Archive for February, 2020

Is British Columbia’s condo industry about to fall off a cliff?

Tuesday, February 25th, 2020

Condo Insurance rate rise could see the downfall of condo buildings

Clayton Jarvis
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

For the last five years, there has been an incessant whisper at the margins of the real estate industry that has kept the idea of crashing markets and popped real estate bubbles in the public consciousness. Overextended buyers, overheated markets, overpriced properties – the reasons for anxiety are real.

Who would have thought that everything would one day come to a screeching halt because of condo insurance?

That is the scenario facing British Columbia, where insurance rates for strata corporations have risen beyond what most can afford to pay.

No lender will finance the purchase of a property lacking insurance, meaning units in uninsured buildings will have to fine either cash buyers or no buyers at all. Condo towers, because of their size and the potential for widespread damage, will be hit especially hard.

The issue first arose in the fall of 2019, when murmurs of the insurance increases were making their way around the province’s real estate industry.

“Back then, I don’t think it was on too many people’s radar,” says investor and Pemberton Homes agent Vanessa Roman. “It’s now on everybody’s radar because more and more buildings have had their insurance come up for renewal. I would say there isn’t a strata corp in BC that isn’t aware of the potential problem.”

According to Darlene Hyde, CEO of the British Columbia Real Estate Association, the scope of the problem remains hard to gauge.

“It’s like the nose of the camel is coming into the tent,” Hyde says. “We don’t know how big this is going to be. We don’t know how much premiums are going to go up. We’ve heard some individual, anecdotal stories that are pretty scary.”

One such story involves a property in Abbotsford where Roman says an unfortunate strata corporation saw its premiums rise by 700 percent.

“Last year, their premiums were $66,000. This year, they’re $588,000 – just for the premium,” she says.

Why are condo insurance rates rising in BC?

When asking about the root of the issue, the phrase “a perfect storm” frequently pops up. There are multiple reasons behind the spike in insurance rates. Any one of them would be relatively innocuous on its own, like a sliver of light underneath your bedroom door at night. But taken on simultaneously, these factors combine to form an eye-melting flash of lightning that has the potential to set the roof on fire.

Part of the blame can be laid on the strata corporations themselves. In an attempt to attract tenants, many stratas have cut their monthly maintenance fees to paltry levels, resulting in empty coffers when the time comes for major cash outlays, like sudden insurance rate hikes.

Roman says many strata corporations have also tried to keep their own costs low by opting to get insurance from companies offering the lowest rates. These companies, operating in a highly competitive environment, have suppressed normal rate increases for years in an attempt to nab and keep stratas as clients.

 “So everybody wants to pay nothing for this strata,” she says. “When you have people on strata councils saying, ‘Okay, we can go with this insurance provider, or this one, which is 20 percent more but gives us more coverage,’ everyone is like, ‘Let’s go with the cheaper one. And by the way, we don’t want our rates to go up either.’”

The insurance industry is also playing its part. The suppression of insurance rate increases means strata corporations, rather than gradually spending more each year, are paying for years of below-market increases all at once. And with the global insurance industry having to pay out for unbelievable catastrophes – the wildfires in Australia alone will cost billions and billions – those funds will need to be replaced.

What happens next?

The current situation is untenable. Its solution remains purely theoretical at this point.

“I think there will be an industry solution or it will be backstopped by the government. It’s too big a problem to ignore,” Hyde says.

Roman suspects that the BC government will either expand the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia’s mandate to cover condos in addition to automobiles or create a new crown corporation to provide condominium insurance.

“But that’s going to take time to set up. Meanwhile, you’re going to have mortgages that are being renewed, or strata insurance policies that are being renewed and they’re going to have to deal with the ramifications of that,” she says.

Roman expects a massive drop in the value of condos over the next six to seven months. Prospective owners won’t be able to find financing. Any owner of a newly uninsured property who must renew her mortgage will have to either pay the remaining amount in full or sell – for cash. In a province already plagued by affordability issues, that kind of cash will be in short supply.

“I think you’re going to have a big influx of condos that are selling far, far below market value because they’re not going to be able to be financed. And buyers are going to have to hold onto their properties for a while because we’re going to have the crash, you’re going to have the recovery period and, during that time, you’re probably going to have high monthly strata rates,” Roman explains.

