The rules changed for landlords in January, and most landlords have not noticed yet

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions revised its Capital Adequacy Requirements guideline effective 1 January 2026. Under it, a mortgage is classified as income-producing residential real estate when more than 50 per cent of the income qualifying the borrower comes from rent.

What the classification does

• A bank must hold more capital against a loan in that class, and that cost is passed on as a higher rate or tighter terms.
• The same rental income cannot be counted again to qualify another property, which is the change most likely to stop a fourth or fifth purchase that would have gone through in 2025.
• It applies at the point of qualification, so it shapes what a portfolio can grow into rather than what it already is.

The intent is straightforward: reduce the risk carried by highly leveraged investors, who were a large share of the buyers in the condominium market through the last cycle. The effect on the market is equally straightforward, and visible in this year’s condominium sales figures.

If you are buying to rent

Two things are worth doing before an offer rather than after. Confirm with a broker how your particular lender applies the classification, because the guideline sets capital rules and lenders implement them differently. And run the numbers on the actual rent, not the pro-forma: Homula publishes observed gross yields per building from closed sales and closed leases in the same building, which is a different figure from the one on a marketing sheet.