Rising interest rates and fears of a recession are having an impact on real estate sales and Christmas shopping plans.
A third of Canadians say high interest rates have made them thinking twice about real estate purchases.
Thirty-three per cent of Canadians say they will delay a real estate transaction or a major purchase.
That’s according to a new survey of more than 15-hundred Canadians conducted by tech company Dye & Durham.
One-in-ten (9%) say they decided not to buy a house this year, and sellers are bracing for a shock as nearly one-in-five (17%) believe their home will never reach the same value it did before interest rates began climbing.
Consumer spending is expected to drop as the majority of Canadians (57%) plan to spend less this holiday season than last year.
More than half of Canadians believe the country is about to enter a recession, while three-in-ten believe we are already in a recession.
The survey also found:
- One-in-ten (12%) Canadians say they will continue to rent instead of buy a home until rates subside
- One-in-five (19) say they expect rising rates will mean it will take them significantly longer to pay off their mortgage than originally anticipated, while nearly one-in-ten (8%) expect they will need to take on additional debt in order to afford their current mortgage
- Three-in-ten (30%) Canadians say they’ve dipped further into their savings than expected this year, while 17% have taken on debt to afford bill payments
- One-third (32%) of Canadians say they expect the Bank of Canada to increase interest rates by at least an additional 100 basis points (1 percentage point) before the end of the year. Concerningly, almost half (48%) say they don’t believe that the interest rate increases seen since the beginning of the year have been effective in slowing inflation, while more than half (53%) believe inflation will continue to increase over the coming six months.