Investors still planning on getting their feet wet in the BC condo space have options for protecting their capital. Roman is advising her clients to get their building’s claims history for the last five years and to find out which claims have gone through the strata corporation’s insurance.

Hyde says the BCREA has already added a clause to the contract of purchase and sale that helps realtors and clients determine the insurance status of the condo they’re looking to buy. The Association is lobbying the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to create a similar law.

“We’re hoping the combined forces of industry can find some solutions,” Hyde says, adding that she is anticipating no shortage of constructive dialogue when the Insurance Bureau of Canada hosts the next roundtable meeting of the IBC Commercial Task Force upcoming summit on St. Patrick’s Day.

By then, we might all be ready for a drink.

Copyright © 2020 Key Media Pty Ltd

Victoria housing market hovering at a more vulnerable state

Tuesday, February 25th, 2020

A recent report outlines Victoria’s market vulnerablity

Ephraim Vecina
Mortgage Broker News

Victoria continues to exhibit signs of higher vulnerability compared to other housing markets, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has stated.

“The evidence of overvaluation remains low as housing prices remain close to the levels supported by housing market fundamentals,” CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan said late last week, as quoted by the Financial Post.

Figures from the Canadian Real Estate Association pointed to this trend: as of January, the home price index was 5.5% higher from the nadir seen last May, having grown by 0.8% from December.

The recent announcement of changes to the mortgage qualification rules will also reverberate upon this bustling market.

“It’s something that we’ll obviously monitor,” Dugan noted. “The adjusted stress test for mortgages remains an important measure to ensure that Canadians, especially first-time home buyers, take on mortgages that they can afford.”

Higher valuations are becoming apparent not only among for-sale units, but also in the city’s rental market. Data collected by PadMapper’s latest rental segment analysis showed that Victoria has among Canada’s highest one-bedroom median rental costs at $1,590.

Additionally, Victoria had the fourth highest rent rate across Canada in January, coming in just behind Burnaby ($1,760), Vancouver ($2,150), and Toronto ($2,300).

Despite these, CMHC assured that while Victoria “continues to show a high degree of overall vulnerability,” the danger of a full-blown market downturn remains at just a moderate level.

“Moderate evidence remains for overvaluation; however, declining inflation-adjusted home prices combined with growing personal disposable income and population have further narrowed the imbalances between observed and fundamental prices in the third quarter of 2019.”

Copyright © 2020 Key Media

Metro Vancouver developers slash condo presale launches as demand drops

Monday, February 24th, 2020

The number of condo presale units released for sale in 2019 fell sharply, as developers responded to plummeting demand

Joanne Lee-Young
The Vancouver Sun

The number of condo presale units released for sale in 2019 fell sharply in Metro Vancouver, as developers responded to demand that fell off a cliff.

Developers put 7,588 units up for presale, less than half the 18,998 released in 2018.

The drop was more pronounced for more expensive, concrete condos in high-rise towers than for wood-frame units in smaller, low-rise developments, according to Michael Ferreira of Urban Analytics, which tracks data for the real estate industry.

Developers held back on larger, concrete projects because they weren’t sure they could sell enough presale contracts to qualify for bank financing in the allowed time period of nine months, said Ferreira.

He said it is much harder to presale towers that are 40 to 50 storeys and have some 400 to 500 units than it is for a less-expensive, low-rise or townhome development of only 80 units. Lenders typically expect developers to lock up presales for 60 to 70 per cent of units before providing money for construction.

In the spring of 2019, as buyer interest waned, some developers tried to draw attention to presales by offering gimmicky treats such as free avocado toast or glasses of wine a day for a year.

By June, even some larger, experienced developers with deep pockets and more favourable financing thresholds to meet said their sales volumes had dropped as much as 70 per cent and they were putting on hold several high-rise, transit-oriented towers that had zoning and building permits secured and promotional brochures printed.

MLA Advisory, which tracks monthly presale launches, found different ways of saying things weren’t on track in 2019, with projects “shifting their releases,” or “testing with minimal inventory,” or postponing “for more favourable market conditions.”

The retreat of the investor-buyer, who no longer had confidence that buying a contract would end in allowing them to sell the completed unit at a profit, hit presales hard. In a hot market, investor-buyers had been generating an immediate urgency to buy. Without them, it is taking much longer for developers to sell presales contracts, said Ferreira.

