Feds seek to ease housing market risks, slow influx of foreign cash
TORONTO — The federal government is taking steps to ease emerging risks in the country’s housing market with new measures to slow the injection of foreign cash and to tighten eligibility rules on prospective borrowers.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s announcement Monday came amid concerns that real estate costs in the sizzling Toronto and Vancouver markets are out of reach for many Canadians. Some fear foreign investment money in these housing markets has helped drive up prices.
Morneau’s package of measures, which include strengthening mortgage rules, also reflect growing concern that Canadians have too much debt.
“Pockets of risk have begun to emerge” following several years of exceptionally low interest rates that have changed how lenders and borrowers view debt, Morneau told a news conference in Toronto.