Wave of mortgage renewals drives owners to list homes, analysts say [Video]

With many Canadian homeowners facing a sharp rise in mortgage payments, many of them have decided to bail, resulting in the highest number of Toronto housing units for sale in more than a decade and signaling a big drop in prices in the coming months.

In Toronto, a city where two-thirds of the country’s condominiums are sold, considered a bellwether for other big metropolitan areas, inventories have pushed past highs reached 10 years ago, data showed. At the same time, sales have lagged.

Rising inventories with anemic sales show a high degree of stress in Canada’s biggest property market, real estate consultants said. It indicates either a string of defaults or a price correction is in the offing.

Fueling the surge in available properties are homeowners and investors who bought houses and apartments five years ago at record-low mortgage rates, aiming to grab a piece of Toronto’s lucrative rental market.

But those mortgages are now coming up for …