The Real Estate Development Marketing Act allows for a period of nine months, but developers have been asking the superintendent of real estate to consider lengthening this time.

If this period was several years long, it might mean that projects might get cancelled after tying up buyers’ deposits for too long, said Ferreira. However, with presales taking longer to sell, lengthening the marketing period to, perhaps, 18 months might be a middle ground that allows developers to get to the construction phase, he said.

He said developers were also grappling with having paid peak prices for land, adjusting to rising construction costs and navigating increasing bureaucratic hurdles and taxes.

Developers are warning there could be a shortage of new housing and a jump in prices in a few years as population grows and demand returns.

Gauging the effect of the fall in presale launches in 2019 on housing supply and prices will take until 2021 to 2022, said Ferreira. Currently, buyers of presales are only just now getting possession of units they would have bought at the height of the market boom at the end of 2016 to 2017.

© 2020 Postmedia Network Inc.

This real estate market shows how fast things can change

Monday, February 24th, 2020

Asian housing markets vulnerable due to covid-19

Steve Randall
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

Real estate frequently follows trends but occasionally there will be a bolt from the blue that changes things fast.

The US saw it a decade ago when subprime mortgage lending buckled and the housing markets collapsed. Now, it is Asian housing markets that are especially vulnerable to circumstances due to the novel coronavirus or Covid-19.

Bangkok has long been a favourite market of international real estate buyers; the Chinese in particular but not exclusively.

But fears about the spread of the virus are likely to see these buyers pull back. Chinese real estate buyers have already been cutting back on international real estate purchases – including in Vancouver – due to tighter restrictions by the Beijing government.

Consultancy firm Agency for Real Estate Affairs is forecasting international buyers to account for just 10% of sales in 2020, down from 20% two years ago.

“The demand from foreigners may disappear in the first half following the outbreak,” Sopon Pornchokchai, the consultancy’s president told Bloomberg. “We’ll need to rely on local buyers, but that won’t be easy.”

Bangkok has 100,000 empty condos and local banks have cut mortgage rates to try to spark domestic demand.

Copyright © 2020 Key Media Pty Ltd

2019’s Most Searched Neighbourhoods in Vancouver and Toronto

Monday, February 24th, 2020

A year’s worth of data told us what buyers wanted in 2019

The Vancouver Sun

Kitsilano

Cloverdale

White Rock

Mimico

Islington-City Centre West

Malvern

At REW.ca, we looked across 2019 and over 128 million property page views and the results are IN! Here are the top most searched neighbourhoods in Vancouver and Toronto, along with some hyper-interesting facts and listings in each. 

If you’re thinking about looking, buying or selling, read on… 

Greater Vancouver Area

So, what was most popular in Vancouver? These top 3 areas were 8.6% of all Greater Vancouver searches on REW.ca last year.

#1 Kitsilano

The front runner is this amazing neighbourhood, located in the West Side of Vancouver. Kitsilano (or ‘Kits’ to the locals) is one of those areas that everyone wants to live in. There’s definitely a younger and healthier feeling to the neighbourhood. No wonder Kitsilano got 1,487,580 searches on REW.ca last year. 

For anyone looking for high-street shopping and dining, West 4th and Broadway offer block after block of options. But it’s in between those high-traffic areas where you’ll find Kitsilano’s charm: Street after street of beautifully maintained heritage homes, well-kept classic apartment buildings, and more recreation options than you’ll know what to do with. And we did mention the beach?

If you’re thinking about Kits, here are a few listings you may like:

#2 Cloverdale

Located in the Eastern portion of the City of Surrey, Cloverdale comes in second with 1,460,714 page views. The Town Centre was initially founded as a small farm community and now it’s home to over 65,000 residents, approximately 12% of Surrey’s total population.

Never thought you’d like Cloverdale? Well, check these out…

#3 White Rock

With a population of over 20,000 residents, White Rock comes in third with 1,356,114 searches on REW.ca. Located in the Southwest corner of the Lower Mainland, White Rock is approximately 45 min from Vancouver and only five minutes to the Canada/US border.

Known to have price-friendly homes and agreeable commute time, White Rock has a diversity of options for all tastes. If you ever thought about it:

Toronto

These top 3 areas in Toronto represent 6.22% of searches on REW.ca in 2019.

