Quoting Cathy Lewis of Jencor Mortgage - Calgary
I have been getting lots of calls regarding a Mandatory 10% down payment that our Minister of Finance, James M. Flaherty spoke of in the fall. 
It has not yet filtered down to the lenders or Canada Mortgage and Housing (CMHC) in any way., but if he chooses restrict mortgage financing to 90% the banks and CMHC will certainly have to follow. I talked to our representative at CMHC this morning and he says CMHC does not seem to be encouraging this in any way but they are certainly increasing the criteria of applicants requesting a 5% down payment. One of our major lender’s Representative also states that they have not considered or encouraged a policy of 10% down payment but they will also have to follow any guidelines set out by the Minister of Finance. Both CMHC and the Major Banks expect at least a 6 month notice before any policy is implemented.
So it seems to me that neither the Banks nor CMHC are encouraging this policy and may even be more interested in keeping the 5% down payment but will go for having stricter lending guidelines. (higher credit scores). It certainly was interesting to me that when CMHC stopped the 100% financing the banks re-introduced products with 5% cash backs for down payment.
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