New mortgage loans: nearly 40% were new buyers

August 23, 2017

There were just over one million new mortgage loans in 2016—a 1.4 per cent increase compared to 2015, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC).
Out of these loans, 39.6 per cent were extended to new homeowners and 9.5 per cent to homeowners moving to a new home.
From 2015 to 2016, the number of new mortgages extended to new homeowners in Canada declined by 1.3 per cent and the number of consumers refinancing an existing mortgage for a larger amount increased by 3.8 per cent.
The growth in refinanced loans in Vancouver and Toronto and their surrounding areas implies that existing homeowners are leveraging larger amounts of home equity.
Growth in new mortgage loans was mostly supported by existing homeowners who refinanced or renewed their mortgages with a new lender: 21.4 per cent (or 219,897 loans) of the new mortgages were extended to homeowners asking for a larger mortgage loan amount, and this category grew by 3.8 per cent from the previous year. Renewals with a new lender increased by 5.2% from the previous year.