The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) announced yesterday that they would be opening consultations on a proposal for a revised mortgage “stress test” on uninsured mortgages.
Under their new plan, the Government would set the floor rate themselves. They are suggesting that qualifying would be at 2% higher than the actual rate or a minimum of 5.25% (currently 4.79%) whichever is higher. That would then be reviewed annually.
The consultation ends May 7 with final amendments to be communicated by May 24th. If it is approved, the new rules will take effect June 1st, 2021. To read the entire release, you can go here: OSFI proposes new minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages (osfi-bsif.gc.ca)
If you have any questions about this, please don’t hesitate to contact me anytime. As more information is released, I will share it on my blog here.