Flaherty says wary of home price rises, will speak to market players

OTTAWA – Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says he intends to get more directly involved with players in the housing sector to ensure the market doesn’t over heat.

With the Bank of Canada signalling it won’t move on interest rates possibly until sometime in 2015, Flaherty says the responsibility of keeping the market stable falls on his department.

The central bank’s position comes amid signs home sales and prices are regaining momentum after cooling last year when Flaherty clamped down on mortgage rules.

Flaherty says he speaks regularly with market players, but is going to do more of it now to ensure the recent pick-up in sales and prices is a temporary phenomenon, and not the early signs of a housing bubble.

He says at the present time he has no intention of intervening by clamping down on borrowing.

Most analysts say he could take the steam out of the market by increasing the minimum requirement for a down payment to buy a new home.