Houses on a hill in Vancouver in November, 2023. The delinquency rate in B.C. was 0.25 per cent in the first three months of this year, a 36-per-cent increase over the first quarter of last year.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Homeowners in Ontario and British Columbia are increasingly missing their mortgage payments, as higher interest rates make it harder for them to service their debt when they renew their loans.
In Ontario, the delinquency rate on total mortgages outstanding was 0.36 per cent in the first quarter of this year, according to data from Equifax Canada. That is 52 per cent higher than the same period last year.
In B.C., the delinquency rate was 0.25 per cent in the first three months of this year, a 36-per-cent increase over the first quarter of last year.
Homeowners in those two provinces shoulder a heavier debt burden given that their average mortgage size is larger than those in the rest of the country. And as their mortgages have come up for renewal, Ontario and B.C. homeowners have been faced with a steeper increase in payments.
“That payment shock is having an impact on some of these consumers,” said Rebecca Oakes, Equifax Canada’s vice-president of advanced analytics.
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In 2021, five-year fixed mortgage rates were below 2 per cent. Homeowners who are renewing that same product today are doing so at an average interest rate above 4 per cent, according MortgageLogic.news data.
In the first quarter of 2021, the average size of a new mortgage was $391,560 in Ontario and $444,215 in B.C., according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. data. That was above the national average of $329,290.
“It’s really linked to those high-value mortgages,” said Ms. Oakes.
The mortgage delinquency rate – where a homeowner misses mortgage payments for a minimum of 90 days – has climbed at a faster pace in Toronto and some of the surrounding cities.
In Toronto, the rate climbed 58 per cent to 0.38 per cent over the past year. In Brampton, the rate rose 64 per cent to 0.64 per cent over the same period. In Hamilton, it went up by 61 per cent to 0.2 per cent.
In contrast, the delinquency rate has declined in Alberta and Quebec.
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Ms. Oakes said it was not just the higher mortgage rates that have hurt homeowners. She said the rise in unemployment in the country has also contributed to the rise in delinquencies as well as insolvencies.
Overall, the number of Canadians filing for insolvencies has increased to its highest level since the 2009 global financial crisis.
Homeowners with a mortgage account for a small percentage of the insolvencies in Canada. But they are filing for insolvency at a quicker pace than Canadians without a mortgage, according to the Equifax data.
In the first quarter, there were 4,512 homeowners with a mortgage who filed for insolvency, according to Equifax. That was an 18.3-per-cent increase over the same period in 2025.
In comparison, there were 32,609 Canadians without a mortgage who filed for insolvency in the first three months of the year. That was a 7.2-per-cent increase over the same period last year.