Although March 2020 was one of the busiest months in Montréal’s residential real estate market, the Québec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB) reports that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a slowdown in the second half of the month. “In Québec, Montréal is the CMA that is most affected by the spread of the virus, due to the city’s greater exposure to international trade...

MONTREAL -- The Quebec government has authorized the province's real-estate brokers to get back to work during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it won't exactly be business as usual. The brokers have been granted permission to work only on transactions deemed to be a priority, defined as those that must be completed before July 31. The Organisme d'autoreglementation du courtage immobilier du Quebec (OACIQ),...

Greater Montreal Area’s aggregate home price rose 7.2% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2020, the region’s second consecutive year-over-year quarterly record in almost a decade Royal LePage forecast that if business activity resumes by late spring, home prices in the region should remain stable with a slight decrease of 0.5% by the end of the year, while the decline could be more pronounced,...

The COVID-19 pandemic has created economic uncertainty, causing Canadians to hit the pause button on many aspects of everyday life. Buying a new home may be the furthest thing from your mind right if you’ve been laid off or face employment uncertainty. On the other hand, if your income sources are secure, it might be a good time to consider a new home purchase, especially while mortgage interest rates...

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on – more than 900,000 cases were confirmed worldwide at time of writing, with over 8,600 in Canada – brokers and their clients are staring down the barrel of at least another two weeks of strict social distancing. Waking up each day to a cocktail of rising death tolls and sinking stock prices can leave even the most dedicated mortgage professional struggling to stay...

Despite the Canadian multifamily housing market seeing a measure of success in the past few months, it is a different story in Montreal, with condo sales weakness starting in 2019 to endure for at least two years. In its recent analysis, Altus Group noted that the current market context amid the COVID-19 outbreak will have very real effects upon Montreal’s multi-family segment. For Quebec, “expect...

Canada might be underestimating how much consumer prices are rising because of how it measures housing costs. MONTREAL ― Remember when house prices soared in Toronto, Vancouver and other places a few years back, causing homeowners to celebrate and prospective buyers to despair? Seems like a hard thing to miss if you’ve been in Canada in recent years, but somehow, the great housing boom that...

Canada became more urban in 2019 as its census metropolitan areas or CMAs grew by close to triple the rate as the rest of the country, with temporary and permanent immigrants accounting for nearly all of the 463,000 people who joined the largest cities. The CMAs grew 1.7 per cent over the 12-month period ending mid-2019, versus 0.6-per-cent growth for the non-CMA population, according to estimates...

ear-end city housing starts statistics for 2019 recently became available from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). For the six largest cities in Canada, by population, this article will examine how last year’s results compared with other years, previous peaks and long-term averages. It will also look at the singles-versus-multiples mix. Multiple-Unit Starts Now Totally Dominate Montreal’s...

There is a big problem with the home inspection industry that many buyers don’t know about: pretty much anyone can call themselves a “home inspector” in Quebec. BRIANA TOMKINSON, SPECIAL TO THE MONTREAL GAZETTE Updated: December 6, 2019 A pre-sale inspection by a professional promises home buyers peace of mind that they aren’t moving into a money pit. But there is a big problem with the...