The head of Canada’s largest private mortgage insurer says the hot housing markets in Toronto and Vancouver are not about to crash. Stuart Levings, head of Genworth MI Canada, will be speaking to investors in the US following data showing a 9.4 per cent rise in prices in Vancouver in the year to May.
Bloomberg reports that Levings will tell concerned investors that the demand requires a healthy supply of first-time buyers and that Canada’s immigration levels provide that. He will also say that the mortgage regulations are working to reduce risk to lenders and that the key for the government is to balance regulation with the needs of those first-time buyers. Levings says the level of risky, sub-prime mortgages in Canada is low and there is also no sign of a catalyst for a crash, even the oil price slump.
Bloomberg reports that Levings will tell concerned investors that the demand requires a healthy supply of first-time buyers and that Canada’s immigration levels provide that. He will also say that the mortgage regulations are working to reduce risk to lenders and that the key for the government is to balance regulation with the needs of those first-time buyers. Levings says the level of risky, sub-prime mortgages in Canada is low and there is also no sign of a catalyst for a crash, even the oil price slump.
