Mortgage Helper | Money
The Arithmetic of a Suite
The rent does two separate jobs and people tend to count one of them twice. Separating them is the whole exercise.
The short answer
Rent from a suite reduces your monthly cost directly. Separately, a lender may count a portion of it toward qualifying, which changes the price you can buy at. Both are real and they are not the same number, and only the first is fully within your control.
| 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.
Job one: reducing the monthly cost
This is straightforward arithmetic. Rent received reduces what the household pays out each month, against a mortgage payment you can work out from the price, the down payment, and your rate.
The grid below shows the mortgage payment across a range of rates, because your rate is the one number nobody can look up for you. Strata fee, property tax, and insurance sit on top of it.
Job two: increasing what you can borrow
Lenders may count a portion of documented rental income toward qualifying. How much varies by lender, by whether the suite is legal, and by your overall file.
This is the part that changes which homes you can consider at all, and it is the part you cannot estimate from a website. Get it from a broker on the specific property.
What the arithmetic leaves out
Vacancy, which is the month or two between tenants when the rent stops and the mortgage does not.
Wear, turnover, and the cost of doing the job properly. Also the tax treatment, since rental income is income and the expenses that offset it have rules.
- → Assume some vacancy rather than twelve months of rent every year
- → Budget for turnover costs between tenants
- → Treat the rent as taxable income and read the CRA guidance on what offsets it
- → Remember the mortgage payment continues whether or not the suite is occupied
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Common questions
Will the suite cover my mortgage?
Very rarely all of it in this region, and it can cover a meaningful share. Work it from the mortgage grid on this page plus your strata fee, property tax, and insurance, against a realistic rent for the specific area rather than a hoped-for one.
How much rent should I assume?
Use CMHC's rental market data for the area rather than a number from a listing or a hopeful estimate, and then assume some vacancy. Rent that arrives eleven months a year is a different figure from rent that arrives twelve.
Is the rent taxable?
Yes, rental income is income. There are rules about what expenses offset it and how that interacts with your principal residence. This is a question for the Canada Revenue Agency guidance and an accountant, not for a real estate website.
Where these figures come from
- 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, rental market survey data
Average market rent by zone, used for rent-to-price comparisons.
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- Bank of Canada, Canadian interest rates
Posted 5-year conventional mortgage rate and the policy interest rate.
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Find homes with a suite
Every figure in this hub comes from listings you can open. Search the full set and combine a suite with price, bedrooms, parking, and distance to a station.