Who the finding describes
CMHC surveyed more than 4,100 recent mortgage consumers across Canada in January 2026, including buyers, renewers and refinancers. The AI finding applies to the subgroup who searched online, rather than the whole survey sample or all Canadian homebuyers.
| Measure | Finding or scope |
|---|---|
| AI use for mortgage information | 16% of respondents who searched online |
| Overall survey sample | More than 4,100 recent mortgage consumers |
| Fieldwork | January 2026 |
| Exact AI-question subgroup size | Not stated in the public summary |
Source: CMHC, 2026 Mortgage Consumer Survey, published May 20, 2026. CMHC conducted the survey. Matt Richling and New Purveyors Lab provide the interpretation on this page.
What we can infer for real estate content
The finding provides a reason to examine how people encounter housing-related information through AI. It leaves several business questions open: whether those interactions direct users to an agent, whether the information affects trust, and whether a resulting enquiry becomes a client relationship.
A mortgage question can be about terminology or borrowing options. Choosing an agent is a different decision. We cannot use one measured activity as a conversion rate for the other, or assume the AI interaction happened before a conversation with an agent.
Our editorial recommendation is to answer specific client questions with evidence that a reader can inspect. Identify dates, geography and relevant property types. Link to primary sources. Distinguish a reported finding from professional interpretation, and direct readers to the appropriate professional when a question requires specialist advice.
These practices help readers assess an answer. This survey does not establish that they increase AI citations, search visibility or revenue.
Measure the client journey separately
An agent or team investigating AI discovery can record mentions, website visits, enquiries and completed client relationships separately. Ask people how they found the business and which information influenced their decision. Preserve their uncertainty when they cannot recall a source.
Those observations can inform a business’s decisions without proving that a particular article caused a sale. An article may also be useful in an existing client relationship; that use should be recorded separately from acquiring a new client.
For the Lab, this is a question to investigate through measurement. We make no claim here that our own content has generated a measured amount of AI-sourced business.
Source and method
This page is a secondary-source review of CMHC’s public findings and methodology, checked September 19, 2026. It reproduces one published percentage without extrapolating a national user count. Because the public summary does not state the AI subgroup size, we do not calculate a confidence interval. The survey population consists of recent mortgage consumers, so people who have not completed a mortgage transaction are outside that stated population.
The information and measurement recommendations are the Lab’s interpretation. This article is separate from the Lab’s proposed agent AI-use survey and contains no results from that project. No Ottawa-specific AI adoption rate is estimated.
Matt Richling is the owner and team lead of New Purveyors, an Ottawa real estate team with RE/MAX Hallmark. About Matt and his work with industry audiences.
Cite this article
Richling, Matt. New Purveyors Lab. “Are Canadians using AI to research mortgages?” Published September 19, 2026. Article link.