Hamilton
Mortgage Broker in Hamilton
A hundred waterfalls, a working port, and the oldest housing stock we finance.
Fusion Mortgage Group are licensed mortgage brokers working across Hamilton, from Dundas and Ancaster to the lower city and the Mountain, and this page is what we have learned financing homes here. Hamilton has more useful local knowledge attached to it than any other city we work in. The lower city is old enough that wiring, plumbing and land history all matter. The mountain and the suburbs are new enough that they mostly do not.
Both of us work this market, and every file gets both of us on it. Every file gets both of us on it.
The rules that decide what you can actually buy
Prices move. These do not, or at least not without it being national news. They are the frame every purchase here sits inside.
Down payment
5% then 10%
Five percent of the first $500,000, ten percent of anything above it
Insured ceiling
$1.5M
Above that price, insurance is unavailable and you need twenty percent
Amortization
25 or 30
Thirty years on an insured mortgage if you are a first-time buyer or it is new construction
Qualifying rate
Contract +2%
Or 5.25%, whichever is higher. You qualify at that, you pay your actual rate
What that means in Hamilton specifically
Most of Hamilton sits under the $1.5 million insured ceiling, so the five and ten percent down payment structure is available across the great majority of the city. Ancaster, parts of Flamborough and the escarpment estate lots are where that changes.
The thirty year amortization applies to first-time buyers and to newly built homes never occupied. Upper Stoney Creek, Binbrook and Waterdown are producing a lot of the second category.
What each part of the city does to a mortgage
Hamilton amalgamated six municipalities in 2001 and the housing stock spans almost two centuries. The lender questions change completely depending on which part you are in.
The lower city
Old wiring, old pipes
Knob and tube wiring was installed from the early 1900s to the 1940s and many insurers will not cover a house that still has it. Hamilton used lead plumbing until 1955, and roughly twenty thousand pre-1955 homes may have lead service lines. The homeowner owns the private portion. No insurance means no mortgage advance, so the insurance answer comes first.
Westdale and Ainslie Wood
Rental licensing near McMaster
Westdale was a planned garden suburb begun in the 1920s. Both neighbourhoods have heavy student rental conversion. A Rental Housing Licence applies in Wards 1, 8 and part of 14, requiring interior and exterior inspections and compliance with building, fire, electrical, parking and room size rules.
Durand, Corktown and the central heritage streets
Heritage control
Hamilton has designated heritage conservation districts. Inside one, nothing can be demolished without Council permission and exterior alterations or new construction need approval through a heritage permit.
The escarpment brow and the mountain
Two regulators
The Hamilton Conservation Authority requires written approval before grading, building, adding to structures, pools, decks, retaining walls or changing the number of dwelling units in regulated areas, which include ravines, valleys, the escarpment, steep slopes, wetlands and floodplains. Processing runs upward of four weeks. On escarpment land the Niagara Escarpment Commission adds development control on top.
Waterdown, Binbrook and the growth edges
New build
Waterdown grew over forty percent between 2016 and 2021. New construction means Tarion, deposit protection, delayed closing compensation and closing dates that move without a rate hold following.
The industrial north end and converted land
Brownfield questions
Hamilton runs a brownfield remediation grant program that has addressed around 206 acres of polluted land since 2001, producing over 3,300 residential units. On converted or infill property, what the land used to be is a fair and cheap question.
Three things that come up here and almost nowhere else
1. Insurance decides the mortgage in the lower city
This is the single most useful thing to know about buying an older Hamilton house. Knob and tube wiring is still legal, because the electrical code is not retroactive, but many insurers will not write or renew a policy on a house that has it and some require replacement first.
A lender will not advance funds on an uninsurable property. So on anything pre-war, the order is insurance quote, then financing, then closing. Reverse that order and you find out in the final week, which is exactly when there is no time to fix it.
2. Lead service lines are a real cost line, not a footnote
Hamilton used lead plumbing until 1955 and roughly twenty thousand homes built before then may still have lead service lines out of about 154,000 in the city. The private portion belongs to the homeowner, and a 2022 by-law amendment requires owners to replace lead pipes to current standards.
City loans are available toward the cost. The point is to price it into the purchase rather than discover it after.
