Rates guide
Reverse Mortgage Rates in Canada (2026)
General information for Canadian homeowners, not personal financial, legal, or tax advice. Rates and lender details verified as of July 20, 2026.
Key takeaways
- Posted 5-year fixed reverse mortgage rates run 6.23% to 6.39% across all four Canadian lenders, after all four cut within weeks of each other in late June 2026 (Canadian Mortgage Trends).
- Reverse mortgage rates carry a premium of roughly 2 to 2.5 points over the best regular 5-year fixed mortgages (The Globe and Mail) — the price of years of no-payment patience and the No Negative Equity Guarantee.
- The advertised rate is one of several numbers that set the real cost. Later-draw pricing, the renewal reset, set-up fees, and exit charges all differ by lender — and can outweigh the rate itself (the four lenders compared).
- The 0.16-point gap between today's lowest and highest posted rates costs about $1,600 over five years on $150,000 — while a half-point difference at renewal, on the grown balance, costs about $6,800. (Worked examples below, assumptions stated.)
- The Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.25% on July 15, 2026. The remaining decision dates — September 2, October 28, December 9 — are the calendar rate-watchers should mark (Bank of Canada).
- Posted rates are the retail price, not the final one. Real pricing depends on age, property, product, and term — and a broker compares every reverse mortgage lender in Canada at no cost to the homeowner (how reverse mortgages work in Ontario).
Reverse mortgage rates in Canada currently run from 6.23% to 6.39% for a posted 5-year fixed term — roughly two points above regular mortgage rates, because years of no-payment patience are priced in.
Looking up the rate before anything else is the right instinct. So here are the rates — current, dated, and for every lender in the market. But anyone who stops at the sticker number is comparing these mortgages the wrong way, because a reverse mortgage charges you through more than one number, and the others are quieter. This page explains the whole pricing picture: what the rates are today, why they sit above regular mortgage rates, how lenders set them, which other numbers decide the real cost, and when the lowest advertised rate is not the cheapest mortgage.
What are reverse mortgage rates in Canada right now?
All four Canadian reverse mortgage lenders cut their posted rates within weeks of each other in late June 2026, as reported by Canadian Mortgage Trends. Here is where the posted 5-year fixed — the benchmark term most borrowers compare — landed:
| Lender | Posted 5-year fixed (July 20, 2026) |
|---|---|
| Equitable Bank (Flex) | 6.23% |
| Home Trust (EquityAccess) | 6.23% |
| Bloom | 6.33% |
| HomeEquity Bank (CHIP) | 6.39% |
The cuts were not limited to the 5-year term — shorter fixed terms and adjustable-rate products came down in the same round. For context underneath those numbers: the Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.25% on July 15, 2026, which keeps prime at 4.45% and the broader rate environment steady.
Two cautions belong beside any rate table, and they apply to every number on this page. Posted rates move often — treat these as a dated snapshot, verified July 20, 2026, not a live feed or a promise. And the posted rate is the retail price, not the final one: pricing on a real file depends on age, property, product, and term, which is why two lenders posting the same number can offer the same homeowner different deals. The independent CHIP review shows that gap in a single lender’s own published tables — a new-client special beside a separate, higher posted schedule. Both cautions come up again later on this page, because they change how the comparison should be done.
Why are reverse mortgage rates higher than regular mortgage rates?
Because the lender is paid entirely differently — and later. In mid-June 2026, The Globe and Mail measured the lowest reverse mortgage 5-year fixed at 6.44% against 3.99% for the best regular 5-year fixed — a gap of about 2.4 points. After the late-June cuts, the premium sits closer to 2.2 points against the best regular fixed rates, and one to two points against typical home equity line of credit rates.
The premium has a structural explanation, not a predatory one. A regular mortgage lender collects a payment every month and can act quickly if payments stop. A reverse mortgage lender advances money and then waits — possibly for decades — with no required monthly mortgage payments along the way. The loan is repaid when the homeowner sells, permanently moves out, or after the last borrower passes away. On top of that patience sits the No Negative Equity Guarantee: as long as the homeowner obligations are met — property taxes paid, home insured, the home reasonably maintained — neither the borrower nor the estate ever repays more than the home’s fair market value at the time the mortgage becomes due. If the market ever fails to cover the balance, that loss lands on the lender. Patience plus guarantee is what the extra two points buy. What that guarantee means for a family at the end is covered in what happens to a reverse mortgage when you die.
