Canadian home price gains accelerate sharply in March -Teranet

OTTAWA, April 20 (Reuters) - Canadian home prices accelerated sharply in March, with Halifax and Hamilton leading a bonanza of month-on-month gains felt across all 11 major markets in the country, data showed on Tuesday.

The Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, which tracks data collected from public land registries to measure changes for repeat sales of single-family homes, rose 1.5% from the previous month.

Prices rose 3.3% in Halifax, 2.8% in Hamilton and 1.9% in Toronto, with gains in the other major centers ranging from 0.9% to 1.5%.

On an annual basis, the index was up 10.8% in March, the eighth consecutive monthly acceleration and the strongest 12-month gain since September 2017. Halifax led year-on-year gains, up 22.5% from March 2020, followed by Hamilton at 20.9% and Ottawa-Gatineau at 19.0%.

Teranet also has indexes for seven smaller cities just outside the Greater Toronto Area, which posted year-on-year gains ranging from 20.8% to 24.9%. Toronto, by comparison, was up 11.2% on the year.

Last week the Canadian Real Estate Association said Canada's average home price soared an eye-watering 31.6% year-on-year in March, hitting a new high as sales also climbed to a new all-time record, gobbling up a surge of new listings.

Housing starts, meanwhile, jumped 21.6% in March from February to hit a new record amid skyrocketing demand from buyers. (Reporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio)