Getting a Mortgage on Maternity Leave: What Lenders Actually Count

Most couples we talk to have already decided before they call. Wait until she is back at work, get a couple of paystubs going again, start looking in the spring. It sounds like the careful move. Usually it costs them a year in a market that did not wait.

Here is what almost nobody is told. A lender can usually approve a mortgage on maternity leave using your full pre-leave salary, while you are still at home with the baby. Not the EI deposit landing every two weeks. Your actual salary. What decides the file is one piece of paper, and most people find that out too late to get it.

Can You Get a Mortgage on Maternity Leave? Usually, Yes

The myth exists for a fair reason. People assume a lender looks at what is landing in the account this month, and right now that is EI, not a paycheque. On paper that does look bad. In 2026, standard EI maternity and parental benefits pay 55 percent of your average insurable earnings, capped at $729 a week. Extended parental benefits, the ones that stretch the leave out to about 18 months, pay 33 percent, capped at $437 a week. Both are calculated off a maximum insurable income of $68,900 a year, so the cap bites well before a decent salary does.

On a $75,000 salary that is roughly $37,900 a year on the standard leave, or about $22,700 on the extended one. If that were the number lenders used, almost no family in the country could buy in the year they had a baby.

They generally do not use it. On a mortgage on maternity leave, most lenders qualify you on 100 percent of the employment income you were earning before the leave started, because the leave is temporary and the job is still yours. A lender also cannot decline you for being pregnant or on maternity leave. That is a human rights matter, not a lending preference.

What a Mortgage on Maternity Leave Needs: the Return-to-Work Letter

This is the document the whole file turns on, and it is the one people get wrong. Ask HR for a general employment letter and you will get one saying you work there and you are on leave. That is not enough, and the file gets qualified on EI instead.

A letter that does the job is on company letterhead, dated recently, and signed by someone in HR or management with a phone number and email an underwriter can call. It needs to say all of this:

• That you are still employed and currently on maternity or parental leave.
• Your job title, your original start date, and whether the position is permanent and full-time.
• Your salary, or your hourly rate and regular weekly hours, as it was before the leave began.
• A specific date you are returning — a real date, not "expected to return".
• That you are going back at your full pre-leave income.

You will also need something historical to back the number up: last year's T4, or a year-end paystub. Lenders want the letter and the history to agree.

Two mistakes cause almost all the trouble. The first is vague wording, because a phrase like "anticipated return" reads to an underwriter as a maybe. The second is timing. People ask for the letter three days before the financing condition expires, and HR is not in a hurry. Ask the week you start looking at houses.

The 12-Month Rule: Why a Longer Maternity Leave Changes the Maths

Here is the wrinkle that catches people taking the extended leave. Many lenders will use 100 percent of your pre-leave income when your return date falls within 12 months of the day the mortgage funds. When the return date lands further out than that, the treatment splits. Some lenders still use the full amount. Some cut the qualifying income to around 60 percent. A few will not count the employment income at all until you are back.

Notice what that turns on. It is not the length of your leave, it is the gap between your closing date and your return date. A family closing in March with a return date the following January is inside the window. The same family closing in September is not, and the same income gets read two entirely different ways.

The answer is not to shorten your leave on paper. Never put a return date in writing that you do not intend to meet. The answer is that on a longer leave the choice of lender does more work than anything else in the file, and that is the part a single bank branch cannot help with, because it only has its own rulebook to offer. Sorting your mortgage pre-approval before you are house shopping is what buys you room to place the file with a lender that reads the situation the way you need.

The Question Nobody Warns You About: Can You Carry It During Your Leave

Say the letter is perfect and the income is approved at 100 percent. There is still a second test on a mortgage on maternity leave, and it is the one that surprises people. Lender guidelines commonly ask the underwriter to check whether your resources cover the shortfall during the leave. The mortgage is sized on a salary you are not currently receiving, so somebody has to be satisfied you can make the payment in the months before it comes back.

What answers it is usually simple. Savings left over after the down payment and closing costs. An employer top-up on the EI. A partner's income that carries the household on its own. Go in with that answer ready and it is a non-event. Go in without it and you get conditions.

Two other pieces of income are worth raising. If your employer tops up your EI, get it stated in the same letter, because the lender will not know otherwise. And the Canada Child Benefit counts with many lenders, and because it is not taxed it stretches further than the same amount of salary. The rules vary a lot: some lenders only use it while the child is under 12, others carry it to 18 or past it, and most cap it as a share of total income, commonly between about 15 percent and half.