It is worth placing the premium on the full borrowing map, because “higher” needs a comparison to mean anything. Reverse mortgage rates sit modestly above regular mortgages and lines of credit — and far below credit cards, unsecured loans, and private mortgages, which is the territory some retirees otherwise end up in when a bank says no. The comparison with a home equity line of credit runs that trade-off in full: the line is cheaper on paper, and most retirees cannot pass the income tests to get one. And the rate is only one line on the list — reverse mortgage pros and cons in Canada weighs all of them side by side.
How are reverse mortgage rates set?
Three layers set the number a lender posts, and none of them is a mystery.
The Bank of Canada sets the floor for variable pricing. Its policy rate — held at 2.25% in July 2026 — drives prime, and prime drives every variable and adjustable rate in the country, reverse mortgages included. Eight times a year, on a published schedule, the Bank announces whether that floor moves.
Funding costs set fixed rates. A reverse mortgage lender raises the money it lends — through savings deposits, guaranteed investment certificates, and investor notes — and fixed mortgage pricing across Canada follows the cost of that money, which moves with bond yields rather than with the policy rate directly. When those funding costs ease, posted reverse mortgage rates follow. That is exactly the mechanism Canadian Mortgage Trends documented behind the 2026 declines.
Competition decides how much of the saving gets passed along. Canada had one reverse mortgage lender for over three decades. It now has four, and the difference shows in behaviour: when funding costs eased this year, all four cut posted rates within weeks of one another, and two of them now share the lowest posted rate in the market. A market where lenders undercut each other within weeks is a market working in the borrower’s favour. The numbers behind that competition — market size, lender shares, growth — are tracked with sources in the reverse mortgage statistics for Canada hub.
The practical reading of all three layers: nobody controls reverse mortgage rates from one desk, but the direction is watchable. The remaining 2026 decision dates — September 2, October 28, December 9 — are the natural checkpoints.
See today's real pricing on your own home
Posted rates are the starting point. A free, no-obligation estimate compares what every reverse mortgage lender in Canada would actually offer for your age and home — no cost, no credit check.
Get my free estimateWhich numbers besides the rate decide what a reverse mortgage costs?
Four of them. This is the part of the pricing picture that rate tables — on this site or anywhere else — cannot show, and it is where mortgages that look identical on rate stop being identical.
The set-up costs, compared all-in. Advertised set-up fees across the market run $995 to $1,795, with appraisals roughly $300 to $600 and independent legal advice typically $800 to $1,200 on top. The advertised numbers mislead on their own: one lender’s higher fee includes its legal work, so only one lawyer gets hired, while another’s low sticker bills the closing-lawyer work separately. Added up, the “cheap” lender and the “expensive” lender often land much closer than the stickers suggest — the math is worked through in the guide to the best reverse mortgage companies in Canada.
The price of money drawn later. Many reverse mortgages allow further draws down the road — a monthly top-up to income, or a lump sum when a roof or a grandchild’s wedding arrives. Lenders price those later draws differently: some simply give their best current rate at the time, while others add a premium to the rate on the new funds, and some charge a fee per draw while others charge nothing. A homeowner planning to take money in stages can end up paying a meaningfully different average rate at two lenders posting the same headline number.
The renewal reset. A reverse mortgage term ends in a rate reset, not a clean break. The rate moves to the lender’s going rate for a new term — with no requalifying — but, unlike a regular mortgage, the homeowner is not automatically free to move to another lender penalty-free at that moment: the early-payout charge runs from the date the mortgage was first funded, not from the term chosen. Some lenders promise the reset lands at their posted rate, the same rate a brand-new client would be offered that day. Others price each renewal file by file, and that number can come back above posted. Nothing in a day-one quote reveals which kind of lender is which — it shows up five years later, on a balance that has grown. A broker who arranges these mortgages every week knows each lender’s reset track record, and it is one of the main inputs in recommending where to start. The dollars involved are worked out in the next section.
