Nov 5th, 2026 Mortgage Industry Update
The Bank of Canada announced on October 28th that its overnight rate will rise to 2.50% from 2.25%. Marks the first increase in more than three years. Mainly due to high energy prices. Growth is expected to slow in the fourth quarter of 2026, before picking up again in 2027. The prime rate increases to 4.70% from 4.45%.
Additionally this week:
– Desjardins projects provincial resales will reach about 167,000 units next year, up 4.7%, while the average price edges up 2.4% to roughly $825,000. Lower prices, rising incomes, first-time buyer supports and pent-up demand should pull buyers back.
– Urbanation: Investment groups are buying new condos in the GTHA at a time when end users largely aren’t. That demand pushed new condo apartment sales to 760 units in Q3, twice the total from a year earlier. It was the second straight quarterly gain.
– CMHC: Canada’s inflation-adjusted home prices more than doubled between 2005 and 2025, rising 101% and outpacing every major peer country. Australia was up 79%, USA 30%, Germany 21%, France 9%, and the UK 13%.
– Statistics Canada: National annual inflation rate climbed to 3.1% in September, up from 3.0% in August. Energy drove nearly all of the acceleration. Gasoline prices surged 27.8% yearly, up from 22.8% in August, as crude oil reached its highest level since May.
– CREA has lowered its home sales forecast for a third straight quarter, now projecting 444,530 residential transactions. Marks a 5.2% drop from 2025. Strips 18,806 sales from CREA’s July estimate, when the association expected a far milder 1.4% annual decline in home sales.
– Royal LePage: National aggregate home price in Q3 slipped 0.8% yearly to $810,000 and fell 0.6% from Q2 as new US tariffs and prospect of higher mortgage rates kept buyers sidelined. Now forecasts 1.0% annual gain in Q4, down from 2.0% it projected in its Q2 house price survey.
– RBC: Multi-generational living is emerging as a mainstream strategy among Canadian homebuyers, with 53% of prospective buyers open to a shared-generation home. 35% of current homeowners would sell and co-purchase with an adult child to help the next generation enter the market.
– Urbanation: Rental market has recorded 24 consecutive months of annual price declines – longest downturn in recent history. Average asking rents fell 4.2% yearly in Sep to $2,034. Leaves asking rents 9.2% below May 2024 peak of $2,202 and 7.3% lower on a cumulative 2 year basis.
Stay tuned for the next update!
For any questions and concerns please do not hesitate to call Harpreet Singh The Mortgage King at (416) 795-1919.
