Under the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines, I had to convert assets into a regular income stream that gave me a qualifying income. Just having the assets to pull from "as needed" wasn't good enough.
Now, here's the really important point. I only needed that income stream UNTIL THE LOAN WAS APPROVED AND ISSUED. The day after that, I could cancel my income stream and that's the end of it.
In my case, I didn't actually take out any extra money for an income stream. I took out money to pay off a credit card I had used to fund some rental property renovations. I just claimed that money was part of a semi-annual income stream and set up the 2nd half of the semi-annual income stream to pay out 6 months later. The loan was finalized about 2 1/2 weeks after I withdrew the renovation repayment money and I immediately cancelled the future income stream. (I didn't need it.)
Had I known the rules and been looking to move instead of just finding our dream home by happenstance, I would have set up a monthly income stream 2 months before I went looking for homes. That would have given me a 2 bank statement look back to hand to the lender to review. 2-3 months later I would have found a home and gotten it financed. At that point, I would have taken my 4-5 month's withdrawals and sent them back to Vanguard. There's nobody checking that you actually spend that income -- I just had to have it.
I really expect the same approach would work in Canada. The CIBC.com website refers to Gross Debt Service (GDS) and Total Debt Service (TDS), which are the ratios between your housing expense to your gross income or your total debt expenses to your income, respectively.
I wager if you learn what ratios they want to see and set them up ahead of time as I discussed earlier, you'll be most of the way there.
I found this on the same cibc.com website:
"The following are definitions of some of the sources of income specified in your application:
Employment income (gross): your income from your job, before taxes
Pension: a sum of money paid regularly as a retirement benefit
Investment: income from a property or another possession acquired for future financial return or benefit
Rental: income yielded from rental property
Bonus, commission, tips: a sum of money (or the equivalent) given to an employee in addition to the employee’s usual compensation
Disability support: a payment made to someone who has become disabled and is unable to work
Worker’s Compensation: annuity payments required by law to be made to an employee who is injured or disabled in connection with work
RRIF: Registered Retirement Income Fund
Alimony, child support: a support paid by one spouse to financially support the other spouse or children
Car allowance: payment given towards transportation, usually when necessary for work"
So, they clearly recognize investment income. There may be special rules for how much can be taken out of the account balance per year. I haven't found that yet. But a quick check with this calculator tells me the income requirements for someone who has no debt and makes a good sized downpayment aren't that onerous.
https://www.cibc.com/en/personal-banking/mortgages/calculators/affordability-calculator.html