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After rebranding as Rocket Mortgage Canada last year, Rocket Companies’ Canadian mortgage brokerage subsidiary is now making direct mortgage loans in its home province of Ontario, with plans to “quickly expand to additional provinces,” the company announced Wednesday.
Previously known as Edison Financial when relaunched in 2020 with seed funding from Rock Holdings, until now Windsor-based Rocket Mortgage Canada had provided loans as a mortgage broker, offering financing options from more than 50 lenders in all 10 Canadian provinces.
Although Rocket Mortgage Canada will continue to offer financing options from other lenders, the addition of direct loans expands its product set and allows the company to also match clients with real estate agents, insurance providers and lawyers.
Hash Aboulhosn
“As a lender, we are now able to impact every part of the home loan experience – from working with a mortgage agent to find the right mortgage for you, to easily submitting the application, through approval and closing,” Rocket Mortgage Canada President Hash Aboulhosn said, in a statement.
In March, Vancouver-based RESAAS and Rocket Mortgage Canada signed a preliminary partnership agreement allowing Canadian real estate agents who use the RESAAS platform to send their clients to get prequalified with Rocket Mortgage Canada.
RESAAS and Rocket Mortgage Canada will share the revenue generated by the partnership from all new mortgages, mortgage renewals and refinances. Although monthly payments are based on a 25-year amortization schedule, most Canadian mortgages have a term of five years or less and borrowers typically renew their mortgages several times before they own their homes.
Aboulhosn founded Edison Financial in 2017 before winding the company down in 2018 to join Canadian mortgage technology provider Lendesk. After Rock Holdings acquired a controlling interest in Lendesk in 2019, Aboulhosn left his position as Lendesk’s chief financial officer in 2020 to relaunch Edison Financial. In addition to Rocket Mortgage Canada and Lendesk, Rocket Companies’ Canadian operations include RockTech Canada Inc.
In a 2020 investor prospectus for Rocket Companies’ initial public offering, company executives said they believed they could leverage their U.S. success to claim a share of what was then a $761 billion (Canadian) mortgage originations market.
Since then, higher home prices and mortgage rates have curbed sales in the U.S. and Canada, and a new Canadian law that went into effect Jan. 1 requires buyers of homes there to be citizens or permanent residents of the country. Eligible buyers also include refugees, people with temporary work permits and international students who have lived there for at least five years.
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