Canadians are becoming more educated about mortgages and turning to brokers in higher numbers, according to industry players.
Recent CMHC data points to an increase in broker market share, and industry professionals – including one former banker -- believe it is an indication that Canadians are becoming more savvy and educated about the differences in various mortgage products.
“People are starting to pay more attention and realize banks are just pushing products,” Andre Dellino of Centum One Financial Group told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “I worked for a big bank for four years but I wanted to be self-employed and help clients.”
According to Dellino, Canadians are becoming more educated and a higher number are turning to mortgage brokers for their mortgage needs as a result.
And that claim is backed up by recently released CMHC stats, which point to an increase in broker market share.
“Mortgage broker market share is trending upwards for most market segments. This is particularly evident among repeat buyers where market share has increased from 32 per cent in 2012 to 42 per cent in 2015,” CMHC wrote in its Mortgage Consumer Survey, released in early June. “Over this time period broker share has also increased among First-time buyers (48 per cent to 55 per cent) and refinancers (27 per cent to 33 per cent). Among renewers, broker share has remained stable at around 21 per cent.”
For his part, Ron Lefebvre of Invis Mortgage Intelligence believes an uptick in potential homebuyers are searching online for rate and realizing the plethora of options available are best explained by brokers.
“I think a lot more people are looking online and they are getting confused about their mortgages and the fine print; many are going to brokers to get educated,” Lefebvre said. “The general public are getting savvier and turning to brokers to explain the specifics of the different products.”
