HSBC undercuts BMO, TD on variable rates
HSBC Canada cut its fiveyear variable mortgage rate to 2.39 per cent as banks compete for customers amid a slump in home sales.
The Canadian unit of Londonbased HSBC Holdings Plc also cut its five-year fixed rate for some mortgages to 3.09 per cent, it said in an emailed statement. Both rates, effective May 17, undercut mortgage offered by Canada’s sixbiggest banks, which have been adjusting rates during a spring season that’s started out soggy.
Bank of Montreal last week cut its five-year variable rate to 2.45 per cent — a one percentage point discount from the lender’s prime rate — in a mortgage special that runs until the end of May. TorontoDominion Bank followed on May 15, matching the 2.45-per-cent rate in a special available until May 31. HSBC has been undercutting the largest domestic banks on mortgages for about a year.
Home sales nationwide fell to the lowest in more than five years in April, as bond yields and tougher mortgage qualification rules imposed in January helped cool the market.
Canada’s banks are seeing “a more pronounced” slowdown in mortgage growth in the second quarter, with a 0.19-per-cent growth since the start of 2018, Scotia Capital analyst Sumit Malhotra said Wednesday in a note to clients. That’s the slowest in four years.
He said “our review of recent data clearly indicates that the seasonal deceleration will be more pronounced” in the banks’ second quarter results.