The exit charges. Leaving in the first few years costs an early-exit charge, and the charges differ in kind across lenders — a percentage of the balance at some, months of interest at others — a difference that can be worth thousands on the same mortgage before the charges shrink and disappear. Every lender waives them entirely when the last borrower passes away, eases them on a move to long-term care, and some allow around 10% a year of penalty-free prepayment, confirmed per product. Which schedule fits which timeline is a comparison a broker runs before the choice, not after — paying off a reverse mortgage early covers the four ways out, with a year-by-year calculator.
One more trade-off belongs on the list, because it connects the rate to the amount: the products that lend the most charge the most. The market’s top tier — up to 60% of home value for borrowers 70 and older — is reached through premium products at three of the four lenders, and all three price that extra access the same way: a higher rate on the entire balance. A homeowner who needs 40% of the home’s value should not pay the top tier’s rate for capacity that goes unused. How much each age can actually access is mapped in how much reverse mortgage you can get by age.
How much does a small rate difference actually cost?
Run the actual numbers, because the answer surprises rate-shoppers in both directions. Take $150,000 borrowed against an Ontario home, interest compounding semi-annually, no payments made — the standard reverse mortgage structure.
| Scenario (on $150,000, no payments) | Balance after 5 years | The difference |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest posted rate, July 2026 (6.23%) | about $203,900 | about $1,600 over five years — roughly $26 a month |
| Highest posted rate, July 2026 (6.39%) | about $205,400 | |
| Rate resets at the same rate for years 6–10 | about $278,900 at year 10 | about $6,800 — from half a point at one reset |
| Rate resets half a point higher for years 6–10 | about $285,800 at year 10 |
Read what the table is saying. The entire distance between today’s lowest and highest posted 5-year rates — the gap most shoppers agonize over — is worth about $1,600 over five years. A half-point difference at one renewal, applied to the balance after it has grown, costs about four times as much. And the differences the table cannot show — a set-up fee structure, a per-draw premium, an exit charge in the wrong shape for the timeline — can each move the real cost by more than the sticker gap too. None of this makes the rate irrelevant. It makes the rate one input among five, and rarely the largest one.
The same math carries a second lesson about the amount borrowed. Interest is charged only on the money actually taken — not on the maximum approved — so borrowing $100,000 instead of $150,000 cuts every number above by a third, at any rate. The size of the draw moves the ten-year cost far more than the choice between 6.23% and 6.39% ever will. Enter your home’s value, your age, and the amount you would want to unlock, and watch what happens to the balance and your equity over the years:
Here's What Happens to Your Equity
Adjust the sliders below to see how your equity can change over time.
Need more than this estimate?In some situations we can structure additional financing to unlock more of your equity — contact us to see if it fits your situation.
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Your 15-Year Forecast
In 15 years, your home is projected to be worth $1,935,282 (at 4.5% growth). Even with the growing loan balance, you would still have$1,288,355in remaining equity!
*Disclaimer: These projections are for illustration purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Projections assume 4.5% annual appreciation and 6.44% interest rate. Actual results may vary based on market conditions and individual circumstances.
Your 15-Year Forecast
In 15 years, your home is projected to be worth $1,935,282 (at 4.5% growth). Even with the growing loan balance, you would still have$1,288,355in remaining equity!
This reverse mortgage calculator is for illustration only. Your real numbers depend on your age, lender, rate, and home value — which is exactly what a free estimate works out for you.
Should you choose a fixed or variable reverse mortgage rate?
The starting point is the shape of the product itself, because it is not the shape most people expect. A reverse mortgage is built as a loan for life, and the rate is simply chosen in stretches along the way. Most homeowners take fixed terms of one to five years — the 5-year fixed is the benchmark — and when a term ends, the rate resets to the lender’s going rate for a new term while the mortgage carries on as before. Variable-rate options run alongside those fixed terms. One lender goes further with a lifetime fixed rate, where the rate on the initial advance stays locked for as long as the mortgage lasts — the anchor product in Bloom’s lineup. And for the specific case of bridging to a planned sale, a separate short-term open product can be repaid at any time with no exit charge, with that freedom priced into its set-up fee.
