Mortgage interest rates are poised to increase as soon as this summer.

If the banks aren’t prepared to put the brakes on rising mortgage debt, the Bank of Canada may soon be, hinting that it could raise its key overnight rate as soon as this summer.

“The heightened uncertainty around the global economic outlook has decreased in the weeks since the Bank released its January Monetary Policy Report (MPR),” reads Thursday’s announcement maintaining the Central Bank’s benchmark rate at 1 per cent. “With tentative signs of stabilization in European bank funding and sovereign debt markets, conditions in global financial markets have improved and risk aversion has decreased.”

For analysts, that translates into the strongest indication in more than a year that the bank may have enough room sometime this year to raise the interest rate it charges banks. The knock-on effect would be to raise interest rates for borrowers.

Ensure you get a rate hold before this happens.