The tighter lending restrictions introduced in 2012 may have had unfortunately consequences.
The tighter lending restrictions introduced in 2012 may have had unfortunately consequences. The rules were viewed as an attempt to cool the Toronto and Vancouver markets but a report suggests that smaller cities have felt the impact. Cutting the maximum length of mortgage insurance amortization to 25 years from 30 has put off some first-time buyers resulting in a glut of unsold condos in cities such as Winnipeg, Montreal and Moncton. The Globe and Mail reports that in Quebec there was a boom in condo purchasing in the year preceding the tighter rules on mortgages with a third of buyers taking out loans with 30 year amortizations while in Montreal 40 per cent of buyers did so. Paul Cardinal, manager of market analysis for the Quebec Federation of Real Estate Boards says that the restrictions had a similar effect on the market as raising interest rates by one percentage point. Read the full story.
