Tougher mortgage rules come into effect Monday, though experts say that the incoming changes have done little to cool a thriving national housing market.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced in February that Ottawa was bringing in new rules to ensure that new homebuyers would be able to afford their mortgages as interest rates rise in the coming months.

Flaherty said the government was acting to prevent a future housing bubble, though he said there was "no evidence" to suggest one was developing. At the time, he characterized the Canadian housing market as being "healthy and stable" with about two-thirds of Canadians owning their own homes.

Paula Roberts, a Toronto-area mortgage banker, said the key is to have homebuyers in a position where they can comfortably withstand an increase in interest rates.

"Nobody wants to get anybody into a house -- they love their house, they love the mortgage, they qualify and all of a sudden rates go up and they can't afford it," Roberts told CTV's Canada AM during an interview in Toronto on Monday morning.

Under the new rules, homeowners are now required to meet the standards of a five-year, fixed-rate loan even if they choose a variable-rate mortgage or a shorter-term arrangement.

Additionally, Ottawa put a limit on the amount of refinancing that homeowners can undertake, dropping the maximum to 90 per cent of the value of their home, down from 95 per cent under the previous rules.

For investors, the government will now require a 20 per cent down payment for non-owner-occupied properties, if they wish to qualify for government-backed insurance.

Hot market amid new rules

The rules come into effect today, but experts say that they haven't slowed down buyers since Flaherty announced the new rules and mortgage rates jumped nearly three-quarters of a point in the interim.

The Canadian Real Estate Association said almost 100,000 houses went up for sale last month, beating the previous monthly record by nearly 20 per cent.

Marcus Caporicci, a London, Ont., real estate agent, told The Canadian Press that many homebuyers have entered the market with the intent of making a purchase before the rules get tougher.

Furthermore, Caporicci said the effect of making it harder for people to obtain mortgages, is that "creative financing will become increasingly popular."

That could include loans from family, or the use of credit to make the 5 per cent down payment that is necessary to obtain a mortgage, Caporicci said.

But other real estate professionals say the changes were already in step with what private mortgage companies and banks are doing.

Martin Reid, the president of mortgage banker Home Trust, said most people will be unaffected by the new rules.

"There will be some people around the fringe that are impacted by it, but I don't think it's a huge negative impact to the real estate market," Reid told The Canadian Press from Toronto.

Peter Kinch, a mortgage and housing expert, agreed that the new mortgage rules effect only a minority of buyers in each case. As a result, he expects the incoming rules will have minimal effect on Canadian housing prices.

"In the big picture, it will impact those who are in the fringe and those who potentially could have gotten into trouble, but, at the end of the day, it's not going to have a huge impact of cooling off housing prices," he told CTV News Channel on Monday morning.

"I don't think we're going to see a major impact on housing prices at all."

With files from The Canadian Press