Real Estate
Trudeau Tightens Up Mortgages After Macklem Sounds Housing Alarm
- Government moves in step with regulator on qualification rules
- BoC says prices won’t keep rising, but rates eventually will
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Canadian officials escalated efforts to cool the nation’s booming housing market, moving ahead with tighter mortgage qualification rules after the central bank issued a fresh warning against buyers taking on too much debt.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government set a new benchmark interest rate on Thursday afternoon to determine whether people can qualify for mortgages that are insured by Canada’s housing agency. The move matches an April decision by the nation’s banking regulator to do the same for uninsured mortgages.