Montreal Real Estate Market: Strong Start to the Year With New Sales and Price Records, Propelled by Condominiums and Plexes - GlobeNewswire | Canada News Media
L’ÎLE-DES-SOEURS, Quebec, Feb. 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB) has just released its residential real estate market statistics for the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) for the month of January, based on the real estate brokers’ Centris provincial database.
“Despite more severe health restrictions, January continued in the footsteps of 2020. Condominiums and plexes registered record sales, including on the Island of Montreal, with the highest number of transactions ever recorded since the early 2000s,” said Charles Brant, director of market analysis at the QPAREB. “This has resulted in a drop in the inventory of properties available for sale in the areas peripheral to the Island. The slowdown in sales growth for the single-family home category is clearly attributable to a lack of active listings,” he added.
January highlights
A new January sales record was set in the Montreal CMA, as transactions jumped by 17 per cent compared to January of last year.
Strong increases were seen in several peripheral markets, including Vaudreuil-Soulanges (+33 per cent), the North Shore (+29 per cent), as well as on the South Shore and the Island of Montreal (+17 per cent).
Sales fell by 6 per cent in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and by 7 per cent in Laval, mainly due to a shortage of properties for sale in the latter area.
Sales of plexes (+34 per cent) and condominiums (+20 per cent) rose significantly in the CMA.
There was an increase in active condominium listings (+9 per cent), mainly on the Island of Montreal (+55 per cent).
With market conditions still very much in favour of sellers, median prices continued to experience significant growth for single-family homes (+23 per cent), and remained at high levels for condominiums (+17 per cent) and plexes (+14 per cent).
If you would like additional information from the Market Analysis Department, such as specific data or regional details on the real estate market, please write to us.
About the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers
The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB) is a non-profit association that brings together more than 13,000 real estate brokers and agencies. It is responsible for promoting and defending their interests while taking into account the issues facing the profession and the various professional and regional realities of its members. The QPAREB is also an important player in many real estate dossiers, including the implementation of measures that promote homeownership. The Association reports on Quebec’s residential real estate market statistics, provides training, tools and services relating to real estate, and facilitates the collection, dissemination and exchange of information. The QPAREB is headquartered in Quebec City and has its administrative offices in Montreal. It has two subsidiaries: Centris Inc. and the Collège de l’immobilier du Québec. Follow its activities at qpareb.caor via its social media pages: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.
About Centris
Centris is a dynamic and innovative technology company in the real estate sector. It collects data and offers solutions that are highly adapted to the needs of professionals. Among these solutions is Centris.ca, the most visited real estate website in Quebec.
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Marjolaine Beaulieu Publicist Communications and Marketing
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.