20 January 2014

As you know, Royal Bank of Canada often becomes a leader when it comes to rate changes, and other banks tend to follow its trends. Today RBC’s five-year fixed mortgage rate is 3.69%.

Industry best 5 years fixed rate is much lower than RBC’s 3.69% and now about 3.25%, however RBC move is very important from the qualifying standpoint. RBC cut its posted rate to 5.24% and when other big banks will follow, this rate will be picked by Bank of Canada as Mortgage Qualifying Rate and it will be slightly easier for some marginal borrowers to qualify on variable mortgage or on fixed terms shorter than 5 years.