Two years have passed since Kevin O’leary made a bold prediction about mortgage rates, and it’s time to find out how accurate he was.
Two years have passed since Kevin O’leary made a bold prediction about mortgage rates, and it’s time to find out how accurate he was.
“That’s precisely why I started O’Leary Mortgages is because we sell fixed rate mortgages, it won’t vary,” O’Leary said during a segment on CBC’s Lang & O’Leary Exchange in mid-November of 2012. “There will be thousands of people with variable mortgages that will be slaughtered … with fixed mortgages they’ll have five years of knowing what they’ll exactly pay.”
The statement was made on the eve of launching his own mortgage brokerage, O’Leary Mortgages, a boutique shop that focused solely on fixed-rate mortgages.
Brokers almost universally disagreed with the brash TV personality and venture capitalist at the time, believing variable-rates would continue to favour borrowers. And they were right: The overnight rate target has been held at one per cent since September 2010 and it is expected to remain so for the foreseeable future.
Of course, O’Leary Mortgages shuttered its doors in late March of this year when it surrendered its FSCO license. It was a rocky road for O’Leary Mortgages, which drew the ire from brokers who believed his model was in direct competition with the mortgage industry. A planned CAAMP keynote speech – originally planned for 2012’s Mortgage Forum – was eventually axed following broker opposition.
Specifics about O’Leary Mortgages’ success were never revealed.
“We don't disclose specific numbers,” president of O’Leary Ventures, Alex Kenjeev, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca when queried at the end of last year. “Yes of course (we have originated deals).”
“That’s precisely why I started O’Leary Mortgages is because we sell fixed rate mortgages, it won’t vary,” O’Leary said during a segment on CBC’s Lang & O’Leary Exchange in mid-November of 2012. “There will be thousands of people with variable mortgages that will be slaughtered … with fixed mortgages they’ll have five years of knowing what they’ll exactly pay.”
The statement was made on the eve of launching his own mortgage brokerage, O’Leary Mortgages, a boutique shop that focused solely on fixed-rate mortgages.
Brokers almost universally disagreed with the brash TV personality and venture capitalist at the time, believing variable-rates would continue to favour borrowers. And they were right: The overnight rate target has been held at one per cent since September 2010 and it is expected to remain so for the foreseeable future.
Of course, O’Leary Mortgages shuttered its doors in late March of this year when it surrendered its FSCO license. It was a rocky road for O’Leary Mortgages, which drew the ire from brokers who believed his model was in direct competition with the mortgage industry. A planned CAAMP keynote speech – originally planned for 2012’s Mortgage Forum – was eventually axed following broker opposition.
Specifics about O’Leary Mortgages’ success were never revealed.
“We don't disclose specific numbers,” president of O’Leary Ventures, Alex Kenjeev, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca when queried at the end of last year. “Yes of course (we have originated deals).”
