MLI Select points: affordability, energy, accessibility
Where the points come from, why 100 is worth chasing even though 95% arrives at 50, and what each commitment costs you later.
Everything MLI Select gives you is priced in points. Understanding where they come from, and what each one obliges you to do for the next decade or two, is the difference between a file that closes and a file that looked good in a spreadsheet.
The three categories
CMHC scores a project on affordability, energy efficiency and accessibility. How many points each can contribute depends on whether you are building or buying.
For new construction: up to 50 points for affordability, up to 50 for energy efficiency, and up to 30 for accessibility.
For existing properties: up to 100 for affordability, up to 100 for energy efficiency, and up to 40 for accessibility.
That difference is worth pausing on. On a new build no single category can carry you to the top tier by itself, because the highest available is 50 and the top tier is 100. New construction requires a combination. An existing property can in principle reach 100 on affordability alone.
What the tiers actually buy
For new construction the thresholds are 50, 70 and 100 points:
- 50 points. Up to 95% loan-to-cost, amortization up to 40 years, recourse.
- 70 points. Up to 95% loan-to-cost, amortization up to 45 years, recourse.
- 100 points. Up to 95% loan-to-cost, amortization up to 50 years, limited recourse.
The leverage does not move. It is 95% at every tier.
What moves is amortization, by ten years across the range, and recourse. Both matter more than they sound.
Ten years of additional amortization lowers annual debt service, which is what the 1.1 debt service coverage ratio is measured against. On a building that fails coverage at 40 years, the 100-point tier is not a nicety. It is the difference between a financeable project and an unfinanceable one.
Limited recourse is the other half, and it is the one investors underweight. At the top tier CMHC's flexibility extends to how much of the loan you personally stand behind. For an investor building a portfolio rather than a single building, that changes what the second and third acquisitions look like far more than a slightly larger down payment would.
Affordability is a commitment, not a discount
Affordability points are earned by committing to rents below a threshold tied to median renter income, and that commitment runs for a minimum period. Committing for longer earns more: CMHC awards an additional 30 points for a 20-year commitment rather than the 10-year minimum.
An extra 30 points is often exactly what carries a file from 70 to 100. It is also the most consequential thing in the entire application, because it is a restriction registered against the building for two decades.
Model it as what it is. Not "we will charge slightly less". A ceiling on a portion of your revenue, enforced against the property, surviving your ownership of it, through whatever the market does in between. If that horizon does not fit your intentions, the points that are cheapest to earn on paper are the most expensive to live with.
Energy and accessibility are capital, not conduct
The other two categories behave differently, and this is the practical reason they are usually the better place to start on a new build.
Energy efficiency points come from designing and constructing to a performance standard. Accessibility points come from building units to the CSA B651 accessibility standard. Both are paid for once, at construction, and then they are simply true about the building. Neither constrains what you charge, who you rent to, or when you sell.
That asymmetry is the single most useful thing to understand about scoring a new build. Two projects can arrive at 100 points by different routes, and the one that got there through construction rather than through a 20-year rent ceiling is a materially different asset to own.
Points now change the premium too
Since CMHC standardised multi-unit premiums on 14 July 2025, a discount schedule applies to MLI Select that reduces the total premium according to the level of social outcomes achieved.
So points now do two jobs: they set the tier of flexibility, and they reduce what you pay for it. Any model built on premium tables from before that date understates the value of the higher tiers.
How to think about it
Score the categories that are paid for in capital first, because they cost you money once and nothing afterwards. Reach for the long affordability commitment last, deliberately, and only when you have modelled what a 20-year rent restriction does to your exit.
And do all of it before the drawings are final. Points are designed into a building. They cannot be added to a finished one, which is why an investor who arrives after the design is fixed is negotiating over a tier that was already decided without them.
What this does not tell you
This is how the scoring works, not a scoring of your project. Point awards, thresholds and premiums are determined by CMHC and the participating lender, they vary by file, and CMHC updates the program. Confirm the current criteria before you rely on any of it.
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