The Short Answer
There is no published Canadian average down payment figure, and every number circulating online is American. What can be stated exactly is the minimum. At August 2026 Markham prices that is $38,833 on a condominium apartment (6.08%), $78,112 on a freehold townhouse (7.58%), and $322,355 on a detached home (20%). The jump is not gradual. At $1.5 million mortgage insurance stops being available and 20% applies to the entire price, so a single dollar of price increase at that threshold raises the required down payment by $175,000. Markham's average detached home sits on the wrong side of that line.
Want this applied to your own property? Call the Kaizen Real Estate Team at (647) 370-8885.
The Rules
Portion of purchase price | Minimum down payment |
|---|---|
First $500,000 | 5% |
$500,000 up to $1,500,000 | 10% on that portion |
$1,500,000 and above | 20% of the entire price |
The insured cap was raised from $1 million to $1.5 million effective 15 December 2024 and remains at $1.5 million. Above it, mortgage default insurance is simply not available, which is why the 20% is not a guideline but a hard floor.
Questions About Your Situation?
Every Markham property and every timeline is different. Call the Kaizen Real Estate Team at (647) 370-8885 and speak to a REALTOR® who works this market daily.
The Markham Numbers
Condo apartment | Freehold townhouse | Detached | |
|---|---|---|---|
Average price, Aug 2026 | $638,332 | $1,031,119 | $1,611,773 |
5% on first $500,000 | $25,000 | $25,000 | n/a |
10% on the balance | $13,833 | $53,112 | n/a |
Minimum down payment | $38,833 | $78,112 | $322,355 |
As a percentage of price | 6.08% | 7.58% | 20.00% |
Insurance premium rate | 4.00% | 4.00% | None |
Premium added to the mortgage | $23,980 | $38,120 | $0 |
Total mortgage | $623,479 | $991,127 | $1,289,418 |
Ontario sales tax on the premium, due in cash | $1,918 | $3,050 | $0 |
The cash cost nobody budgets for
That last row catches people. Mortgage insurance premiums in Ontario are subject to 8% provincial sales tax, and CMHC states plainly that the provincial sales tax cannot be added to the loan.
So a buyer of an average Markham condominium needs the $38,833 down payment plus $1,918 in cash at closing for the tax on the insurance, on top of legal fees, land transfer tax and adjustments. On a townhouse it is $3,050.
Michael John Lau, a REALTOR® with the Kaizen Real Estate Team, one of the most active real estate teams in Markham and York Region, raises this at the first meeting because it is a genuine cash-at-closing item that most online calculators omit entirely.
The $1.5 Million Cliff
This is the single most important thing in this article for a Markham buyer.
The 20% requirement applies to the whole price, not just the portion above $1.5 million. The result is a cliff, not a ramp.
Purchase price | Minimum down payment | As a percentage |
|---|---|---|
$1,499,999 | $125,000 | 8.33% |
$1,500,000 | $300,000 | 20.00% |
One dollar of additional price raises the required down payment by $175,000.
Markham's average detached home at $1,611,773 sits above that line and requires $322,355, roughly 2.6 times the cash a $1,499,999 home needs. The practical consequence is stark: Markham's detached market is effectively closed to buyers without about $320,000 liquid, while townhouses and condominiums remain reachable at 6 to 8%.
For a buyer near that threshold, the negotiating implication is obvious and worth stating: the difference between an accepted offer at $1,499,000 and one at $1,505,000 is not $6,000. It is $6,000 plus $175,000 of required cash.
Why There Is No "Average"
People search for this expecting a number. The honest answer is that no Canadian organisation publishes one.
CMHC, Mortgage Professionals Canada and Statistics Canada do not publish an average or median down payment, in dollars or as a percentage. Every confident figure circulating online traces back to American data, from a different mortgage system with different insurance rules and different minimums.
What Canadian sources do publish is more useful anyway:
- 4.4 years is the average time first-time buyers took to save a down payment, up from 3.4 years the year before, from CMHC's 2026 Mortgage Consumer Survey of more than 4,100 respondents.
- 23% of buyers received a monetary gift toward the down payment, with a median gift of $30,000.
- 51% of first-time buyers said savings were the largest source; 44% of repeat buyers said equity from a previous home.
- Among first-time buyers surveyed separately: personal savings 60%, a loan from a financial institution 13%, a family gift 11%, an RRSP withdrawal 8%, a loan from parents or friends 5%.
- 70% of recent buyers who received family help said they could not have afforded the home without it.
- Reported family gift amounts in Ontario averaged $108,000 in 2026.
That last figure is worth pausing on. In Ontario, family assistance at that scale is close to the entire minimum down payment on a Markham freehold townhouse.
Neeraj Moolchandani on the Cliff at One and a Half Million
Neeraj Moolchandani, REALTOR® at Kaizen Real Estate, makes sure every buyer near that price understands the discontinuity. At $1,499,999 the minimum down payment is $125,000. At $1,500,000 it is $300,000.
One dollar of price adds $175,000 of required cash, because above the cap the 20 percent applies to the entire purchase price rather than the portion above it. Neeraj treats it as a negotiating fact as much as a financing one.
Where the Money Can Come From
Two registered accounts matter, and most buyers do not realise they stack.
First Home Savings Account
- $8,000 annual contribution room, $40,000 lifetime
- Carry-forward is capped at $8,000, so the most contributable in any one year is $16,000
- Contributions are tax-deductible and qualifying withdrawals are tax-free, which no other registered account offers
RRSP Home Buyers' Plan
- $60,000 per person
- New: for withdrawals made between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2028, the 15-year repayment period does not begin until the fifth year after the year of first withdrawal, rather than the second. A 2026 withdrawal means a first repayment year of 2031.
They combine
The Canada Revenue Agency is explicit that you may use both the Home Buyers' Plan and a qualifying FHSA withdrawal for the same qualifying home.
That is $100,000 per person and $200,000 per couple.
At Markham's condominium average, a couple using both accounts fully would have more than five times the minimum down payment. At the townhouse average, more than two and a half times. This is the single most under-used pair of tools available to Canadian buyers.
Should You Put Down More Than the Minimum?
Sometimes, and the arithmetic is specific rather than philosophical.
Down payment | Insurance premium rate |
|---|---|
5% to 9.99% | 4.00% |
10% to 14.99% | 3.10% |
15% to 19.99% | 2.80% |
20% and above | No premium |
Crossing from 9.99% to 10% cuts the premium rate by nearly a quarter. Reaching 20% removes it entirely, along with the Ontario sales tax on it.
Against that, a larger down payment means less liquidity on closing day, and closing itself has costs. The right answer depends on the household rather than on a rule.
Working Out What You Need in Cash?
The sales tax on mortgage insurance cannot be added to the loan. The Kaizen Real Estate Team counts the costs calculators leave out.
One More Thing for New Builds
If you are buying a newly built home rather than resale, a first-time buyer may qualify for up to 100% of the GST, capped at $50,000, on homes at or below $1,000,000, phasing out between $1 million and $1.5 million and reaching nil at $1.5 million. The agreement must be signed on or after 27 May 2025 and before 2031.
It does not apply to resale homes, which is most of the Markham market.
The related pieces: how much you need to earn, what credit score you need, and how the buying process runs.
Next Steps
- Run the mortgage calculator — with your real down payment, not an average.
- First-time buyer programmes — including the FHSA and Home Buyers' Plan combination.
- Markham condominiums — where the minimum is roughly $39,000, not $322,000.