Hello Maynard. Your question is a common one but very often not explained by your bank. The reason for the port in the first place is that there is an agreement in place (between you and the lender) for a mortgage amount, term and interest rate that has not yet expired. That agreement must be honored by both sides or there may be penalties to be paid for breaking it. There are 3 different types of ports that can happen when you sell a home and buy another. Each one different. Your mortgage can be either a straight port, port-increase, or port-decrease. The simplest is the straight port where you are moving your mortgage from one property to another with the same amount of mortgage. The rate, remaining term, and amount stay the same, no penalties involved and the process is straightforward as there is no new money involved. The second option is a port increase where you need extra funds for the new home, (this is usually the case if you are buying a more expensive home and have less down payment) In this case the remaining mortgage term is moved to the new property, the mortgage amount is increased and finally the interest rate is blended with today`s available rates. If the rates available today are lower than your interest rate then your rate will be blended and reduced, if the rates are higher today your rate will be blended and increased. I can do a rough calculation for you if you like, see my contact info at the bottom of the reply. The final port is the port-decrease. In this case you need less mortgage than the remaining mortgage amount you currently have. Your mortgage term, and rate get moved to the new property only the mortgage amount is reduced. There may be a penalty involved in this reduction of mortgage. If you are reducing your mortgage amount by greater than the allowable yearly prepayment options that you have signed for on your mortgage documents you may be charged a penalty for the extra reduction. There is one more option that one can consider, if your bank is not going to offer you a good rate on your port (they already got you so they often dont) then you can always consider a new mortgage at another lender at full discount. It may save you more than your penalty to break, the calculations often tell the tale if it is worth it. I hope this information has helped you Maynard. I can go into more detail if you like, explain further, and do some rough calculations, no obligation if you like. Please don`t hesitate to contact me:Abraham Niyazi - Mortgage Agent - Lic#M08010640 - Centum One FInancial Corp - Lic 10758. Cell: 416-993-4082 Toll Free: 1-866-728-3708 x 115 www.centum.ca/abraham_niyazi/ I deal with 25 lenders and can do mortgages across Canada except Quebec.

To port a mortgage in not really hard, but the mortgage must be the same amount and cannot change. There will be a cost of a few hundred dollars to port a mortgage and thats about it. The bank will need to approve the new property and get all the information of the new property. If there is a price difference you would need to come up with the difference so your mortgage doesn`t increase otherwise you will not be able to port it and would need to reapply for a mortgage.

The down payment is a function of the amount of the new property and this is what it is based on. Example: current mortgage balance is 200K , new property is 350 K, the down payment you need is still 35K (10%). If your old mortgage has a lower rate than now you can get 2 mortgages then, 1 for the 200K ported over and the other for 115K. If the rates today are lower than what you had initially, you should just pay off the old mortgage and get a new one at a lower rate so your monthly payments are lower. If you have equity in your property when you sell it, it can go to the down payment of the new property.