JAMES LOEWEN

JAMES LOEWEN
Owner  
LOEWEN GROUP MORTGAGES
Age: 34

For James Loewen, the decision to switch from being an agent to a broker has proved pretty fruitful. Now running his own business serving the GTA from his office in Burlington, Ontario, Loewen reveals some of the reasons Loewen Group Mortgages has been able to increase its business every year – including an almost 19% jump this year. 

“Every time a door shuts, I think a window opens,” he says. “As the rules and guidelines continue to get tighter and tighter, you need to educate yourself and stay in touch with your clients and really earn your business.” 

And the scorching-hot market in his home base doesn’t worry him in the least. “We have been talking about a housing bubble for almost a decade,” Loewen says. “Our qualification guidelines for mortgages are extremely conservative and are only getting tighter and tighter. From a geographic breakdown, there are lines of people right now who are trying to buy a home. For the bubble to happen, it would require demand to decrease extremely, but that doesn’t seem to be happening.” 

Toronto’s rising prices, in his view, are merely a reflection of basic supply-and-demand economics. “Immigration is fantastic,” he says. “Toronto is recognized as one of the most diverse cities in the world right now. In Burlington, you have Highway 407 north of us, so you can’t build past that. Our neighbours in Hamilton and Oakville have water to one side, so you can’t build there either. There is only so much land available, so people are dying to eat it up.”

FSCO license: M08003388