April 25, 2014 – As part of the review of its mortgage loan insurance business, CMHC is discontinuing its Second Home and Self-Employed Without 3rd Party Income Validation mortgage insurance products effective May 30, 2014. Self-employed Canadians can still qualify for CMHC insured financing through CMHC homeowner products with a validation of their income using traditional methods.
“CMHC helps Canadians meet their housing needs and contributes to the stability of the housing market and finance system” said Steven Mennill, Senior Vice-President, Insurance. “As part of the review of its mortgage loan insurance business, CMHC is
evaluating its products and services to ensure they are aligned with these objectives.”
As a result of changes to CMHC’s mandate to contribute to the stability of the housing market, benefitting all Canadians, while effectively managing and reducing taxpayers’ exposure to risk, CMHC is undertaking a review of its mortgage loan insurance business. This is the first set of changes resulting from this review.
CMHC Second Home and Self-Employed Without 3rd Party Income Validation will remain available for new mortgage loan insurance requests submitted to CMHC before May 30, 2014, regardless of the closing date of the home purchase. As is normal practice, complete borrower and property details must be submitted by a lender to CMHC when requesting mortgage loan insurance.
Combined, CMHC Second Home and Self-Employed Without 3rd Party Income Validation account for less than 3% of CMHC’s insured business volumes in units. Given the limited use of these products, their discontinuation is not expected to have a material
impact on the housing market.
As Canada’s national housing agency, CMHC draws on more than 65 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of quality, environmentally sustainable, and affordable housing solutions that will continue to create vibrant and healthy communities and cities across the country.

Backgrounder
CMHC Self Employed (Without Traditional 3rd Party Validation of Income)

• CMHC introduced its Self Employed Without Traditional 3rd Party Validation of Income product in 2007 in response to industry competition. The product allowed self-employed
borrowers who were unable to provide traditional sources of income validation to access CMHC-insured financing for a 1-2 unit owner occupied property.

• For the majority of self-employed borrowers, income validation is readily available. To validate their income, self-employed borrowers can provide copies of their Notice of Assessment, audited financial statements or unaudited financial statements prepared by an independent third party, for the previous two year period. 

CMHC Second Home

• CMHC introduced its Second Home product in 2005. CMHC Second Home offered borrowers more financing options when purchasing an owner-occupied second home located anywhere in Canada.

• Going forward, CMHC will limit the availability of homeowner mortgage loan insurance to only one property (1-4 units) per borrower/co-borrower at any given time.