What catches people every year is the habit they bring over from regular mortgages, where reaching the end of a term means a clean exit — the mortgage matures, and it can be paid out or moved to another lender without penalty. A reverse mortgage never offers that moment, because the early-payout charge follows the date the money was first advanced rather than the term that was picked. A homeowner who takes a one-year term planning to pay everything out after the year will still face an early-payout charge when that year is up. The familiar variable-rate advantage does not make the trip either: on a regular mortgage, a variable rate can be broken at any time for just three months’ interest, but on a reverse mortgage, fixed and variable sit on the same early-payout schedule, so choosing variable buys no cheaper exit.
Once the exit advantage is off the table, choosing variable comes down to a single idea — a belief that the Bank of Canada will keep cutting. The same is true of grabbing a one-year or two-year fixed term because it posts a little lower than the five-year: the shorter the term, the sooner the reset arrives, at whatever the market happens to look like then, and rates at that moment can just as easily be higher. Guessing the direction of rates is not something anyone does reliably, professionals included, which makes the shorter commitment a gamble more often than a plan. This is why most borrowers, in practice, settle on the 5-year fixed — today’s known rate, held for the longest stretch on offer, with the fewest resets to weather along the way. The lifetime fixed simply extends that logic as far as it can go, trading no resets at all against steeper early-exit charges in the first few years if plans change. The homeowner with a genuine conviction that rates are heading down, and the patience to be wrong for a while, is the natural fit for variable. For everyone else, certainty tends to be worth more than the gamble.
There is one difference that softens the variable risk without erasing it, and it is worth understanding on its own. Because there is no required monthly mortgage payment, a rising rate never touches the monthly budget the way it does on a regular mortgage, where a variable-rate jump squeezes the household within weeks. On a reverse mortgage the effect lands somewhere quieter — the balance compounds a little faster, shifting the cost to eventual equity rather than to this month’s spending. Home appreciation works on the other side of that ledger over the same years, which is why Canadian borrowers keep about half their equity on average even after many years. Still, a cost that lands later is a reason to respect rate certainty rather than ignore it — one more reason the 5-year fixed remains the usual choice. How the interest and the repayment fit together over the whole life of the loan is laid out in how a reverse mortgage works in Canada.
Can you get a better rate than the posted rate?
Frequently — because posted rates are the retail price, and several forces work below them.
Pricing on a real file is set by the details: age, property type and location, product tier, and term all move the number, which is why the same posted rate produces different offers for different homeowners. Lenders also run unpublished rate specials that never appear on any rate page — sharp pricing reserved for competitive situations. And the spread between lenders on the same file is often wider than the posted table suggests: the lender posting the lowest rate this month is not always the one that prices a particular file best, once the age curve, the fee structure, and the product tier are applied to a real home.
There is also a group of homeowners for whom a better rate already exists: those holding an older reverse mortgage from a higher-rate year. A meaningful share of new reverse mortgages in Canada are switches — homeowners moving an existing balance to a lower rate. Breaking the old mortgage can carry a cost, so the move only makes sense when the rate gap is large enough, but after the declines of 2026 that math deserves a fresh look for anyone who signed years ago.
Getting below the posted rate is a comparison exercise, and it costs the homeowner nothing to have it done. A mortgage broker is paid by the lender, not by the client, and compares every reverse mortgage lender in Canada on the same file — the posted rate, the file-specific pricing, the fee structure, the later-draw terms, and the renewal reputation together. Many homeowners end up with better pricing through a broker than the same lender would have offered them directly. The complete picture of how the product works, from application to repayment, is in the reverse mortgage guide for Ontario.
Free Guide:The Canadian Reverse Mortgage Guide
- ✓How much tax-free cash you could unlock — and what moves the number
- ✓The real costs, rates, and fees — nothing buried in fine print
- ✓How the lenders (CHIP, Equitable Bank, Home Trust, Bloom) really compare
- ✓When a reverse mortgage is the wrong choice
Simply enter your info below and a PDF copy will instantly be sent right to your inbox.
Where are reverse mortgage rates heading?
Nobody can forecast rates reliably, but the direction of 2026 so far is a matter of record, and the calendar ahead is published. Posted reverse mortgage rates have fallen through 2026 as funding costs eased and four-way competition did its work — the late-June round of cuts compressed the whole market into a 0.16-point band. The Bank of Canada’s remaining decision dates for 2026 are September 2, October 28, and December 9. This page is re-verified after those dates, and the market context behind the numbers is maintained in the statistics hub.
