While economists continue to fret about the state of the country’s housing market, there’s one group that says there’s no need to fear, mortgage demand is here!
Home Capital Group held their inaugural Investor Day on Thursday, a conference that looks at the economic and investment affairs; and yesterday, the housing market in Canada’s major urban centres were a hot topic of conversation. Throughout the conference the organization showed that there is no reason to worry about rising housing prices, as long as there is still a strong demand for Toronto mortgages and Ottawa mortgages to go along with them. And, they also said, with no major decrease in mortgage demand, there’s no need to be concerned.
Pino Decina, vice president of residential mortgage lending at Home Capital said, “Approximately 20 per cent of the Canadian marketplace is underserved by larger financial institutions,” saying that there is still a large portion of Canada’s population that continues to need mortgage loans and refinancing needs.
Gerald Soloway, Chief Executive Officer for Home Capital echoed her statements saying, “The Canadian housing market will generally remain resilient to global economic uncertainty, with a balanced supply and demand across most of the country. Canada is in a very enviable position, with lower unemployment rates, continuing strong real estate fundamentals and Canadian consumers who continue to service their debts.”
He continued on to say that mortgage demand would not only continue to maintain itself, but with just a few good business practices, lenders could actually increase the amount of mortgages they take on while lowering the amount of risk. He says that careful lending criteria, lowering the amount of sub-prime mortgages lenders take on, and becoming more operationally-efficient, lenders could have a strong risk management program in place that would protect their business, and see their profits increase.
Martin Reid, President of Home Capital Group summarized all the statements saying, “The Canadian real estate market will remain stable despite current economic uncertainty and we will see solid growth across all business lines.”
Canadians can also take relief in that mortgage demand, instead of being concerned about it, after Mark Carney’s announcement this past week that the Bank of Canada will keep its overnight lending rate at 1 per cent. Those who are now taking on mortgages, and keeping that demand up, will be able to take out those home loans at lower rates, for most likely quite awhile longer.
