Without exception, when you purchase a home in Canada with a down payment of less than 20%, you have to pay a CMHC insurance premium (also known as mortgage default insurance or mortgage loan insurance). It’s a federally mandated requirement, administered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and it serves the dual purpose of protecting lending institutions while enabling purchasers to get into the housing market sooner, with a down payment as low as 5%.
CMHC insurance premiums range from 0.6% to 4.5% of the total mortgage amount (the smaller the down payment, the higher the rate), and they are typically tacked onto the mortgage. To help take the bite out of that expense, a new sustainability initiative called CMHC Eco Plus offers a 25% partial premium refund to buyers of newly built energy-efficient homes. CMHC Eco Plus launched on July 8, 2025. Let’s look at the details and how home buyers can benefit.
Which homes qualify for CMHC Eco Plus?
To qualify for CMHC Eco Plus, a new house or condo “must meet the building standards of eligible certifications or the energy efficiency target based off the EnerGuide Rating System (ERS).” Eligible certifications include Energy Star, R-2000, LEED, Passive House and others. The full list of eligible standards is available on the CMHC’s website.
In a recent CMHC mortgage consumer survey, 61% of respondents said energy-efficient features were an important factor in their home-purchasing decision-making. The CMHC Eco Plus program aims to nudge you in the direction of choosing a more energy-efficient new home—a decision that could amount to a higher sticker price but also pay dividends in terms of long-term energy savings.
Here’s an example of how much you can save: if you purchased a new home for $500,000 with a 10% ($50,000) down payment and a 90% mortgage ($450,000), the CMHC insurance premium would be 3.1% of your loan, which is $13,950. If your home meets one of the recognized energy-efficiency standards, you can apply for the 25% CMHC Eco Plus rebate, which would be $3,487.50. (See all CMHC insurance premiums, and use MoneySense’s mortgage insurance calculator to estimate your cost.)
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How do you apply for CMHC Eco Plus?
To get a refund from CMHC Eco Plus, home buyers who have mortgage insurance must submit an application to the CMHC within two years of their mortgage’s closing date. You’ll need to provide either the final certificate from one of the eligible certification programs and/or the home’s EnerGuide label or EnerGuide Renovation Upgrade Report (RUR). Get more details from CMHC Eco Plus.
Incentives to make an existing home greener
What about Canadians who already own a home? There’s a CMHC incentive program for you, too.
As the CMHC shared in a YouTube video, “we want to make it easier for more CMHC mortgage loan insurance clients to buy, build or renovate green.” With that in mind, the organization offers those home owners the Eco Improvement initiative. If you spend at least $20,000 on energy-efficiency improvements within the program’s three categories—renewable energy systems, mechanical systems, and building envelope—then you’re eligible to apply for a 25% premium refund.
There’s also Natural Resource Canada’s Oil to Heat Pump Affordability program, which offers up to $10,000 in rebates for lower-income Canadians currently heating their homes with oil to transition to energy-efficient heat pumps.
Coming soon: Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program
Nearly 400,000 Canadian households have participated in the Canada Greener Homes Grant program, a government initiative that was mothballed in the spring of 2024 (the feds say the funds allocated for the program were depleted much sooner than anticipated). In its wake, another initiative known as the Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program is slated to launch before the end of 2025.
Although few details have been released, the National Resources Canada (NRCan) program is designed to provide low- to median-income home owners and tenants with “no-cost home retrofits, such as insulation and heat pumps.” We’ll share more details as they become available.
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The post Buying a new build? You may qualify for a CMHC Eco Plus refund appeared first on MoneySense.