A testament to broker resolve

It’s praise brokers may feel they don’t get enough of, but one lender is commending how brokers have handled mortgage rule changes.

Despite nothing but hindrances placed on brokers in the form of mortgage rule tightening, one industry player believe the latest market share numbers are a testament to broker tenacity.

“The one trend I find fascinating is with all the complexity of mortgages today – all the restrictions and all the takeaways the regulators have done – it’s interesting that broker market share is starting to increase,” Boris Bozic, president and CEO of Merix told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “I think what the industry maybe is not… embracing is that the greater the complexity, the more value there is in a mortgage broker.”

Brokers have long lamented the roadblocks put in place by the government to cool the housing market in the form of mortgage rule changes – including amortization period tweaks – but in the face of a more confusing industry, clients are obviously heeding the benefits of working with brokers.

“If it’s confusing for the customer, they need somebody to explain all the nuances of all these different mortgage products today,” Bozic said. “So I find it fascinating that there has been nothing but takeaways in the last 36 months and yet broker market share is increasing.”

That market share is indeed increasing according to recent statistics.

“In terms of mortgage originations, 52 per cent of mortgages were from banks, with 34 per cent from mortgage brokers  (and  the  remainder  from  credit  unions, life  insurance  or  trust  companies,  and  other lenders),” CAAMP states in its annual spring report, which tracked mortgages from January 2013 to May 2015.

And that trend is backed up by CMHC as well.

“Mortgage broker market share is trending upwards for most market segments. This is particularly evident among repeat buyers where market share has increased from 32 per cent in 2012 to 42 per cent in 2015,” CMHC wrote in its Mortgage Consumer Survey, released in early June. “Over this time period broker share has also increased among first-time buyers (48 per cent to 55 per cent) and refinancers (27 per cent to 33 per cent). Among renewers, broker share has remained stable at around 21 per cent.”