CTV News – June 15, 2026
Christopher Liew is a CFP®, CFA Charterholder and former financial advisor. He writes personal finance tips for thousands of daily Canadian readers at Blueprint Financial.
If you’re a few years out from retirement and your mortgage is up for renewal, you’re in a uniquely uncomfortable spot. A higher payment is annoying when you’ve got a paycheque behind it. It’s a different problem when your income is about to drop to CPP, OAS, and whatever you’ve saved.
I talk to people in this exact situation often, and the math catches a lot of them off guard. Below, I’ll walk through how the renewal wave hits near-retirees differently, and the specific moves that keep it from pushing your retirement date back.
The two trends colliding right now
Roughly one million mortgages are up for renewal in 2026, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Many were locked in during the ultra-low-rate years, so even with rates well below their 2023 and 2024 highs, plenty are staring at meaningfully higher payments.
Now layer on a second concerning trend. Statistics Canada reports the average retirement age hit a record 65.4 in 2025, and a growing share of Canadians are heading into retirement still carrying a mortgage. When those two trends, a renewal stops being a budget line. It can decide when you actually get to stop working.
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