New mortgage rules come into effect March 18th, or do they?

On January 17th, the BoC announced changes to the amortizations of insured mortgages, decreasing the maximum amortization from 35 to 30 years. This goes into effect on March 18th, so the thought was if you did not have an accepted offer by this date you would be forced into a 30 year amortized mortgage, thus decreasing your maximum purchase price. Well this is partly true.

Most lenders will allow you to take advantage of their rate hold window of up to 120 days to close on a purchase. What this means is you must have a accepted offer of sale by March 17th and if you do you will have up to 120 days to complete on the sale and still take advantage of the 35 year amortization. This will also apply to re finances as long as you have your refinance documents into your mortgage broker or lender by March 17th.