It’s typically part of the real estate world that’s not seen by your average homebuyer. But the condominium assignment sales segment of the market has been turned on its head this year as interest rates rapidly jumped. And according to one expert, the plunge in assignment sales activity is not done yet.

“When I say it’s the tip of the iceberg, it’s because I know there’s further interest rate hikes coming. And I know that this is now unchartered territory from having to qualify for a mortgage perspective,” Simeon Papailias, managing partner at Toronto-based real estate sales and consulting firm REC Canada, told Yahoo Finance Canada  in a phone interview.

As historically low interest rates fuelled seemingly ever-climbing home prices, Papailias says, condo preconstruction sales were “on fire”, up until March of this year.