24 June 2019

In his opinion, a rate cut would go against the policymakers’ attempts to guide the Canadian real estate sector towards a soft landing instead of a crash.

“After years of efforts to direct the Canadian housing to the soft landing, the last thing we need is a new takeoff. We’ve learned that lesson in 2015,” – he adds.

Since 2016, which showed record home sales, all levels of government have implemented measures, aimed at cooling the hot markets, including foreign homebuyer and vacant-home taxes.

In addition to it, the BoC has raised its lending rate five times since the summer of 2017, and it will hardly change the direction.

According to Porter, those measures did help and cooled the prices growth to a certain extend. However, May sales showed a 6.7% annual increase, marking the largest gain in 3 years.

“Although prices vary all over the country, and many of the weakest markets (mostly, West regions) are stabilizing, the active markets remain robust,” – noted Porter.

“There’s no need for the Bank to cut the rate so far”, – he said.