With the Bank of Canada’s current interest rate of 4.50%, 38% of Quebecers who have a variable-rate mortgage will find themselves forced to sell within a year, because they will only be able to maintain flow for 12 months. This is what emerges from a Yahoo Canada / Maru Public Opinion poll, released Thursday.
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For the country as a whole, the survey shows that 45% of Canadians with adjustable rate mortgages will be able to afford current interest rates for up to 8.3 months before having to sell or vacate their home.
However, homeowners with fixed rate mortgages feel less pressure than those with variable rate mortgages.
The survey shows that 35% of those with a fixed rate mortgage will be able to bear an interest rate of 4.5% for 10.4 months. The ratio of fixed rate borrowers to variable rate borrowers is four to one in the survey.
- Listen to the economic column with Yves Daoust, director of the Money section of the Journal de Montréal and the Journal de Québec at the microphone of Richard Martineau on QUB radio :
The last resort
These figures do not surprise Stéphane Bruyère, mortgage broker at Mortgage Architects.
“But there is a difference between saying it and doing it”, he underlines, he who has seen his share of cases pass during his career. “You’re going to cut hockey, you’re going to cut the restaurant, you might be going to cut a car, but the last thing you’re going to want to do is move,” he said.
Remember that the Bank of Canada’s key rate – which influences other interest rates, including mortgage rates – rose from 0.25% in March 2022 to 4.5% in January 2023. A severe and sudden increase that the country had not seen for decades. The key rate is also at its highest level since December 2007.
