Aug 23, 2023, 15:58 PM by Mortgage Professionals Canada

August, 23, 2023 - Toronto, Ontario – Mortgage Professionals Canada

On behalf of Mortgage Professionals Canada (MPC) and our 15,000 members across the country, we are encouraged that the focus of the summer cabinet retreat is on affordability and housing.

Canada is facing a housing affordability crisis. We look forward to continuing to work with the federal government to address this crisis. While it is important to continue to move forward with affordable housing solutions like purpose-built rentals, we are particularly encouraged that cabinet is set focus on policies to foster a healthier housing ecosystem and address lack of entry. This is a concern for many young Canadians aspiring to the dream of homeownership.

In fact, in our latest consumer survey, taken by 2,000 people across Canada in December 2022, 33 per cent of non-homeowners said they believe they will never be able to purchase a home in their lifetime, a record high from previous years’ surveys. Similarly, recent polling by Ipsos indicated that 68% of Canadian Gen Z and Millennials feel that buying a home is more out of reach than their parents’ generation.

Together, we can do more to ensure the opportunities available to past generations, like accessing homeownership, can remain in reach to young middle-class Canadians today. Addressing the high cost of housing is essential to Canadian economic prosperity. In the OECD’s latest economic outlook on Canada, published in June 2022, it noted that the high cost of housing in Canadian cities has the risk potential of making it difficult for people to pursue jobs in high-wage, high-productivity cities.

That is why we are advocating for policies that would help bring the dream of homeownership back to life across generations and ensure Millennials are able to purchase their first home. Our recommendations include:

• Enact the 2021 platform commitment of increasing the insured mortgage cut off from $1 million to $1.25 million, and index it to inflation to better reflect today’s housing prices.
• Introducing a return to 30-year amortization periods for insured mortgages to allow greater opportunities for homeownership and to level the playing field for all homebuyers.
• Eliminating the stress test on mortgage transfers, switches and renewals, provided there is no change to the mortgage amount or conditions of the mortgage other than rate.
• Creating a permanent national roundtable on housing that brings together all orders of government, industry, and civil society to develop harmonized solutions to the housing supply and affordability crisis.

Mortgage Professionals Canada is Canada’s mortgage industry association, with over 15,000 individuals and 1,000 member firms nationally. Our diverse members make up the largest network of mortgage professionals in the country, including mortgage brokers and brokerages, lenders, insurers and industry service providers.  

For media inquiries, please contact:
Cecely Roy
Director, Communications
Mortgage Professionals Canada
Email: media@mpc.ca