#1 Mimico

Located in the South West area of Toronto, on Lake Ontario, Mimico had 96,478 searches last year. Considered to be “the new go-to community” by the Toronto Sun, Mimico shows a lot of promise with new developments and an exciting future.

Mimico holds a wide range of architecture. From show-toppers lake views to cozy bungalows built in the 20’s and 30’s, to low-rises built in the 50’s and 60’s. Plus, a new wave of construction now brings high-rise buildings and spacious single-detached homes. Make sure to check out Mimico:

#2 Islington-City Centre West

This commercial and residential neighbourhood in Etobicoke, Toronto, had 87,122 searches last year. Home to over 38,105 residents, Islington-City Centre West is considered a charming and welcoming place for those looking to live in the area.

Check out these homes in Islington-City Centre West:

#3 Malvern

Located in the northeast corner of the City of Toronto, Malvern is home to over 45,000 residents and this neighbourhood reached 80,459 searches on our site last year. Malvern is a great location if you are looking for more affordability and diversity.

Don’t know what homes in Malvern look like? Take a peek:

© 2020 REW. A Division of Glacier Media

Predicted drop in B.C. housing starts not due to demand: CMHC

Monday, February 24th, 2020

Province expects a precipitous drop in housing starts this year

Andrew Duffy
Western Investor

The province expects a precipitous drop in housing starts this year and another slip in 2021, but housing experts warn that is no indication demand for housing has dropped off or that homebuilders are about to down tools any time soon.

Busy construction crews, housing supply in the midst of construction and delays in development approvals at the municipal level are among the factors at play in forecasts that suggest housing starts will fall to 35,021 this year in B.C. from 44,932 last year.

Budget documents released February 18 showed starts are expected to slip to 32,040 in 2021 and 30,515 in 2022.

“When you talk about a dropoff, remember you’re talking about coming off a peak,” said Braden Batch, senior market analyst with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. “You’re still at pretty much record amounts of units being constructed at this moment.”

The historical average between 1990 and 2018 is just over 30,000 units annually in B.C.

In Victoria, CMHC has forecast a slight drop in starts this year from the 3,499 housing starts last year, which was also a drop from the 4,273 recorded in 2018.

This year, Victoria is likely to see anywhere between 2,341 and 3,768 new homes started, and between 2,723 and 4,099 in 2021.

Batch said most of the new starts in Victoria tend to be large developments of condos and rental apartments that require years to complete.

“So, often when we’re reporting on starts, it doesn’t reflect the amount of construction that’s present,” he said, adding there is only so much capacity in the construction industry to handle new projects. “And no one knows 100 per cent what the effect of all those new units on the market will be.

“Developers are cautious before they initiate new units.”

But Casey Edge said there’s more to a drop in starts than a lack of capacity to take on new jobs.

The executive director of the Victoria Residential Builders’ Association said the province and municipal governments have to shoulder some of the blame.

“We are seeing a decline in housing starts despite the fact we have very strong population growth,” he said. “We need to accommodate this with new housing not less housing.”

Edge said the province promised in 2017 it would improve the supply of housing and work on streamlining the approval processes at the municipal level.

“That hasn’t been done,” he said. “[The budget] predicts a 24 per cent decline in housing starts over two years, yet they are also predicting population growth. The demand for market housing is there, but they appear to be doing nothing about improving supply for that growing market demand.”

B.C.’s population is expected to grow by between 57,000 and 60,000 people each of the next four years, while Victoria’s population grows by about 5,000 people per year.

Edge concedes the province has worked to provide new non-market housing — the province claims it has just over 23,000 new units in progress or complete around the province — but he said it hasn’t dealt with the main supply issue.

“This is not a demand problem, this is a supply problem,” he said. “When you build market housing people leave their existing homes for new homes, or they buy up in the market. That leaves housing available.”

He said nothing has been done about streamlining approval and permitting processes for housing at the municipal level.

“And that’s because the B.C. government has no authority over municipalities,” he said.

“Three levels of government treat housing as a cash machine [GST, property transfer tax, development cost charges, fees and required amenities],” Edge said, noting because they can’t influence the processes of municipalities the “promises by the provincial and federal governments to increase supply and permit approvals are just a lot of hot air.”

opyright © Western Investor

Redfin launches new service aimed at luxury housing market

Friday, February 21st, 2020

Redfin Premier to market luxury homes in the US

Steve Randall
Mortgage Broker News

Redfin has launched a new marketing strategy for homes listed at $1 million or more.

