Canada’s largest bank is expecting a slow start to the spring housing market as higher interest rates keep many buyers out, despite a drop in prices.
“It’s sunny outside, but I don’t think just because it’s sunny, you’re going to see a real spring-back in mortgage originations,” Neil McLaughlin, head of personal and commercial banking at Royal Bank of Canada, said at a conference Wednesday.
There’s also not much to buy. The number of newly-listed properties fell 8 per cent in February compared with the month before, and the inventory of available homes dipped to 4.1 months, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. “We are a little bit more cautious because the slowdown is there,” he said. “We are seeing it in our volumes, essentially. With inflation and rates, there’s still uncertainty around where all of this is going to land.”
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