Bank governor Tiff Macklem raised the institution’s key overnight lending rate by a whole percentage point, the biggest single increase since 1998, putting it at 2.5 per cent, as an inflation-fighting measure.
“The Vancouver market was already in crisis,” Danison said, with vacancy rates in the one per cent range for many communities and inflation depleting consumers’ pocketbooks. “This just heightens it even more.”Wednesday’s rate increase won’t make “a huge difference” for buyers trying to qualify for mortgages now, said Deb White, president of the Mortgage Brokers Association of B.C., though her members are definitely seeing more buyers sitting on the sidelines.
As home sales slow down, so do housing starts, renovations on existing homes and the purchase of household appliances. “Historically, we haven’t read about what that meant for renters because usually there’s enough slack in the rental market, like normal levels of vacancy,” that would still leave space for people who can’t move into ownership as well as new tenants moving into the rental market.Article content