“Like Redfin Concierge, the idea for Redfin Premier came from our agents, who helped us design a service that gives clients with distinguished homes extra marketing and attention to sell for the highest price,” Mia Simon, Redfin director of sell-side strategy.

The service launched this week in several US markets and will be rolled out to Redfin’s other large markets over time although it is not clear if this will include Canada.

Redfin Premier offers drone photography in areas where it is permitted, twilight photography, premium brochures and other printed materials, and high-end yard signs.

There is also additional social media advertising, international listings, 3D walkthroughs, and prominence on the firm’s listings website.

“Redfin Premier is the culmination of a long-term effort to reach luxury customers,” said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. “Our highest-value transaction closed just last year, for a home worth more than $70 million. Luxury customers love our one-on-one personal service, our sophisticated digital campaigns to target local and international luxury buyers, and the accountability to track how those investments lead to online viewings, tours, and ultimately offers.”

The seller pays 1% dependent on their home selling within a year.

Copyright © 2020 Key Media

Bob Rennie cues builders on B.C.’s ‘demographic crunch’

Friday, February 21st, 2020

Climate change, aging population biggest challenges facing the economy

Malcolm Parry
The Vancouver Sun

CRYSTAL BALLING: Realtor Bob Rennie and his Rennie Group’s intelligence VP, Andrew Ramlo, helped Independent Contractors and Business Association conventioneers digest their bacon and eggs recently. The association president, Chris Gardner, had already told breakfasting colleagues that trade workers’ wages will increase by 5.2 per cent this year, that 54 per cent of contractors can’t obtain enough workers, and that only the Slovak Republic is slower than B.C. among 35 jurisdictions issuing building permits. Rennie and Ramlo’s “demographic crunch” projections included Canadian immigration admissions surging to 350,000 by 2021 (B.C.’s share to be 15 per cent). An aging population and climate change will be the economy’s greatest challenges, they said. Meanwhile, housing the Lower Mainland’s one million more residents by 2040 will require “another Vancouver, Burnaby, New West and Coquitlam.” And though, in constant dollars, millennials’ median household after-tax income exceeds Generation X’s and Baby Boomers’ by 32 per cent, their debt-to-after-tax-income is almost twice as high at 216 per cent. Rennie’s problem: “Twenty years from now, who’s going to be my lawyer, bring my bedpan and pay my taxes?”

GIRLY RISER: After 14 years as a global art adviser, Krista Howard has launched a physical gallery and office, Howard495, in the Railtown district. Her debut show, titled Girlie Pics, Someone Else’s History, featured work — some of it a little spicy girlie — by mostly female artists familiar to her existing clients. Catriona Jeffries’ influential gallery recently located nearby on East Cordova’s 900 block. The Monica Reyes Gallery has long operated at Hastings-at-Princess. We’ll likely see more.

HIGHER LEAH: Raised in a socialist household, Leah Costello sang in a Salmon Arm-based Hawaiian band, sought North Vancouver’s federal Tory nomination, managed Fraser Institute events, produced policy-issue videos, and founded Curious Minds Productions and the Bon Mot Book Club. The latter’s readings featured such diverse authors as former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, U.S. vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, Canadian media meteorite Conrad Black and John Cleese of the Monty Python’s Flying Circus TV series. After shelving that project, Costello married the Highland West Capital managing director and former Douglas & McIntyre book-publishing firm partner, David Rowntree. Now, as Leah Rowntree, she’s planning a podcast titled Hungry Mind, Open Heart to talk about current issues. There’s a Hawaiian song for that: I Hei Anau — How Far I’ll Go.

FREE-LUNCH DIVIDEND: Science World’s Lego-skyscrapers exhibition reminds architect Michael Green of his first job. Before designing and advocating mass-wood highrises, Green assisted César Pelli on Kuala Lumpur’s reinforced-concrete Petronas Towers. At 452 metres, the 1996 structures were the world’s tallest until 2004. Green recalls clients nixing Pelli’s original design because his tower cross-sections resembled the six-pointed Star of David. When redrawn with two more to suggest the Muslim Rub El Hizb symbol, and with further facets added, Pelli got the go-ahead. Green has given himself the same for a vegetarian-vegan book based on his lunchtime feeding of Michael Green Architecture’s 65 staff. Its second section will address how “serving food builds culture, connections and collaboration,” and a third “the financial benefits of all businesses giving lunch.” Have your cake and eat it, that is.

