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Canadian banks are in good shape though, they weathered the 2008 storm easily. Mortgages are limited to 25 years in Canada and you need some 20% down IIRC.

I do think there is a housing bubble, especially in Vancouver, but it's not clear to me how one could bet against it. And there always the chance that the prices are sustainable, they are positively mild compared to Zurich or Tokyo or San Francisco.

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You can get a 30 mortgage, as long as you have 20% down (so you don't need CMHC insurance).

The real reason why shorting the banks won't work is that with less than 20% down the CMHC insures that the lender will get their money back. For thenon-insured mortgages, the banks can also go after other assets since all Canadian mortgages are recourse loans.

I know cases of people having a 10% down, they got a loan from the bank to pay for the CMHC insurance.

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