Cost of Buying | Ongoing
The Real Monthly Cost
The mortgage is the number everyone checks. The other three are what decide whether the budget actually works.
The short answer
Your monthly cost is the mortgage plus the strata fee, property tax, and insurance. On a typical home in this market the non-mortgage items add a meaningful amount, and the mortgage portion depends on a rate nobody can look up for you, which is why this shows a grid.
| Rate | 25 years | 30 years |
|---|---|---|
| 4.00% | $6,537 | $5,910 |
| 4.50% | $6,879 | $6,266 |
| 5.00% | $7,228 | $6,633 |
| 5.50% | $7,586 | $7,008 |
| 6.00% | $7,952 | $7,392 |
Mortgage only. Strata fee, property tax, and insurance are extra; the monthly cost page adds them up. The Bank of Canada posted five-year rate was 6.09% on 2026-09-02, which is higher than the discounted rate most buyers are offered, which is why this is a grid rather than one number.
Why a grid instead of one number
The Bank of Canada publishes a posted five-year conventional mortgage rate. It is a real published figure and it is materially higher than the discounted rate most buyers are actually offered.
Quoting it as your payment would overstate the monthly cost substantially. Quoting a discounted rate would be inventing one. So the tables show a range and you find the row matching the rate you have actually been quoted.
The parts that are not the mortgage
Strata fee, property tax, and home insurance. The first two are measured from active listings elsewhere on this site, with the sample sizes stated because coverage of both fields is partial.
Home insurance is the one figure this data cannot supply, so where a page uses it, it is labelled as an assumption rather than presented as measured.
What is still missing
Utilities, maintenance on anything the strata does not cover, and any special levy. None of those are predictable from listing data and all of them are real.
A budget that works only if nothing unexpected happens is not a budget that works.
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Common questions
What does it cost per month to own a home here?
The mortgage plus strata fee, property tax, and insurance. The mortgage portion depends on your rate, which is why this page shows a grid. The full worked figure on the regional median home is on the monthly carrying cost page in the price hub.
Why do you not just show today's rate?
Because the published rate is the posted conventional rate, which is higher than what most buyers are offered, and the discounted rate you will actually get depends on your lender and your file. Showing either as though it were yours would mislead.
What is not in these numbers?
Utilities, maintenance the strata does not cover, and any special levy. Home insurance is an assumption rather than a measured figure, and it is labelled as one wherever it appears.
Where these figures come from
- Bank of Canada, Canadian interest rates
Posted 5-year conventional mortgage rate and the policy interest rate.
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- VanPlex active listings, MLS® data
Active townhouses, half duplexes, and row houses built in the last two years across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
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- CMHC, mortgage loan insurance premiums
2.80% at 80.01 to 85% LTV, 3.10% to 90%, 4.00% to 95%.
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Work the numbers on a real home
Every figure here comes from government sources and from listings you can open. Search the market and check the costs against a specific price rather than a hypothetical one.