ART START: North Vancouver’s Polygon Gallery was packed recently when Laura Gildner received the fifth-annual Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize of $5,000. “Being an artist is very hard; I admire you immensely,” Rogers Communications vice chair Lind said to prize contenders. Many feel that way about Lind, who survived a 1998 stroke to continue his 40-year guidance of communications entrepreneur Ted Rogers. Gildner’s work, Informer, contains eight life-size video images addressing viewers. Visit the Polygon gallery exhibition before March 16 to see how artists emerge.

GOOD ONE GOES: Hospital staff and patients will miss Dr. Dianne Miller who has completed 30 years as a gynecological oncologist and researcher. She received a Vancouver Coastal Health lifetime-achievement award in 2019 that recognized her “revolutionizing the care and prevention of ovarian cancer for women in B.C. and all over the world.” Miller will now spend up to three months a year teaching gynecological-cancer surgery techniques to Ugandan practitioners.

BOT BALL: Beaumont Studios founder-owner Jude Kusnierz’s recent Robot Dance Party drew participants attired in costumes that could hamper the actual dancing. Artist Noa Ben-Mazia — she goes by Noya — avoided that by creating a life-sized but inanimate robot named BroBot3E5 that, with further tweaking, may master a few dance steps for next year’s wingding.

NO DEER: Much-honoured animator Marv Newland won’t follow the Disney studio’s proposed remake of Bambi by updating his own Bambi Meets Godzilla. The Mayne Island resident and International Rocketship Ltd. founder-principal usually pooh-poohs talk of the 1969 cult-classic he made while studying at Pasadena’s ArtCenter College of Design. Newland does have a new movie, though. Containing contributions by 15 global colleagues, his Katalog of Flaws will premiere at the 20th annual Monstra Animation Festival in Lisbon, Portugal, on March 19.

© 2020 Postmedia Network Inc.

Easier Mortgage Stress Test Rate to Come in April

Thursday, February 20th, 2020

It?s going to become a bit easier to qualify for a mortgage

Penelope Graham
other

Good news is on the way for those getting into the housing market this spring – it’s going to become a bit easier to qualify for a mortgage, as changes are in store for the much-contested federal mortgage stress test.

The Department of Finance announced on February 18 that it will be tweaking the qualification criteria used in the stress test, to go into effect on April 6 – just in time for the busiest housing market season of the year. Under the new changes, the benchmark rate – also referred to as the “floor” – used to set the stress test threshold for borrowers will be changed from the five-year rate set by the Bank of Canada (which in turn is set by an average of the posted five-year rates offered by the Big Six banks) to the weekly five-year median insured mortgage rate used in mortgage insurance applications, plus 2%.

Currently, the change is only for insured mortgage borrowers – those who pay less than 20% down on their home purchase and require mortgage default insurance from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. However, the same change is likely to come for uninsured mortgages too, according to national banking regulator the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, which will be consulting on the matter until mid-March. The stress test has been in place for insured borrowers since October 2016, while the version for uninsured mortgages rolled out in January 2018.

What Does This Mean for Home Affordability?

This change is notable as it will materially reduce the threshold these borrowers need to qualify at in order to obtain home financing, as the rates offered by lenders for insured mortgages are typically much lower than the posted rates at the big banks; for example, the current BoC rate sits at 5.19%, while many lenders offer insured mortgage rates today below 3%. In fact, if the new median rate was made available now, it would sit at 4.89%. 

According to calculations from Ratehub.ca, a borrower getting a mortgage rate of 2.89% and tested at the new rate would qualify for a home valued at $526,632, $15,000 more than the $511,424 they’d receive under the current rate.

Why is the Stress Test Changing?

Mortgage industry experts have criticized the gap between the stress test and actual mortgage rates as being out of touch with real-time markets, with the difference growing ever larger in today’s low-interest rate environment. As a result, Finance Minister Bill Morneau was instructed by the government to review the stress test late last year to ensure it was better aligned with real market conditions.

However, tweaking its criteria required a sensitive approach, as it was put in place to protect borrowers’ ability to pay their mortgage should rates rise, and prevent them from taking on too large of a loan in the first place. 

