Changes to mortgage rules announced by the federal government this week will have little effect on the housing market, local experts say.

On January 17th, Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty announced three new measures he said would "encourage hard-working Canadian families to save by investing in their homes and future."

The first change will see the maximum amortization period - the length of time it will take to pay off the mortgage - reduced to 30 years from 35 years.

That means a monthly difference of $105 more in payments on a $300,000 mortgage with a four percent interest rate. It will save the homeowner $41,850 in interest over the life of the loan.

The change will only apply to mortgages approved after March 18th, 2011.

"I don't think it will be a huge impact. I tend to look at it as short-term pain, long-term gain," said Jason Wheeldon, a realtor with Royal Le Page and head of J. K. Wheeldon Appraisals. "The government needs to do this.

"The one thing we've been seeing for the past eight months is that Canadian households need to watch their debt levels."

Reducing the amortization period is a more subtle adjustment than we could have, according to Lona Williams, a broker for the Belding and Williams Mortgage Team.

The Department of Finance chose to leave the minimum down payment at five percent of the home's value - and Williams is relieved.

"They almost would have been segregating the whole economy as to who should and shouldn't be getting a house," she said. "They would have taken away the opportunity for first-time home buyers and young families to ever own their own home."

The Bank of Canada left its key policy rate unchanged this week, meaning interest rates will stay the same for some time yet.

A change to that rate would have had a far greater effect on the market, said Wheeldon.

"The alternative thing the government could have done was to start raising interest rates which would have hurt more because that would have been spread across all, whereas this (change) is effecting new buyers coming into the market," he said.

This is the third set of changes to mortgage rules in four years. Last year, the government introduced a new requirement where borrowers must meet the standard for a five-year, fixed-rate mortgage regardless of the type of loan they would take out. The change was announced in January but didn't take affect until April, and Wheeldon said it had a significant effect on the market.

"We had a big rush of people that jumped in during the first quarter," said Wheeldon.

This time, the change will be less severe.

"Now you have to have your mortgage approved and funded by March 18th. That doesn't leave a lot of time," he said.

The government also announced two changes to refinancing and home equity lines of credit on Monday.

Now Canadians can borrow up to 85 percent of the value of their home when refinancing a mortgage, down from 90 percent.

"I think the government is trying to give people some breathing room," said Williams. "What's been happening is people then don't have the equity in their home to even sell it. They have so much still owing on their mortgage plus their realtor fees that they're in a deficient."

The final change to mortgage rules means the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation will no longer provide insurance backing on home equity lines of credit. However, that insurance is only required of the lender when the borrower withdraws more than 80 percent of the home's value.

"Anything over that we do very little of," said Williams. "We're not going to see an impact in the western region of Canada."

In all, Williams and Wheeldon agree the changes will result in moderation in the housing market.

"What it will effectively do is reduce our borrowing power," said Wheeldon. "Those who want to buy are still going to come in and find something in the marketplace. Perhaps it won't be at $200,000, but it will be at the $185,000 range."