Private Lending for Mortgage Brokers in Ontario: How to Grow Your Brokerage in 2026

The 2026 Renewal Wave Is Still Working Through Ontario

The renewal wave did not end in 2025. According to CMHC's 2026 analysis of the renewal wave, more than 1.5 million households have already renewed at higher rates, and roughly one million more are set to renew in the coming year. CMHC's Residential Mortgage Industry Report (Spring 2026) notes that 2026 renewal volumes are about 13 percent below the 2025 peak. Lower than the peak is not the same as low. A large share of the remaining cohort took five-year fixed money in 2021 and early 2022 at the cheapest rates in Canadian history, and they are renewing into a very different payment.

The Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.25 percent on July 15, 2026, which has taken some sting out of renewals. But rate relief has not translated into clean approvals for the stressed end of the book:

• Arrears are climbing where your clients live. CMHC projects Toronto mortgage arrears will reach 0.340 percent by Q4 2026, more than quadruple the 0.095 percent rate of Q3 2023, driven by high household debt, a soft labour market, and falling prices.
• Ontario homeowners are stretched beyond the mortgage. Equifax Canada's Q2 2026 report shows Ontario mortgage holders have posted rising delinquency for four consecutive years, with their non-mortgage delinquency rate hitting 0.86 percent, up 27 percent year over year.
• Equity is thinner than the file from 2022 suggests. TRREB's July 2026 Market Watch data puts the GTA average price around $1,003,956, down 4.5 percent year over year. Order the new appraisal before you promise an LTV.

Most borrowers who renewed simply extended amortizations to survive the payment. That fix is one-time. The next event on those files, a consolidation, a bridge, a credit blemish, lands on your desk.

The B Lender Squeeze: Why More Files Are Falling Through

Here is the part of the funnel nobody publishes a press release about. The renewal wave pushed a wave of borrowers from A lenders to B lenders, and B lenders have their own limits: debt service ceilings, credit score floors, property type restrictions, and income documentation standards that a bruised 2026 borrower often cannot meet. A self-employed client with a rough 2024 and 2025 on their NOAs, a homeowner with collections from the stretch years, a condo investor whose appraisal came in light. These are B declines now, and the file has to go somewhere.

The data shows where it is going. CMHC's Spring 2026 industry report found that mortgage investment entities (MIEs, the category that includes MICs) now account for roughly 4.7 percent of originated mortgages, and the 25 largest MIEs grew assets under management to $11.5 billion in Q3 2025, up 8.8 percent year over year, the fastest growth since 2022. In Ontario specifically, FSRA's private lending data counted 65,233 private mortgages worth $32.0 billion in 2024, which is 15.8 percent of all broker-arranged mortgages by count. Roughly one in six files your peers arranged went private.

One honest caveat belongs here, because your clients will read the headlines: CMHC pegs MIE delinquency at 1.96 percent as of Q3 2025, nearly triple the pandemic low. Private lending done casually produces those numbers. Private lending done with a vetted lender, a real appraisal, and a documented exit strategy is a different product. That distinction is the whole reason this article has a process section.

Why Brokers Who Can Place Private Deals Close More Files and Keep Clients

A declined file is not neutral. The client who hears "I cannot help" calls the next broker, and that broker gets the private deal, the takeout refinance in a year or two, and the referral chain behind it. The brokers growing through this cycle treat a B decline as a routing decision, not a dead end.

Suppose a broker has 15 renewal-driven files in a quarter and two fall out of B approvals. If she cannot place private deals, those two clients leave, and the industry pattern says they do not come back. If she places both on one-year private terms with a written exit plan, she earns the placement now, stays the broker of record for two takeout refinances inside 24 months, and keeps two referral sources active. Over a year that is roughly eight files that either walked out the door or turned into as many as sixteen closings plus referrals. The rate on the private term is not the story you sell; the two-transaction arc back to cheaper money is. It helps to be fluent in current private mortgage rates in Ontario so you can frame the cost honestly and pre-empt the sticker shock conversation.

There is also a supply-side reason this works better in 2026 than it did five years ago. A February 2026 survey of Canadian mortgage brokers found brokers roughly evenly split between wanting fast approvals, flexible policies, and competitive pricing from private lenders, and most report they are not getting all three from any one lender. That is a market inefficiency you can exploit with a curated bench: the broker who has already identified the two or three lenders that actually deliver has a structural edge over the broker cold-calling lenders deal by deal.

Where Private Deals Come From in 2026

You do not need to chase exotic files. The renewal wave manufactures the same handful of scenarios repeatedly:

• Bridge at renewal. The borrower needs 6 to 12 months to sell, season income, or repair credit before an A or B renewal is realistic. Short term, open or partially open, exit is a sale or refinance.
• Second mortgage instead of breaking the first. A client holding a 2021 rate has consumer debt compounding at card rates. A second mortgage in Ontario behind the cheap first often beats a full refinance, and a debt consolidation mortgage structure can restore the debt service ratios that get them back to a B or A lender at the next renewal.
• Self-employed income that underwrites on story, not just NOAs. Two soft tax years in a viable business is a private file with a documented path back to bank paper once the current fiscal year files.
• Credit-event borrowers. Consumer proposals, collections, and missed payments from the 2023 to 2025 squeeze. Equity-based lending carries them while the credit rebuilds.

In every case the underwriting question a good private lender asks is the same one FSRA wants you to ask: what is the exit, and is it dated?

Building a Private Lending Process Inside Your Brokerage

Placing one private deal is a favour. Placing twenty a year is a capability, and capability is process. Three pieces: the bench, the compliance file, and the client conversation.

