The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that the Bank of Canada's recent interest-rate cut is driving homebuyers toward variable-rate mortgages. The Globe's Rachelle Younglai writes that since the BOC began cutting rates in June, the proportion of new mortgages that are variable-rate rose to 25 per cent in November, up from 19 per cent in October and just 5 per cent in July, 2023, when rates were unexpectedly hiked. However, demand still lags behind the pandemic boom when over half of new mortgages were variable. Meanwhile, the cost of a variable-rate mortgage became more expensive than a fixed-rate loan. In January, 2024, the average five-year variable-rate mortgage had an interest rate of 6.23 per cent, compared with 5.07 per cent for the fixed-rate product. Now, the gap is narrowing. This January the five-year variable rate mortgage had an average interest rate of 4.55 per cent while the average fixed loan was 4.29 per cent. True North Mortgage's Dan Eisner said that three-quarters of his clients are now requesting variable rates, compared with 15 per cent in June, the month the BOC started cutting interest rates. He sees that proportion climbing with Wednesday's 25-basis-point rate cut to 3 per cent.