Changes are coming that will help self-employed Canadians buy homes.
While self-employed Canadians make up about 15 per cent of Canada's population, and are key contributors to strong and vibrant communities, they often have challenges qualifying for a mortgage due to unpredictable and varied incomes.
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Now, in line with the National Housing Strategy's mission to address the housing needs of all Canadians, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) plans to make several changes to help the self-employed.
CMHC says these two significant changes will give lenders more guidance and flexibility to help self-employed borrowers:
- Providing examples of factors that can be used to support the lender's decision to lend to self-employed borrowers who have been operating their business for less than 24 months, or in the same line of work for less than 24 months such as acquiring an established business, sufficient cash reserves, predictable earnings and previous training and education.
- Providing a broader range of documentation options to increase flexibility for satisfying income and employment requirements when qualifying self-employed borrowers such as the Notice of Assessment (NOA) accompanied by the T1 General, the CRA Proof of Income Statement and the Statement of Business or Professional Activities (T2125) to support an "add back" approach for grossing up income for sole proprietorship and partnerships.
These CMHC changes will take effect on October 1, 2018.
