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Concerns varying among Sask. housing experts amid possible interest rate increases

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The possibility of increased interest rates is causing concerns for homeowners across Canada, but fears of rising costs are differing in Saskatchewan, according to market experts in the province’s two largest cities.

As speculation about interest rates continue, one-in-four Canadians fear they will have to sell their homes if rates continue to rise, according to a recent survey from Manulife Bank.

However,  the head of Regina’s homebuilders association said while inflation is top of mind for homebuyers in the province, the financial impact is relative to the housing market.

“If you had a $300,000 mortgage, in Regina, your mortgage monthly payment would go up by $130, and that’s not nothing, but that should be manageable,” Stu Niebergall, president and CEO of Regina and Region Home Builders' Association, said.

If the Bank of Canada increases interest rates by the supposed 0.75 per cent, Niebergall said he expects many in Regina would be able to absorb that cost.

“I believe the one-in-four Manulife is speaking about is really capturing the concerns and the fears within many other markets within Canada, you think of Vancouver or Toronto,” he said.

He stresses that Saskatchewan has some of the lowest average housing prices in the country.

“You know, we didn’t see through the pandemic, the dramatic increases and housing prices that we saw in the rest of the country,” Niebergall explained.

While Niebergall said that residents in his association in Regina are not overly fearful, the Saskatchewan Realtors Association said the strain is already being felt by residents in Saskatchewan’s other major city.

“I think everybody’s feeling the pressures from inflation and interest rates rising, and so we’re hearing anecdotally, absolutely that there’s a lot of pressure out there,” Chris Guerette, the CEO of the Saskatchewan Realtors Association (SRA), said.

“It’s costing a lot more, today, to live stats quo than it did last year, yet you're not getting more out of it.”

She said the fear from homeowners in Saskatoon, and Saskatchewan in general, is that with the pivot to working from home, people have had to adjust their current living situations already, and now with increases in rates, further adjustments will have to be made.

“That’s the big question, what does this look like in Saskatchewan, we don’t know, but we do know there will be an impact.”

The Manulife Bank of Canada Debt survey polled 2,001 Canadians in all provinces between ages 20 and 69, with household income of more than $40,000. The survey was conducted between April 14 and April 20, 2022.

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