Liberals’ mortgage plan to have tiny effect on housing prices: CMHC

OTTAWA — Canada’s housing agency says new spending measures aimed at helping first-time buyers afford homes won’t push prices up more than a few tenths of a percentage point.

A report Thursday from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. estimates prices could go up between 0.2 per cent and 0.4 per cent — a tiny bump relative to other ideas the Liberals were pressed to enact to make homes more affordable.

The agency says loosening the mortgage-insurance stress test or allowing longer mortgages would have raised housing prices five to six times more than the measures in last month’s budget.