What If There Is No Letter to Give

Plenty of good maternity leave files do not fit the tidy version above. You are self-employed, so there is no HR to write to you. Nobody will commit to a return date on a contract. Your employer restructured while you were away, or your hours are coming back part-time. None of that ends it. It changes which lender the file belongs with, and there are three tiers to work with:

• A-lenders — the big banks, credit unions and monoline lenders. The most competitive pricing and terms, but the tightest rules on documents. Debt ratios generally around 39 and 44, and as little as five percent down on an insured purchase. Self-employed, they usually work off a two-year average of your declared income, or a business-for-self program with a reasonable add-back.
• B-lenders — the alternative side. They price higher, normally charge a lender fee, and usually want about 20 percent down because the mortgage is uninsured. In exchange they stretch debt ratios closer to 50 and 50, can work with credit scores below 600 depending on the rest of the file, and for a self-employed borrower will often qualify off roughly 12 months of business bank statements without the most recent notice of assessment.
• Private lenders — equity first. They care about the property and the down payment far more than the paperwork, which generally means 20 to 25 percent down or more. This is short-term money and it needs a written exit. On a leave file the exit is obvious: you go back to work, the paystubs start again, and the mortgage moves to an A-lender.

Most families we see on leave belong squarely on the A side once the letter is right. Knowing the other two exist is what stops "the bank said no" from ending the conversation, because that is a statement about one lender's rulebook, not about your file. The longer version is in our guide to B-lender mortgages.

Two last things. If a parent is helping with the down payment that is normal, but read how a gifted down payment works before the money moves. And do not change jobs or take on new credit between approval and possession, because the lender re-checks before it funds — the full list is in what not to do before closing.

How Gold Lion Mortgages Can Help

We have placed a lot of maternity leave files and the pattern almost never changes. The income is fine. The paperwork sinks it, and by the time somebody realises the letter is too vague there are four days left on the financing condition.

So we work it backwards. We tell you what the letter has to say before you go to HR, and we will draft the wording for you to hand over. We check your return date against likely closing dates so you know if you are inside the 12-month window. Then we place the file with a lender whose rules fit your situation.

Surinderpal has been doing this since 2023, and Gold Lion works with more than 30 lenders across the A, B and private side. If you are a first-time buyer as well as a new parent, our first-time buyer mortgage page covers the down payment and program side. If you are self-employed, start with the self-employed mortgage page instead.

Call (587) 740-0048 or visit goldlionmortgages.com/apply. No cost, no obligation, and we would much rather have the conversation early than fix it under a deadline.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I get a mortgage while on maternity leave in Canada?

Usually yes. Being pregnant or on leave is not a reason for a lender to turn you down, and most lenders will qualify you on the full salary you were earning before the leave rather than on your EI benefit. What they want is a letter from your employer confirming you are still employed, what you earned before the leave, and the date you are going back. Without that letter, many lenders fall back to the EI amount, which changes what you can afford.

Do lenders count EI maternity benefits as income for a mortgage?

Some will look at it, but it is rarely the number that matters. Standard EI maternity and parental benefits pay 55 percent of your average insurable earnings up to $729 a week in 2026, and extended benefits pay 33 percent up to $437 a week. With a proper return-to-work letter, most lenders skip the EI figure and use your pre-leave employment income instead.

What does a return-to-work letter need to say?

It should be on company letterhead, dated, and signed by someone in HR or management with their contact details. It needs to confirm you are still employed and currently on leave, your job title and start date, your salary or hourly rate and hours before the leave began, and a specific date you are returning at your full income. A letter saying you are expected to return at some point is the version that causes problems.

Does an 18-month parental leave hurt my mortgage application?

It can, depending on the lender and the closing date. Many lenders use 100 percent of your income when the return date falls within 12 months of the mortgage funding. When it falls beyond that, some scale the qualifying income down to around 60 percent and a few will not count it at all. Lenders differ a lot on this point, so on a longer leave the choice of lender matters more than anything else in the file.

Does the Canada Child Benefit count as mortgage income?

With many lenders it does, and because it is not taxed it goes further than the same amount of salary. The rules vary widely though. Some lenders only count it while the child is under 12, others carry it to 18 or beyond, and most cap it as a share of your total income, commonly anywhere from about 15 percent up to half. It is worth confirming lender by lender rather than assuming.

The federal government sets out the current benefit rates and eligibility on its EI maternity and parental benefits page.

Published: August 19, 2026. Mortgage guidelines, lender programs, and qualifying requirements change. Contact Gold Lion Mortgages to confirm current requirements for your file.

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