Federal finance minister Jim Flaherty said Thursday he is not worried about the slowing house sales in some Canadian markets and isn’t planning to reverse mortgage restrictions made earlier this year.
Federal finance minister Jim Flaherty said Thursday he is not worried about the slowing house sales in some Canadian markets and isn’t planning to reverse mortgage restrictions made earlier this year.
Housing sales dropped significantly last month in Calgary, Victoria and Greater Vancouver compared to last year.
“I, for one, am not particularly concerned about the softening we’ve seen in some markets in Canada in residential real estate,” said Flaherty, who was in Calgary delivering a speech on Ottawa’s proposal for a national securities regulator. He noted that Ottawa has twice limited mortgage rules. “This is entirely intentional, to tighten the market, so that we avoid the excesses that we’ve seen in other countries. If we have to do more, we’ll do more.”
Though housing foreclosures in U.S. are expected to reach more than 1 million this year, Canada’s banking system has mostly withstood the recessionary effects of its neighbour to the south.
