REALTOR® Recommendations
Every Canadian deserves the opportunity to live in a home they can afford. We empower REALTOR® activism on behalf of Canadians.
The mortgage and insurance system used in Canada today was designed and implemented almost 60 years ago. Our existing housing stock reflects what the regulatory and insurance framework has permitted lenders to finance for the past several decades, not what Canadians want, need, and can afford to live in today.
Since the turn of the century, Canada has treated housing as though only two typologies exist: the detached freehold house and the mid-to-high-rise condominium unit. Despite eight in 10 Canadians under the age of 44 saying they still want to become homeowners, this financing disconnect continues to limit missing middle housing at the exact moment the federal government is seeking to expand attainable and affordable options. As a result, the path to homeownership is narrowing for middle-class Canadians, including young professionals, growing families and downsizers.
While many jurisdictions across Canada are doing their part by reforming local planning and zoning laws to allow duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and other forms of gentle density housing (in many cases, thanks to the federal government’s own Housing Accelerator Fund), these typologies remain difficult to finance. Canada’s insurance and underwriting rules have not kept pace. At the end of the day, allowing a typology is not the same thing as making it financeable or affordable to purchase.
REALTORS® see the consequences of this gap directly; in every community, and with every buyer who can’t find a property that suits their needs at a price they can afford. Solving the affordability crisis isn’t a task for the federal government alone, it requires a collaborative, all-parties-at-the-table approach. Alongside the broader need for systems change, though, there are outdated financing rules at play—and financing sits squarely within federal jurisdiction.
Addressing the disconnect between what can be built and what can be financed is how Canada can make missing middle housing not just permissible to build, but attainable to own.
Expand Mortgage Loan Insurance to Address Middle Housing Supply and Ownership Options
Add a fourth scoring category to MLI Select for missing middle rental supply, and establish a new sibling program, MLI Select–Ownership, applying the same proven points-based model to ownership-tenured housing, with a mandatory pillar for missing middle supply.
Reform Income Verification Rules to Reflect how Canadians Actually Earn Money
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) should set clear rules so lenders can verify and count real income, however it’s earned, so self-employed, contract and multi-source borrowers aren’t forced into a paycheque-shaped box.
Our Recommendations
To read a detailed breakdown of our 2026 REALTOR® Recommendations, click the link below.