Leah Zlatkin quoted by CBC News: “First-time homebuyer incentive is discontinued, says federal housing agency”

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/first-time-home-buyers-incentive-discontinued-1.7130966

“We had a lot of young Canadians asking about this program,” said Leah Zlatkin, a mortgage broker in Toronto.

However, applicants were required to meet specific criteria — including qualifications related to annual income and cash savings —  that made the program restrictive. Only two of Zlatkin’s clients qualified for it in the entire time that program was running, she said.

“When they understood it was a shared equity program, many people weren’t as interested,” said Zlatkin. They ended up financing elsewhere, because they didn’t want to share the equity as it appreciated, she added.

While Zlatkin thought the program was a good idea, it was “an administrative nightmare,” with the cost of the administration involved far outweighing the number of successful applicants, she said.

“If so few people are actually utilizing the program, why run it?”