At the Saskatoon benchmark of $444,700, the entire purchase falls under the $500,000 threshold, so a buyer at that exact price point pays the flat 5 percent rate rather than the blended calculation that applies above it. A mortgage below 20 percent down still requires default insurance through CMHC, Sagen or Canada Guaranty, and the provincial sales tax on that premium is payable in cash at closing in Saskatchewan.
A lender's own qualifying test, the mortgage stress test, matters just as much as the down payment minimum, since it decides how large a mortgage you can actually carry at a rate higher than the one you will pay, independent of how much you put down.
Meeting the legal minimum gets a buyer into the market, but a buyer choosing between 5 percent and 20 percent should weigh the ongoing insurance premium against how much cash they want to keep in reserve after closing.
Get your hand-reviewed valuation from Joel Dyck.