Sure. Thank you, Romy.
We've seen an increase in house prices during the pandemic, which has led to an increase in the amount that people have to borrow to buy homes. This has been offset by decreasing interest rates or mortgage rates. When you look at mortgage payments as a share of income, they cycle around a bit, but what we have seen is that the trend overall has been flat over that period. We haven't seen a big increase in the principal and interest payments as a share of income during the pandemic.
Of course, going forward, if interest rates start to increase, there is some risk that that could start to rise slowly. Bear in mind, though, that many Canadians have fixed mortgage rate contracts, so it won't affect everyone right away when interest rates go up. For example, people with a five-year mortgage rate that was recently negotiated don't have to worry about that for another five years. People with variable rates or shorter terms will be affected a little more quickly, but overall we've seen very flat mortgage interest payments to income ratios.