Innovation seems to be returning to the mortgage market after a long dry spell. For the past couple of months, all we’ve been hearing is lenders tightening their credit or pulling pulling out of the market.
Merix Financial recently announced their “50/50 Wise Mortgage”. This allows borrowers to take half of their mortgage as a 5 year fixed rate mortgage and the other half as a variable rate mortgage. Merix already offers one of the most competitive variable rate mortgage at Prime + 0.40. Their fixed rate is equally competitive.
The terms of this product mirror the terms of their fixed and variable rate mortgage. The prepayment options are the same. The interest rate to convert their variable rate is guaranteed to be their best fixed rate at the time of conversion.
This probably will work well for those who can’t seem to decide whether to go fixed or variable. The borrower would like to take advantage of the savings of a variable rate mortgage and, at the same time, hedge their risks by locking in for half of their mortgage.
BC Mortgage 