Canada's housing prices have doubled in two decades, outpacing world rivals including Australia and Sweden

Canada's housing prices have climbed 101.02% over two decades, the steepest and most sustained growth among developed nations tracked by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, a pattern CMHC attributes to a persistent mismatch between population growth and housing construction.

From 2005 to 2025, Canada's real house price index rose from 100 to 201.02. Australia saw 79% growth over the same period (100 to 179.03), Sweden 64.16% (100 to 164.16), the United States 30.34%, France 8.5%, while Japan fell 7.5% and Italy fell 24.95%. Canada's peak came in 2022 at 243.59, before moderating to 201.02 by 2025.

The pattern is regional within Canada. Vancouver faced affordability pressures earliest, in the early 2000s. Toronto saw them emerge in the 2010s, followed by Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax. Canada weathered the 2008 global recession with only a modest housing price decline, then climbed consistently from 2009 to 2022 — a trajectory sharply different from the U.S. and U.K., which both saw multiple price corrections during and after the 2008 crisis before recovering starting in 2012. France and Germany saw consistent but moderate growth; Japan and Italy, home to aging or shrinking populations, saw little or no price increases.

Rishard Rameez, CEO of Zown, attributed Canada's uniquely steep climb to a mismatch between population growth and housing construction. "We are not building as fast as we should be," he said, citing building barriers as contributors to affordability challenges.

As HighOnCity reported June 24, Toronto received funding to cut development fees — charges builders pay when constructing new homes.