> The US has no such restriction, and so if you cancel a 30 year mortgage there, banks can theoretically go after you for the entire amount of lost profits. Th

> The US has no such restriction, and so if you cancel a 30 year mortgage there, banks can theoretically go after you for the entire amount of lost profits. That would be a good explanation for why loans are structured like that in Canada, except for this last sentence - this virtually never happens. I have never seen, let alone taken out, a 30 yr mortgage with a prepayment penalty. Like, I honestly don’t know if any banks are issuing them. —editing to add: Did a little research, and yes - there are some loans with prepayment penalties, but in no cases do they seem to “go after you for the entire amount of lost profits”. It’s generally a fixed %age of the loan value, and the penalty expires fairly early in the loan (2-3 years seems to be common, some go to 5).