Canada’s federal housing agency is preparing a sale of as much as $8.5 billion in bonds as soon as next week, according to people familiar with the matter. 

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. will likely take orders for its planned transaction — consisting of floating-rate and fixed-rate Canada mortgage bonds, or CMBs — during the week of Nov. 13 after debt dealers sounded out investors, said the people, who asked not to be named ahead of a public announcement.

Commercial lenders can sell pools of mortgages through the program, allowing them to fund more loans via the housing market. Canada mortgage bonds effectively carry a government guarantee.

The sale would be completed before the federal government’s fall economic statement — planned for Nov. 21 — and mark the first bond transaction after the Department of Finance raised CMHC’s annual issuance limit for the CMBs program to $60 million. The agency was previously planning to move ahead with its deal during the week of Nov. 20, the people said.

CMHC could issue as much as $8 billion of 10-year fixed-rate bonds and $500 million of five-year floating-rate bonds, the people said. The final timing and the size of the transaction can still change, depending on market conditions, the people said.

The agency also has another bond sale scheduled for December, which may raise between $4 billion and $6 billion, analysts at CIBC Capital Markets wrote in a note last month. A CMHC press officer didn’t immediately provide a comment.

The government plans to provide an update on its plans for the $265 billion program in the coming weeks after consulting the public about whether the program should be consolidated into its regular borrowing program, according to its website. The goal of the consolidation would be to reduce costs.

The recent increase in the annual issuance ceiling is prompting investors to assume that the program will continue, the people said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration has come under pressure in recent months to improve housing affordability amid increases in rents and mortgage rates.