Advanced economies continue to recover from this millennium’s first global financial crisis, and in terms of residential real estate, Canada is seeing the fastest pace of price gains in the world, according to the Bank for International Settlements.

Canadian residential property prices soared 15% in the first quarter of the year when compared to the same period in 2016, according to the global financial institution, which acts as a bank for national central banks.

The increase surpassed Canada’s fourth-quarter-2016 performance, when prices vaulted 13% annually, the most rapid increase of any country the Bank for International Settlements examined at the time.

“Average residential property prices continued to rise for the group of advanced economies (AEs) in the first quarter of 2017,” reads the bank’s commentary as it notes a broader trend.

Australia, which recorded annual growth of 8 per cent, had the second-hottest national housing market of any advanced economy, but was edged out overall by emerging market China, where residential property prices surged 9 per cent annually.

“From a longer term perspective, real property prices in the AEs as a whole have strengthened continuously over the past five years and have almost recovered the ground lost after the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007-09,” the bank continues.

Across all advanced economies the Bank for International Settlements tracks, prices rose 3.6% on a year-over-year basis, shy of the appreciation observed in emerging market economies, which posted annual growth of 3.8%.

“Despite the recent strengthening in EMEs, developments in such economies are broadly in line with the stabilisation of housing prices observed on average since the beginning of 2014,” the report notes.

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