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Still, the industry has insisted there is no upside to increasing minimum down payments. It has long maintained that would have a disastrous effect on some people who struggle to get together enough money to buy into Canada’s hottest markets.

“The challenge with further restrictions is they impact the first-time home buyer which really isn’t the issue here. They’re not the ones buying detached homes worth more than $1 million,” Soper said.

One scenario being looked at by the government contemplates an increase in the down payment only beyond a certain high-price threshold — a move clearly aimed at Toronto and Vancouver where prices have skewed the national average.

Without explicitly saying so, Ottawa has previously targeted the country’s more expensive markets by tightening up lending rules across the country, and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., the Crown corporation that controls a majority of the mortgage default insurance loans, will not back loans for homes worth more than $1 million.

The government has also tightened rules on mortgage amortization lengths. Once as long as 40 years, amortization lengths were lowered in three stages from 35, to 30 to the current 25.

As part of its study, the Finance Department is also considering a maximum 20-year amortization on a mortgage. Longer amortization lengths allow consumers to get a lower monthly payment and therefore qualify for more debt.

Consumers were once able to borrow with zero money down, but current federal rules require a minimum down payment of five per cent in order to get CMHC’s mortgage default insurance, backed by the government. The cost of that insurance can be tacked onto the mortgage itself, which effectively leaves a consumer with a debt position equal to almost 98 per cent of the value of their homes.

The Canadian Real Estate Association said Wednesday the average price of a home sold in June across the country rose 9.6 per cent from a year ago to $453,560. But stripping out the Vancouver and Toronto statistics, the year over year price gains were just 3.1 per cent nationally.