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With housing markets heating up across Canada and home prices in major cities skyrocketing, one Canadian real estate company has introduced a unique way to give Canadians the opportunity to become homeowners.
Calgary-based rent-to-own company Homeowners Now turns virtually any home property into a rent-to-own property, even if it’s not listed as such. The company is able to do this by purchasing any home outright and allowing its clients to then rent-to-own the house from the company while saving up a down payment. This is an ideal arrangement for people who cannot get a traditional mortgage from a bank or other financial institution.
Prior to working with clients, Homeowners Now vets them to ensure they’ll be able to effectively enter into the rent-to-own agreement. The price of the home and the interest are locked into place when the business purchases the home on behalf of the clients, meaning clients know exactly how much they’ll be paying and for how long.
Once Homeowners Now purchases the home for the clients, the clients then pay rent to the business over a two or three year period. A portion of that rent is put aside to save up for a down payment on the home. When enough rent money has been saved to make a down payment, the clients then purchase the home from Homeowners Now and make their mortgage payments directly to the financial institution.
Homeowners Now Managing Partner Dale Monette says a new home buying format was badly needed in Canada considering what is happening with the real estate market in the country. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has reported numerous times that housing markets throughout the country are too expensive, particularly in the major cities like Vancouver and Toronto where housing prices have gone up 30 percent since last year.
“The homeownership dream in Canada is quickly becoming unreachable for most average Canadians, particularly in our major cities,” Monette said. “Although provincial governments are doing what they can to alleviate the problem, we decided the housing market in Canada required a new format for purchasing a home that better reflected the reality for most Canadians, especially younger ones. We think more younger Canadians would be able to become homeowners if they were given a bit of a jump start in the form of a temporary rent-to-own agreement. We believe this is very much the future of real estate in Canada as home prices continue to rise.”
Release ID: 193944