Mortgagenomics Canada

On Thursday April 8 (yesterday), The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, OSFI (the Canadian Bank watchdog) announced that they are proposing changes to the current stress test rule. So basically, consider this the last-call bell to qualify under the current stress test until June 1, 2021. It’s not 100% official as of yet, but the chances of OSFI not proceeding with their new recommendation is slim to none.Before I get into the proposed recommendation, here’s a quick recap on the current stress test:Rather than qualifying based upon the actual mortgage contract rate, all mortgage applicants are required to qualify at a rate that is 2% higher, or 4.79% - whichever is higher (4.79% is the predetermined 5 year benchmark as imposed by the Bank of Canada...since 2018, this benchmark rate has varied between what it is today, 4.79%, to as high as 5.44%). So throughout COVID (essentially all of 2020), applicants have been qualifying at 4.79% which has at some time