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Our increasingly high home values and poor savings have almost one in five Canadians looking to their property for retirement funding, according to a survey out Wednesday.

HSBC, which interviewed 18,207 people in 17 countries around the world, found 20 per cent of pre-retirees in Canada plan to downsize, or sell their primary and secondary residence in order to fund their retirement. That compares with five per cent of current retirees who will sell to fund retirement.

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Canada is among the global leaders of this retirement strategy with — the average of pre-retirees in 17 countries planning to sell property to fund their golden years is just 12 per cent. Australia was the leader at 26 per cent and Eqypt was last at four per cent. In the United States, 17 per cent of pre-retirees plan to sell property.

“While Canadian retirees rank as some of the happiest in the world, almost half of working-age people in Canada are not currently saving for retirement. Furthermore, they are twice as likely to consider selling their homes to fund their retirement compared to those who have been able to stay on-course with their retirement savings plans,” said Betty Miao, executive vice-president and head of retail banking and wealth management at HSBC Bank Canada.