3. Rental income has a licensing layer here
If the plan involves renting, two by-laws matter. The Rental Housing Licence applies in Wards 1, 8 and part of Ward 14, covering single, two and three family dwellings, buildings up to four units and secondary rental units, with inspections attached. Separately, short-term rentals must be in the operator principal residence and stays over twenty eight days are not permitted.
On top of that, Hamilton charges a vacant unit tax of one percent of assessed value, with an annual declaration required. That catches people who leave a property empty during a renovation or between closings.
What Hamilton actually has
It is a city where you can walk to a waterfall from a bus stop.
More than a hundred waterfalls
Webster, Tew, Albion, Devil Punchbowl, Tiffany, Sherman, Felker and Borer among them, all over the escarpment inside the city.
McMaster University
Founded 1887, moved to Hamilton in 1930, now over 37,000 students across six faculties.
Dundurn Castle
A forty room Italianate villa built in the 1830s for a Premier of the United Canadas, now a National Historic Site.
The Port of Hamilton
Ontario’s largest port, moving the largest cargo volume on the Canadian Great Lakes, on 630 acres with about 130 tenants.
Supercrawl
Started in 2009 with three thousand people. Past 285,000 in 2024.
The Dundas Valley
A conservation area big enough to get lost in, fifteen minutes from downtown.
The Bruce Trail
Runs along the brow through the whole city.
An LRT under way
A fourteen kilometre, seventeen stop line planned from McMaster to Eastgate, projected at around fifty thousand daily riders.
Questions people actually ask us here
I am buying a house in the lower city. What should I do first?
Get an insurance quote before you get too far into financing. Knob and tube wiring is common in Hamilton pre-war stock and many insurers will not write a policy on it, or require replacement first. A lender will not fund a house nobody will insure. Doing insurance first turns a deal-breaker into a negotiation.
What is the lead pipe issue?
Hamilton used lead plumbing until 1955, and roughly twenty thousand homes built before then may still have a lead water service line. The portion on your property is yours to maintain, and a by-law amendment requires replacement to current standards. The city offers loans toward the cost. It is a budget item on an older house, not a reason to walk.
I want to buy a rental near McMaster. What do I need to know?
That there is a licensing layer. A Rental Housing Licence applies in Wards 1, 8 and part of Ward 14, covering houses, small buildings and secondary units, with interior and exterior inspections and code compliance required. Separately, whether the rental portion is a legal second unit or a set of rooms changes how a lender reads the income, and that difference can be worth six figures in what you qualify for.
Does the vacant unit tax affect me?
It can, and people miss it. Hamilton charges one percent of assessed value on a vacant residential unit and requires an annual declaration from residential owners. If you are buying a property to renovate before moving in, or you own something sitting empty between closings, it is worth knowing the declaration exists.
Which of you would I be working with?
Both of us. Every file at Fusion has two sets of eyes on it, and that is most of why we merged in the first place. In practice one of us runs the day to day, usually whoever is closest to the property or the situation, and the other is across it the whole way. You will always know who you are calling, and you will never be the only person who knows your file.
If you are buying, renewing or refinancing in Hamilton, especially anything built before the war, the useful conversation starts with the house rather than the rate.
Fusion Mortgage Group, 8 Hiscott St. Unit 10, St. Catharines, ON L2R 1C5. 289-723-2126. Licensed across Ontario, brokered through BRX Mortgage Inc. FSRA #13463.
Who you actually work with
Both of us work every file in Hamilton. You are not handed to whoever covers the postcode, and you never have to explain your situation twice.
Kelly Foote
Mortgage Broker · FSRA #M21002713
Certified Divorce Specialist · Certified Canadian Reverse Mortgage Consultant
Niagara born and built, and the systems side of how a file actually gets run.
Lisa Reynolds
Mortgage Broker · FSRA #M15000477
Certified Canadian Reverse Mortgage Consultant
30+ years in the industry, and the lender strategy behind the harder files.
Fusion Mortgage Group is a team of licensed mortgage brokers with BRX Mortgage Inc., Mortgage Brokerage #13463.
Reading for Hamilton buyers and owners
Last updated: October 2026. Sources: Government of Canada insured mortgage rules (in effect December 15, 2024); Statistics Canada, 2021 Census; Fusion Mortgage Group review of realtor.ca asking prices, October 2026; City of Hamilton; HOPA Ports.