MIC Market Size in Canada: Where the Numbers Come From and How to Read Them

Investors weighing a mortgage investment corporation (MIC) often want context first: how big is this market, how many MICs are there, and how often do their borrowers fall behind? Those are fair questions, and the MIC market size in Canada is a figure many websites quote with confidence. This page does not, because we do not hold a verified figure, and an unverified number presented as fact is worse than none.

What this page does instead is explain where the numbers are published, what each metric actually measures, how the same portfolio can produce very different statistics, and how to read the one dated data series we can verify. It is general education, not investment advice.

What is the size of the MIC market in Canada?

There is no single official measure of the MIC market. A MIC is defined by section 130.1 of the Income Tax Act: a Canadian corporation that meets nine conditions throughout a taxation year, including having at least 20 shareholders and holding at least 50% of the cost amount of its property in residential mortgages and qualifying deposits and money. That makes MIC a tax status, not a licence, so no regulator registers MICs or totals their assets.

Market size can also mean different things. Outstanding balances measure the stock of mortgages held at a point in time; originations measure new lending in a period. A market can be small in balances and large in originations if its loans are short, which is typical of private lending.

Where MIC market size data in Canada is published

The table lists the public sources, on the basis of what each actually covers. Check the latest edition of each for the current period.

The difference between a MIC and an MIE is explained in MIC or MIE?, and the basics of the structure in what is a mortgage investment corporation?.

How many MICs are there in Canada?

No official count is published. Because MIC status is met, or failed, year by year under the tax rules, a corporation can be a MIC one year and not the next, and there is no public register of MICs. Figures that circulate are estimates compiled by industry participants; before relying on one, check how it was compiled and when.

Counts of licensed mortgage brokerages and administrators, which FSRA and other provincial regulators publish through their licensing records, measure something else: the firms that arrange and service loans, many of which are not MICs and some of which serve several.

What are the largest MICs in Canada?

There is no official ranking, and this site does not rank MICs. Size is usually measured by total assets or total mortgage portfolio, as reported in each MIC’s audited financial statements; a MIC listed on a stock exchange files these publicly, while a MIC sold in the exempt market provides them to investors through its offering memorandum.

Size is not quality. A large MIC may be more diversified across loans, or more concentrated in one region; it may have more liquidity, or more redemption requests to meet. Those questions are answered in the financial statements, not by the asset total.

The metrics, defined

Each metric below is commonly quoted about private lenders. The definition matters as much as the number.

• MIE share of originations. The proportion of new mortgage lending in a period made by mortgage investment entities. Check whether it is measured by dollar value or number of loans, and whether the denominator is all residential lending or only one segment.
• Outstanding balances. The total amount owed on mortgages at a date. Growth rates on a small base can look dramatic.
• Arrears or delinquency. Loans with payments overdue, usually grouped by days past due (for example 30, 60 or 90 days). Read the threshold before the number.
• Impaired loans. Loans the lender no longer expects to collect in full on the original terms, disclosed with an allowance for credit losses.
• Loan-to-value (LTV). The loan, plus any charges ranking ahead, divided by the property’s appraised value. Check whether it is measured at origination or updated, and whether it is a weighted average or a distribution. See loan-to-value for mortgage investors.
• Concentration. The share of the portfolio in one region, one position (first or second), one property type or one borrower. Covered in concentration and diversification in a mortgage portfolio.

What is the MIC delinquency rate in Canada?

There is no single published MIC delinquency rate, and none is quoted here. CMHC’s Residential Mortgage Industry Report is where private-lender arrears data is reported where available, for the category it defines; each MIC discloses its own arrears and impaired loans in its audited financial statements.

Delinquency figures are especially sensitive to definition. A loan that matures unpaid and is then renewed may stop appearing as overdue; a portfolio with many second mortgages behaves differently from one with mostly firsts; and a small portfolio can swing sharply on one loan.

Worked example (illustrative)

The five-loan portfolio below is invented to show how one set of loans produces different statistics. It is not any MIC’s portfolio.

