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Specialized lending: What does 2023 have in store?

CMP spoke with two of Canada’s leading lenders to get their insights into why alternative and specialized lending is set to play a more important role than ever in delivering solutions for borrowers

Grant Armstrong

Community Trust

Industry experts

Armando Diseri

Alta West Capital

Community Trust director of national sales Grant Armstrong has been working in the mortgage industry for over 20 years, driven by a passion for delivering excellence to both clients and partners. While at RBC, he specialized in finding solutions for non-traditional lending clients, partnering with some of Canada’s top alternative lenders. Armstrong then moved to CIBC and led its Mortgage Options Group to record-setting sales results by focusing on training and development. In 2020, he joined Community Trust to lead the company's National Sales & Lending team and its expansion across Canada, supporting brokers in the alternative lending space with a focus on technology, innovation and organizational development.

Community Trust

Grant Armstrong

Armando Diseri has over 20 years of experience in the mortgage industry, with a focus on underwriting and sales. He has held executive leadership positions in both the prime and non-prime sectors, making him an invaluable member of the management team at Alta West Capital. In August 2022, Diseri was appointed the company’s chief sales officer, and he is responsible for leading the strategic direction of its sales department. With his wealth of knowledge and expertise, Diseri is dedicated to helping Alta West Capital grow and succeed.

Alta West Capital

Armando Diseri

“Customers are going to be reaching out to their agents more so than ever because of all the turbulence in the marketplace, and this is where as lenders, as mortgage partners, we get to shine”

Armando Diseri, Alta West Capital

THE GROWTH of the alternative lending space has been one of the most prominent trends across Canada’s mortgage market in recent years – and that progress is only likely to accelerate in 2023. Specialized solutions have become increasingly popular as consumer profiles have evolved, with a larger number of business-for-self borrowers creating unique credit situations and income structures that aren’t serviced by more conventional lenders. Meanwhile, tighter mortgage qualification criteria have failed to dim the homebuying aspirations of scores of Canadian borrowers – and alternative and specialized options have played an important role in helping to provide answers when qualifying with a traditional lender hasn’t been possible.

Grant Armstrong, Community Trust

Diseri said brokers and agents who had never worked with Alta West Capital before had been calling its BDMs to see if the company could entertain certain deals, which is one of the reasons he and his team are placing such a strong emphasis on education in 2023. “That’s really what we’re focusing on because there has been and will continue to be turbulence in the marketplace. There will be customers that typically would have qualified in a lower-rate environment, but now they don’t,” he said. “We’re here to satisfy that need and bridge that gap.”

New products to meet brokers’ needs are central to the Alta West Capital approach, and Diseri added that technology improvements at the back end were also helping drive efficiency of turnaround and closing times. He returned to the importance of education when asked about his central message to brokers on what they should be prioritizing this year where alternative lending is concerned.

For Grant Armstrong, director of national sales and lending at Community Trust, the importance of maintaining a flexible and attentive approach is paramount to helping the company service and assist its partners in an ever-evolving borrowing environment.

“Customers are going to be reaching out to their agents more so than ever because of all the turbulence in the marketplace, and this is where as lenders, as mortgage partners, we get to shine. We make things happen. This is where you can give some comfort that there is a solution out there, and we have products that can satisfy a lot of those needs that are out there.” Armstrong said one of his key takeaways for brokers was the value of knowing the different lenders in the space and what each could and couldn’t do – particularly since different terms such as Alt-A and near-prime could intersect, and certain lenders dealt in more than one type of alternative lending. The best way to do that, and to ensure a profitable and productive year for brokers in the alternative space, was to maintain constant communication with lenders, he added.

A strong commitment to the mortgage broker community underpins the approach of both companies to the space, a clear affirmation of the ever-growing importance of brokers in promoting alternative options. Training and coaching are at the forefront of Community Trust’s interactions with brokers, according to Armstrong, especially because loan applications are increasingly unique and require more details – for instance, on not only how long a client has been at their current job but also how long they’ve worked in the industry. Collaboration and feedback are other essential components of Community Trust’s approach this year. As well as keeping its advisory lines for brokers open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., it operates provincial broker advisory councils that give the company a good idea of what it needs to work on.

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“Reach out and ask them what they do,” he said. “If you’re a broker, reach out to your BDM, buy them a cup of coffee, and ask them, ‘How do I do more business with you? How do I help more Canadians? How do I do more deals?’ “What you’ll find is some of those lenders [have] a lot of programs that you didn’t realize they had, and you’ll be able to deepen your relationship with that lender.” With plenty of twists and turns ahead for the mortgage market in 2023, Diseri said the alternative lending space was sure to continue to play an essential role in meeting the needs of borrowers and helping Canadians secure financing. “With criteria from the regulators potentially getting tighter, coupled with higher qualifying rates, we feel that we’re going to see that trickle-down effect, and our space is just going to see a bigger piece of the real estate market in the next year or so.”

Alta West Capital has been providing unique financial solutions through alternative lending for over three decades. Everyone has aspirations and goals, and sometimes traditional lenders make it seem as if those dreams are impossible to achieve. That's where we come in – mortgage brokers and borrowers rely on us to find unique financial solutions through alternative lending. Investors trust us with their hard-earned capital to provide alternative investment strategies. We believe in the power of dreaming big, and our team is dedicated to making your dreams a reality.

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Community Trust is a flexible alternative to larger, more traditional financial institutions. We have been working with our valued partners as a leader in the alternative lending space for many years. We are also leaders when it comes to service and technology, with a firm commitment to providing brokers with innovative solutions that make working with us even easier and faster, giving them all the support they need to succeed with their clients. Above all, we genuinely care about the partners we work with, their clients, and about helping Canadians become more financially successful and secure. This underlying motivation is what drives everything we do.