If you're mid-term on a fixed mortgage and rates have fallen since you locked in, breaking it to move can trigger a painful interest-rate differential penalty. Porting — transferring your existing mortgage to a new property — is the feature designed to prevent exactly that. Most fixed mortgages include it; many borrowers never use it because they don't know it exists.
What porting actually does
Porting carries your current rate, term, and balance to a new home with the same lender, avoiding the penalty for breaking early. If your new home costs more, you blend your existing rate with the lender's current rate on the additional amount. If it costs less, you port what you need and manage the remainder.
The deadlines that trip people up
Porting isn't open-ended. Most lenders give you a narrow window — often 30 to 90 days between closing the sale of your old home and the purchase of the new one — to complete the port. Miss the window and the mortgage discharges with a penalty anyway. If a move is on the horizon, the porting terms should shape your timing.
When porting isn't the answer
If rates have dropped below your locked rate, the penalty may be small and a fresh mortgage elsewhere could be cheaper overall — even after paying to break. We compare the port-and-blend option against breaking and refinancing so you choose the path that costs least over the term, not the one that feels safest by default.
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