Physicians · BC · AB
The commercial side of a physician’s balance sheet.
Your mortgage is one conversation. The clinic you practise in — buying into it, building it out, or owning the building itself — is a different one, on different terms, at a different desk.
Arranged by Ramin Hallaji, licensed mortgage broker, who takes each file person to person to the healthcare-lending specialists at Canada’s major lenders.
Medical practice financingThe four pillars
What gets financed
The purchase is rarely one number. It is four, and they are underwritten together — which is why, most of the time, the down payment comes out at nothing.
Read a funded example: North Shore medical clinic financing — about $1.8 million of facilities for a $770,000 premises purchase, structured as one project, with no down payment.
Real estate
The clinic premises or the medical office building — among the strongest real estate a lender can take on a healthcare file.
Usually 25 yearsFinancing the premisesPractice acquisition
Buying into or buying out a clinic: the patient panel, the roster and the going concern.
About 12 yearsFinancing a buy-in or buyoutLeasehold & equipment
Exam-room fit-out, diagnostic and procedural equipment, records systems, and the build-out of a new clinic.
About 12 yearsFinancing leasehold improvementsFinancing equipmentWorking capital
A revolving corporate line of credit — not a term loan — covering payroll for nursing and admin staff, supplies, and the float while a new panel or location fills. A corporate credit card can sit beside the line.
Revolving lineFinancing working capitalRun the numbers on your own deal
- Will the whole deal qualify?The building, the practice, the leaseholds and the equipment together, year by year.
- What the practice is worthAdjusted earnings, a value on the multiple you choose, and whether that price covers its own debt.
- Rent versus buyThe rent that never stops against a payment that falls and ends.
- Own it, or stay associateYour pay against an owner’s take-home with the loan payment on it.
Also: Cash you need at closing · What the financing costs · Restructuring what you already owe
The shape of the deal
Two clocks, one project — and usually no down payment
As of October 16, 2026, licensed physicians in BC and Alberta commonly finance a practice purchase or start-up to 100% of project cost, most often with no down payment: the practice, equipment and build-out are written over about 12 years, the real estate over 25 years and sometimes 30, with 1–2 years of interest-only at the start; on a variable rate the facility is fully open with no penalty, on a fixed rate it is closed with a blended amortization. A standard owner-occupied commercial mortgage, by comparison, usually funds to about 75–80% of the building’s value, on the same 25-year amortization, sometimes 30, with the same open-on-variable, closed-on-fixed rule, and it is carried by 2 to 3 years of financials and your personal net worth rather than by your licence.
For licensed healthcare professionals this category commonly reaches full-project financing — commonly, not always. Some lenders will go to 100% against the building and still want a contribution against the goodwill and the leaseholds; most of the time the down payment lands at nothing. The building on an amortization of twenty-five years in most cases — occasionally thirty — with the practice, equipment and build-out written over about twelve. The expensive, faster-amortizing piece clears first, so the heaviest year of the loan is the first one, not the tenth.
A year or two of interest-only is usually available while the appointment book fills — and on a variable rate the facility is fully open, so any part of it, the mortgage included, can be cleared early without penalty; on a fixed rate it is closed, with a blended amortization.
These deals are commonly held across two companies — a holding company for the real estate, an operating company for the practice, with guarantees crossing between them. Have your accountant in the room early; that structure has tax consequences well beyond the loan.
Practice financing at a glance
Last reviewed October 16, 2026
| Term | Standard commercial | Healthcare program |
|---|---|---|
| Down payment | Usually 20–25%, less on strong files | Commonly none |
| How much of the project is financed | To about 75–80% of the building’s value | Commonly 100% of project cost |
| Real estate | Usually 25 years, sometimes 30 | Usually 25 years, sometimes 30 |
| Practice, equipment, build-out | Separate equipment and leasehold loans | Written over about 12 years |
| Opening period | Amortizes from the first payment | 1–2 years interest-only |
| Prepayment | Variable: fully open, no penalty. Fixed: closed, blended amortization. | Variable: fully open, no penalty. Fixed: closed, blended amortization. |
| What carries the file | 2 to 3 years of financials and your personal net worth | Your licence first, then 2 to 3 years of financials or projections; net worth counts for less |
The terms this category commonly reaches, not a quote — and “commonly” is doing real work. Some lenders will finance 100% of the building and still ask for a contribution against the goodwill and the leaseholds. What lands on your own file is confirmed to you in writing before you are asked to commit to anything. The standard column is the conventional owner-occupied commercial mortgage as published on mortgageguru.ca.
Affordability
Practice Purchase Calculator (what the practice could carry)
Set the clinic’s cash flow and your own assumptions; the estimator shows the borrowing the cash flow could support. It quotes nobody’s pricing — the rate is your input.
Arithmetic on figures you supplied — not an approval, a pre-approval, or an offer. Real estate in a project runs on its own longer clock and can carry further than this single-term illustration.
They arrive in the message box, editable — straight answer inside one business day.
Physician specifics
Two files, kept apart on purpose
Physicians are the one profession here who routinely have two entirely separate financing lives. The residential mortgage is its own specialism, with its own lenders and its own rules. The clinic is commercial lending, underwritten against the practice and the premises rather than against you.
They are best kept as two files, arranged deliberately. The most common expensive mistake is letting the clinic borrowing sit at whichever bank happens to hold the personal accounts, because it is convenient — convenience being, as a rule, the most expensive feature of a commercial loan.
Where a physician file is genuinely distinctive is the real estate. A medical office building with a stable roster of clinical tenants is durable, specialized property — and the twenty-five-year amortization on that piece is what makes owning the premises materially cheaper over time than leasing them.
Buying a home as well? The residential side is covered in detail at physicianmortgage.ca. Same broker, deliberately separate files.
We work alongside your healthcare practice broker, your accountant and your financial adviser — the financing is built around the deal they helped you shape, not the other way round.
Questions
The ones that come up first
A physician mortgage is residential lending against your income and your home. This is commercial lending against a practice and its premises. The underwriting, the lenders and the terms are all different, which is why they are best run as two deliberate files rather than one bundled relationship.
Your share of the going concern, against the clinic’s cash flow and your position in it. The partnership agreement — especially its departure and valuation provisions — does more to shape the financing than the price does, so have it available early.
Yes, and it is one of the stronger real estate propositions in this category. Your own occupancy plus a roster of clinical tenants is durable income, and the building sits on the long amortization while any practice or fit-out borrowing runs on the shorter one.
Not necessarily. A clinic buy-in is underwritten against the clinic — its cash flow, its patient panel and the price of the share you are buying — with your licence behind it. Being newly in practice is ordinary for a first buy-in and is not the thing that decides the file.
More answers on the hub: the healthcare financing FAQ on Mortgage Guru, and a funded file to read alongside it: North Shore medical clinic financing.
Get started
Bring the deal you are actually looking at
A buy-in offer, a set of clinic financials, a building you are considering, or a build-out you are costing. Early is better — the structure is easiest to influence before anything is signed.