Canadian investors are increasingly confident, with real estate leading the way, the Manulife Investor Sentiment Index released Thursday suggests.
The quarterly index gained nine points since March and now stands at 20, which is 15 points up from what it was in December, when it hit the lowest level in a decade.
Manulife calculates the index by subtracting the percentage of those who say they believe it is not a good or very good time to invest from those who feel the opposite.
Nine out of 10 investment categories were ahead in the poll taken in June, the company said.
Investment property had the largest jump, adding 18 points after a 23-point gain in March.
"Canadians seem more interested in real estate, equity and investment funds after a stretch of gloomy economic news since late last year," Paul Rooney, president and CEO of Manulife Canada, said in a news release.
Equities gained 13 points to –8, the only category among the 10 still in negative territory.
Along with the confidence in investing, the respondents also said they expect they will be as well or better off six months from now.
About a third said they thought they would be better off, just over half said they would be the same and just one is seven said they would be worse off.
The results were based on a national telephone survey of 1,003 Canadians by Research House, an Environics company. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