Total balance: $400,000 + $300,000 + $150,000 + $100,000 + $50,000 = $1,000,000.

• Average LTV, simple: (50% + 60% + 75% + 80% + 40%) ÷ 5 = 305% ÷ 5 = 61%.
• Average LTV, weighted by balance: (40% × 50%) + (30% × 60%) + (15% × 75%) + (10% × 80%) + (5% × 40%) = 20% + 18% + 11.25% + 8% + 2% = 59.25%.
• Over 30 days past due, by balance: ($150,000 + $50,000) ÷ $1,000,000 = 20%. By count: 2 ÷ 5 = 40%.
• Over 90 days past due, by balance: $150,000 ÷ $1,000,000 = 15%. By count: 1 ÷ 5 = 20%.
• Second-position share: ($150,000 + $100,000) ÷ $1,000,000 = 25%.
• Largest single loan: $400,000 ÷ $1,000,000 = 40%.
• Ontario share: ($400,000 + $300,000 + $50,000) ÷ $1,000,000 = 75%.

The same five loans can be described as “15% delinquent” or “40% delinquent”, and as having an average LTV of 59.25% or 61%, without anything being false. That is why the definition belongs beside every figure.

How to read any statistic about the MIC market

Before relying on a market figure, check it against seven questions:

1. Source. Who published it, and do they collect the data or repeat someone else’s?
2. Period. Which quarter or year does it describe? Market data ages quickly.
3. Category. MICs only, MIEs, all private lenders, or one province?
4. Measure. Balances or originations; dollars or counts?
5. Definition. For arrears, how many days past due?
6. Denominator. A share of what?
7. Revisions. Has a later edition updated it?

A figure that cannot answer these is anecdote. An Ontario figure from FSRA describes Ontario; it is not a national rate, and Ontario’s market is covered in mortgage investing in Ontario.

One dated data series: Lendmax Capital MIC’s published returns

The only time series on this page is one MIC’s own published record. Lendmax Capital MIC publishes the net rate of return paid to investors by fiscal year (source: Lendmax Capital MIC, “Past performance”, lendmaxcapital.ca/investors/past-performance, updated 19 September 2026):

The FY2025 target annual return was 9%. Reading the series with the checklist above: the source is the issuer itself; the periods are fiscal years, not calendar years; the measure is the net rate paid to investors, after the MIC’s costs; and the range runs from a year with no return to a year well above target. It describes one issuer and says nothing about the market. Past performance does not indicate future results. Distributions are not guaranteed and may be reduced or suspended. Higher returns come with higher risk.

What market data cannot tell an individual investor

Market-level data gives context; it does not describe the MIC in front of you. A market with low reported arrears can contain an issuer with high ones, and the reverse. For any individual MIC, the evidence is in its own documents:

• Total assets and portfolio size — audited financial statements.
• Arrears, impaired loans and allowance for credit losses — notes to the audited financial statements.
• Loan-to-value distribution and position split — notes to the financial statements or the offering memorandum.
• Regional and borrower concentration — notes to the financial statements.
• Return history — the issuer’s published performance, read with its period and definition.

Mortgage investments are not guaranteed. Returns are targets, not promises, and principal can be lost. The full list of risks is in the risks of mortgage investing in Canada.

Common mistakes when reading MIC data

• Treating an MIE figure as a MIC figure. The categories differ.
• Quoting a figure without its period. A statistic two years old may describe a different market.
• Comparing arrears across issuers with different definitions. Thirty days and ninety days are different measures.
• Equating size with lower risk. Size and risk are separate questions. Terms are defined in the glossary.

What this means for a mortgage investor

There is no verified, current figure for the size of the MIC market, the number of MICs or their delinquency rate, and this page does not invent one; the published sources are CMHC’s Residential Mortgage Industry Report, FSRA’s reports on Ontario private lending, and each MIC’s own financial statements. Any figure from them is only as useful as its source, period and definition. Whatever the market looks like, an individual investment still turns on seven axes — the borrower, the property, the loan-to-value, the security position, the term, the jurisdiction and the investment structure — and those are found in the issuer’s documents, not in market totals.