Build a Lender Bench, Not a Rolodex

Ontario private capital comes in three broad flavours, and they behave differently when your deal is on the line:

Individual lenders can be excellent, but a bench built only on individuals is fragile: commitments evaporate, criteria drift, and renewals become negotiations. A direct MIC lends from a managed pool under a stated mandate, which is why funding certainty and consistency are its structural advantages. If you have not worked with one, it is worth understanding what a mortgage investment corporation is and how it differs from brokering someone's uncle's money.

Vet every lender before they meet your client. Confirm licensing or MIC status and how long the entity has been lending. Ask who underwrites and whether decisions are made in-house or passed to a committee of investors. Ask how often issued commitments change before closing, what the full fee stack is in writing, and how they handled renewals through 2023 to 2025. A lender's behaviour in the worst quarter of the cycle is the datapoint that matters.

Compliance: What FSRA Expects on Private Deals

FSRA has made private lending a named priority in its Mortgage Brokering Sector Supervision Plan for 2025-26, with focus on suitability, disclosure, and documented exit strategies. The sector's track record explains why. FSRA found only 60 percent of private mortgage consumers in 2024 recalled discussing an exit strategy with their broker, up from 43 percent the year before but still leaving four in ten files exposed. A separate FSRA review of private mortgage disclosures found only 35.5 percent of files calculated APR correctly.

Treat every private file as if it will be pulled in an examination, because it might be:

1. Suitability, documented. Why private, why this lender, why this structure, and what alternatives were considered. Two paragraphs in the file beats a memory.
2. A dated, written exit strategy. Sale, refinance to B or A, or a defined income event, with the target date and the assumptions (credit repair timeline, income seasoning, appraisal sensitivity).
3. Accurate cost disclosure. All lender fees, broker fees, and third-party costs in the APR, estimated charges labelled as estimates. Given FSRA's findings, correct APR math is now a differentiator, not a formality.
4. Renewal and default terms explained before signing. The client should never learn about a renewal fee from the renewal notice.

Client Communication That Keeps the Client

The brokers who lose private clients lose them at the framing stage. Present the private mortgage as a bridge with a date on it, not a destination. The script is simple: here is why the banks say no today, here is the 12 to 24 month plan to fix that, here is what the bridge costs, and here is the date we start the takeout application. Then diarize it. A calendar entry at month 9 of a 12-month term is worth more retention than any drip email campaign, because you call the client with their exit before they start shopping for one.

This is also where lender selection loops back: a direct lender that works exclusively through the broker channel has no retail arm competing for your client at renewal. The takeout is yours to write.

The Submission Package That Gets Same-Day Answers

Private underwriters price certainty. A complete package (application, credit bureaus, current appraisal from an approved appraiser, income story, clear ask with LTV, and the exit strategy) gets a fast, firm answer. A dribbled file gets requotes. Keep one consolidated thread per deal and present the exit up front; if you want the full checklist, we keep a current private mortgage deal submission guide for Ontario brokers that covers the package document by document.

FAQ: Private Lending for Ontario Brokers

How big is private mortgage lending in Ontario?

FSRA counted 65,233 private mortgages worth $32.0 billion in Ontario in 2024, representing 15.8 percent of broker-arranged mortgages by count and 12.5 percent by value. Roughly one in six broker files in the province involves a private lender.

Is private lending growing or shrinking in 2026?

Ontario's total private count dipped slightly in 2024, but the institutional side is expanding: CMHC reports the 25 largest mortgage investment entities grew assets to $11.5 billion by Q3 2025, up 8.8 percent year over year, the fastest pace since 2022. Demand is being fed by the renewal wave and B lender tightening.

What does FSRA require when a broker recommends a private mortgage?

FSRA's 2025-26 supervision plan expects brokerages to demonstrate suitability assessments, accurate cost and APR disclosure, and a documented exit strategy for private borrowers. Enhanced supervision applies to brokerages active in private placements, so the file should show why private, why this lender, and how the client gets out.

Should a broker use a MIC or an individual private lender?

A MIC lends from a managed pool with in-house underwriting, which generally means better funding certainty, consistent criteria, and policy-driven renewals. Individual lenders can fit unusual deals but carry single-person liquidity and consistency risk. Most working benches anchor on one or two direct MICs and keep individuals for edge cases.

When should a broker not place a deal with a private lender?

When there is no credible exit: no realistic path to refinance, no sale intention, and debt service that fails even at the private payment. A private mortgage without an exit strategy converts a decline into a future power of sale, and FSRA's rising borrower vulnerability findings show regulators are watching exactly that pattern.

A Direct MIC Lender Built for the Broker Channel

If you are building your bench for the back half of the renewal wave, Richview Capital is a licensed Ontario mortgage investment corporation (MIC #13171) that lends directly, underwrites in-house, and works entirely through the broker channel across Toronto, the GTA, and Ontario. Because we are a direct lender and not a brokerage, we do not compete for your client: you place the deal, you own the relationship, and you write the takeout.

Brokers should expect what this article describes from any direct MIC: decisions made by the people holding the capital, commitments that mean what they say, transparent fees, and underwriting that starts with the exit strategy. That is how we look at files, from renewal bridges and second mortgages to self-employed and credit-event lending.

If you have a file the banks and B lenders have squeezed out, or you simply want to know where our appetite sits before you need it, connect with our underwriting team through the Richview Capital broker page and start the conversation before your next decline lands.

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Richview Capital MIC is a licensed Mortgage Investment Corporation (Mortgage Administrator License #13171). This article is educational information for Ontario mortgage brokers — not legal, financial, or tax advice. See About and Disclaimer.