Challenging times just got tougher with an escalation of Trump's trade tensions – but brokers can still carve out success in 2025
A looming trade war with the United States has threatened to weigh heavily against an expected Canada housing market revival this spring, clouding the homebuying and refinancing outlook and creating plenty of uncertainty for brokers and other mortgage professionals as they plan ahead.
But there’s still plenty that agents and brokers can do to mitigate the impact of a shaky economy and eke out business growth between now and the end of the year, according to executives participating in a lender panel at the recent Canadian Mortgage Brokers Association – Ontario (CMBA-ON) annual conference in Vaughan.
After all, it’s not as if this is the first time in the past five years the mortgage market has faced hurdles and so-called “unprecedented” times.
“I can’t think of a time when it hasn’t been challenging, to be honest,” Devon Ajram (pictured, top centre-right) said. “I’ve been around for a while. Even during the boom, post-pandemic, the challenge was that your adjudication turnaround time was 14 days or your customer’s going to lose their property. And then you can go through all these other iterations of what a challenging time sounds like.”
Ajram’s suggestion for brokers in a turbulent market: keep an even head and help instil calm upon clients who might have the jitters about where the economy – and housing prospects – are headed during a chaotic news cycle.
“My advice is to be the steady hand in the transaction because if you think that your customer is cool and composed, even if they’re putting up a front they’re probably not,” he said. “It’s the metaphor of the duck on the water.”
Reason for optimism despite stormy times for the mortgage market
As always, staying on top of lender policies during a time of rapid change is essential, Ajram said, while grappling with an affordability crisis that shows little sign of slowing will also be an important consideration.
Even if interest rates are on the way down, property prices have stayed resilient, meaning borrowing among family members and allocation of gifted funds by relatives are ever-growing trends in the market.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised countermeasures against US tariffs on Canadian-made cars, saying Canada will protect its workers and economy in response to President Trump’s trade agenda.https://t.co/JYMHosi9v4
— Canadian Mortgage Professional Magazine (@CMPmagazine) April 4, 2025
“You really have to work through the complexity of those files and you’ve got to get customers to understand what has to be true for them to be able to get a mortgage,” Ajram advised. “Stay on top of the economic events. The industry is very well served when it comes to information. It’s very important that you be the subject matter expert.”
Rule changes that have recently impacted the mortgage market, specifically the ability to switch lenders upon renewal without being stress-tested and a hike in the insured mortgage cap to $1.5 million, have boosted prospects for borrowers, CMLS’s senior vice president, residential Andrew Gilmour (pictured, top left centre) said.
“In the last several years, it was tough to be a broker and a lender in this industry,” he said. “There were more regulatory burdens and no new product coming out. And I think product design has come back and come back in full force.
“The regulatory changes that allow switches are huge… the second thing is the $1.5 million purchase price. We’re starting to see trickles of those come in but I don’t know that the average Canadian that’s looking to buy this product is really aware. So there’s some work to be done in regard to expanding the [awareness] of what’s available.”
Need for strong broker education has never been greater, say lenders
Unsurprisingly, lenders are also keeping a close eye on broker education, with both Elena Robinson (pictured, top left), vice president, residential sales at First National and Nick Kyprianou (pictured, top right), president and chief executive officer at RiverRock, emphasizing the need for a motivated and competent broker workforce across the country.
“Clients are coming to brokers now to be that financial advisor. There are a lot of brokers newly into this business that need to be educated to provide that information and guidance that those clients need,” Robinson said.
“So I would say: be the subject matter expert, utilize your lenders, because they’re there to help you for your business. You have to take it beyond the rate conversation. It was all about rates – and I think there’s so much more to your clients, and every client is different. Every relationship is different for your borrower.”
With over 15,000 mortgage agents and brokers across Ontario, Kyprianou said it “hurts everybody” when the bar is not high within the profession.
“A broker will take time to understand the credit and understand the borrower’s needs. It could be a C or D borrower, and they’ve kind of got the client positioned for that,” he said. “And then all of a sudden, another broker or agent comes forward that doesn’t know anything and they say, ‘Oh, I can get you a bank rate.’ So all of a sudden, that person that was doing that [client] a good service loses the deal. And then that second agent loses the deal because he can’t deliver a bank-grade product.
“And then the poor client is left scrambling and then it’s before closing and they’re scrambling even worse – and that’s all because agent number two didn’t take the time or didn’t understand what they would do. That’s the biggest challenge I see in this industry. That’s why closing ratios aren’t as high as they should be, and that’s the frustration from a lender perspective that I see.”
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