Mortgage Fund in Canada Halts Payouts Amid Liquidity Crunch

  • Repayment activity from borrowers is ‘suppressed’: Romspen
  • Fund is trying to expedite asset sales to free up cash

A house under construction in Brampton, Ontario. Canada’s real estate market has been roiled by aggressive interest-rate hikes this year.

Photographer: Mark Sommerfeld/Bloomberg
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Canadian real estate lender Romspen Investment Corp. has halted redemptions on its largest fund after a number of borrowers stopped making payments.

The Toronto-based firm will “temporarily defer payment” of redemptions until it has more clarity on when borrowers will repay loans and the fund can get cash from asset sales, according to a letter to investors dated Nov. 8. “Loan payoff activity remains suppressed.”