The Explosion Of Alternative Mortgage Lending Sources

The value of Canada’s non-bank residential mortgages skyrocketed by more than 10 times in the period 2007-2018, according to Statistics Canada data released last week — a much more rapid increase than residential property values.

The data suggest that more and more residential mortgage consumers have been turning away from the big banks and credit unions to take up the options offered by alternative lenders.

Statistics Canada found that the value of all non-bank mortgage loans ballooned by 924.2 per cent in the 11-year period of the study. In that same period, the composite benchmark home price in Canada increased 81.8 per cent from $337,900 in January 2007 to $614,400 in December 2018, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.

Non-bank mortgage lending can largely be split into two …