The market behind the rates keeps growing: Canadians have borrowed $10.9 billion through reverse mortgages, with new borrowing growing more than 16% a year over the past decade — and each new competitor has pushed pricing in the borrower’s direction. Falling rates change the math of every comparison on this page, which is why each one carries its date.
Frequently asked questions
What is the current interest rate on a reverse mortgage in Canada?
As of July 20, 2026, posted 5-year fixed reverse mortgage rates are: Equitable Bank 6.23%, Home Trust 6.23%, Bloom 6.33%, and HomeEquity Bank (CHIP) 6.39%. All four lenders cut their rates within weeks of each other in late June 2026. Posted rates move often — sometimes week to week — so treat any published number as a dated snapshot, not a quote.
Why are reverse mortgage rates higher than regular mortgage rates?
Because the lender's money is locked in with no required monthly mortgage payments, possibly for decades, and the No Negative Equity Guarantee caps what can be collected at the home's fair market value at the time the mortgage becomes due. That patience and that guarantee are priced in. The premium is currently about 2 to 2.5 percentage points over the best regular 5-year fixed rates — far below credit cards, unsecured loans, or private mortgages.
Are reverse mortgage rates fixed or variable?
Both are offered. Fixed terms of one to five years are the standard choice, one lender offers a lifetime fixed rate, and variable options exist too. The catch most people miss: a reverse mortgage is a for-life product, and the early-payout charge follows the date the money was first advanced — not the term — so the end of a term is a rate reset, not a penalty-free exit. Fixed and variable sit on the same early-payout schedule, which makes variable mainly a bet on rate cuts. The 5-year fixed is the certainty pick most borrowers land on.
What happens to the rate when a reverse mortgage term ends?
The rate resets to the lender's going rate for a new term, with no requalifying required. The catch is that, unlike a regular mortgage, a homeowner is not automatically free to move to another lender penalty-free at that point — the early-payout charge follows the initial funding date, not the term — so the reset rate matters. Some lenders promise the reset lands at their posted rate, the same rate a new client would get that day. Others price each renewal file by file, and that number can come back higher. Comparing lenders on their renewal reputation before signing is one of the most valuable things a broker does.
Does the Bank of Canada set reverse mortgage rates?
Not directly. The Bank of Canada sets the policy rate — 2.25% as of the July 15, 2026 hold — which drives prime and, through it, variable-rate borrowing. Fixed reverse mortgage rates follow the lenders' own cost of raising money, which moves with bond yields and the deposit market. In practice, the Bank's eight annual decision dates are still the calendar to watch: when funding costs ease, posted reverse mortgage rates tend to follow, as the late-June 2026 round of cuts showed.
Is the lowest reverse mortgage rate always the cheapest option?
No. On $150,000 over five years, the entire gap between today's lowest and highest posted rates is about $1,600 — while differences in set-up fees, early-exit charges, later-draw pricing, and the renewal reset can each swing the real cost by more than that. The cheapest mortgage is the one whose whole structure fits the plan: how much is drawn and when, how long it will be kept, and what happens at each renewal.
Can you negotiate a reverse mortgage rate in Canada?
Pricing on a real file is not the posted number. It depends on age, property, product, and term, and lenders run unpublished specials that never appear on a rate page. A mortgage broker compares every reverse mortgage lender in Canada and can often get rates and fees reduced on a competitive file — at no cost to the homeowner, because the lender pays the broker.
Get today's rates priced on your actual home
A free, no-obligation estimate shows what every reverse mortgage lender in Canada would offer for your age and home — the rate, the fees, and the amount, side by side. No cost, no credit check.
Get my free estimate About the author
Richard Hopkins
Licensed Mortgage Broker · M16000896
Richard has worked in the mortgage business since 2013 — first as a mortgage agent, today a licensed mortgage broker — and leads the reverse mortgage practice at Homestead Financial — Dominion Lending Centres, an FSRA-licensed Ontario brokerage (#11711) with roots in the industry since 1999 and more than 2,500 mortgages funded. More about Richard →
This article is general information for Canadian homeowners, not personal financial, legal, or tax advice. Everyone's situation is different — please get advice on your own numbers before making a decision. Rates and lender details verified as of July 20, 2026.