In its announcement, the Department of Finance said that while the measures have largely achieved these goals, “This adjustment to the stress test will allow it to be more representative of the mortgage rates offered by lenders and more responsive to market conditions.”

Stated Morneau, “For many middle class Canadians, their home is the most important investment they will make in their lifetime. Our government has a responsibility to ensure that investment is protected and to support a stable housing market. The government will continue to monitor the housing market and make changes as appropriate.”

Real Estate Industry Voices Support for Change

The reaction from realtors at the national level has been positive, as the stress test has been blamed for reducing affordability for many buyers and cooling the market. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, per capita sales activity in 2018 reached its lowest point since 2001 following the uninsured stress test, while 2019 final sales tied for second-worst.  While calmer buying activity may have been welcome in Canada’s most expensive housing centres, such as in the Vancouver and Toronto real estate markets, there was criticism that the measures disproportionately affected smaller cities where conditions were balanced, or already in buyers’ market territory, like the Prairies. As well, there was growing concern that borrowers shut out by the test moved instead to B and alternative lenders to get their home financing, which actually added more risk to the borrowing landscape due to their higher interest rates and overall less favourable terms. Stated CREA President Jason Stephen, “Realtors have advocated for changes to the stress test on behalf of potential homeowners who have been sidelined, borrowers who have moved away from the regulated market to less-regulated options, and real estate markets across the country in need of relief.”

Will This Add More Fuel to Already Heating Markets?

Not everyone is hailing the change to the stress test to be a positive development, expressing concern it will only contribute to rapidly heating prices and buyer competition in the nation’s largest cities, which have gotten an early start this year; the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board is reporting that average GTA prices approached the $900,000-mark in January, having increased 12.3% year over year. From a national perspective, CREA said the sales-to-to-new-listings ratio for Canada as a whole was 65.1% in December – well over the threshold to be considered a sellers’ market.

According to Capital Economics’ Senior Canada Economist Stephen Brown to the Financial Post, “The timing could hardly be worse.”

“Reducing the severity of the stress test is likely to put further upward pressure on housing prices, at a time when the sales-to-new-listings ratio already points to a surge in house price inflation ahead,” he stated. “The dilemma the Bank currently faces, between the need to support activity on the one hand and the need to limit the build-up of financial risks on the other, will only get worse.”

It remains to be seen how this latest change will filter through the housing market, especially with competitive urban centres already experiencing hot conditions in the typically slower late-winter season. All eyes will be on whether the mortgage industry experiences a significant uptick in applications once the easier rate is in force. 

© 2015 – 2020 Zoocasa Realty Inc

Canadian mortgage industry welcomes stress test adjustment

Thursday, February 20th, 2020

Federal government changes the stress test

Steve Randall
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

The body representing thousands of firms and individuals in the Canadian mortgage industry has welcomed the federal government’s plan to change the stress test.

Mortgage Professionals Canada (MPC) says that finance minister Bill Morneau’s announcement this week that OSFI will review the rules is a good “first step” by addressing federal mortgage eligibility policies that are unnecessarily preventing many Canadians from achieving their goal of home ownership.

“For years now, we have seen Canadians finding it increasingly challenging to enter the home ownership market,” said Paul Taylor, President and CEO of MPC at the press conference. “The increased regulation on Canadian mortgage qualification is decreasing competition and increasing costs, ultimately harming consumers’ accessibility.”

MPC has been urging policymakers to adopt a more reasonable stress test level as well as other lending restriction reforms and other measures that would help housing affordability.

First time buyers plan The organization says that it is not expecting to see a great impact from the First Time Home Buyers Incentive Plan.

“Based on feedback from our members and the current data, we do not except to see the level of activity increase. We anticipate regional pockets where the First Time Home Buyers Incentive will be more supportive, in which housing prices are already more attainable than other parts of Canada,” said Elaine Taylor, Chair of MPC’s Board of Directors. “Our requests for adjustments are made in the interest of supporting access to home ownership for younger, aspiring middle class Canadians, whose long term economic well-being has been disproportionately disadvantaged by the current regulatory requirements.”

MPC is urging the federal government to act quickly to alleviate the challenges to Canadians achieving their homebuying ambitions.

Copyright © 2020 Key Media Pty Ltd