit had been vacant?
The appraiser sets a market rent for the vacant unit and the lender uses that figure, often discounted; with $1,350 from the upper unit and the lower vacant, the file would have been tested on the appraiser’s number rather than a lease. A signed lease before closing is the cleanest fix.
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