Most Canadians expect higher mortgage rates this year, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Royal Bank.

RBC's annual home ownership survey found 64 per cent of those polled expected the cost of a mortgage to grow, with the same number concerned about that prospect.

Cars line up outside show homes in Calgary. RBC's survey found two thirds of home owners polled had taken advantage of current low interest rates to pay more principal on their mortgage. (CBC)

Six out of 10 said they have taken advantage of current low interest rates to pay more principal.

Eighteen per cent of homeowners say they've made a lump sum payment on their mortgage and 16 per cent have doubled their payment to reduce their principal.

While 84 per cent of mortgage holders believe they are doing an excellent or good job of paying down their mortgage, 49 per cent say their mortgage is larger than they thought it would be at this stage in their life.

The poll had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points and was based on a randomly selected representative sample of 2,047 adult Canadians that was statistically weighted by region, age and sex composition according to the 2006 census data.