Recently CMHC changed the rules pertaining to clients have two CMHC insured mortgages. For many years clients were able to buy a second home for recreational purposes or for children attending school in another city. The recent changes now say that if you want to own a second home that you must be able to put enough money down so that CMHC is not needed. That amount would be equal to 20% for some lenders and 25% for others.

Not all hope is lost on this front as the good news is that CMHC is not the only lender and Genworth Canada is still insuring second purchases.

Genworth Canada Proprietary Scoring Model

They require a minimum credit bureau score of 650 on all applicants for Vacation properties. We calculate the score using our internal Genworth Canada proprietary scoring model, which uses credit scores from both bureaus. Please note that on a case-by-case basis, they are prepared to review instances where the primary applicant meets the minimum credit score but a second applicant has no credit at all. You cannot have had a prior bankruptcy or judgements and no R3′s on your credit in the last 24 months.

Gifted down payments from immediate family members are acceptable for Secondary properties. For Vacation properties, down payment funds must be from own resources and you can have Maximum of one Genworth-insured vacation property per applicant.

So as you can see Genworth is still interested in insuring this type of property for you. If of course the property is going to be rented then it falls back into the 20% minimum down payment category.