![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/A-Tale-of-Three-Real-Estate-Markets_-1024x1024.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFor the longest time, the Greater Toronto\nand Greater Vancouver areas have been shining examples of Canada\u2019s hottest real\nestate markets. But according to the Canadian Real Estate Association\u2019s (CREA) housing\nprice report<\/a>, that\u2019s no longer the truth. On a year-over-year basis\nfor June 2019, real estate prices in Toronto have only shot up 3.79%. The\nGreater Vancouver area fares even worse with prices declining 9.64%,\nyear-over-year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The decelerated growth in these markets is\nattributed to several factors\u2014mostly due to government policies aimed at cooling\ndown the Toronto and Vancouver markets. These policies include the Mortgage\nStress Test and the foreign buyers\u2019 tax<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though some foreign buyers have\nredirected their attention from Vancouver and Toronto to Montreal due to the\nforeign buyers\u2019 tax, these buyers are still only a small percentage of \u201ctop-tier sales activity\u201d<\/a>. Montreal Mayor\nVal\u00e9rie Plante, however, has not ruled out a foreign buyers\u2019 tax. In a\nstatement to BNN Bloomberg she said, <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf needed, we might go [to a Foreign\nBuyers\u2019 Tax], but right now we\u2019re using different tools that we have to make\nsure we have this balance of creating social and affordable housing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Montreal\u2019s strong economic growth has\nattracted many youth and foreign buyers. The city\u2019s unemployment rate is low,\nand the strong post-secondary schools have also attracted international\nstudents. This is why the Greater Montreal Area saw a 6.73% growth in\nyear-over-year average home prices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite all this, Montreal remains\nrelatively affordable with an aggregate price of $363,800. This is less than\nhalf of Toronto\u2019s aggregate price ($786,600) and almost 1\/3rd of Vancouver\u2019s\n($982,200). <\/p>\n\n\n\n While a strong economy and foreign buyers\ncontribute to the increasing real estate prices of Montreal, the true culprit\nis a lack of supply. Ultimately, demand has increased, and supply has not kept\nup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As a result,\nproperties are selling quicker than ever before, and this is causing buyers to\nput larger offers to remain competitive when buying a home. Montreal is\nfollowing in the footsteps of Toronto and Vancouver as bidding wars become more\ncommon. Additionally, as the city\u2019s real estate market becomes more volatile\nand shoots up, buyers are trying to get in before homes get out of their reach\nwhile sellers are unsure how to price their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, like\nany other city, not every Montreal neighbourhood is rising equally. According\nto Centris.ca<\/a>, which regularly puts out real\nestate statistics for Montreal and other areas of Quebec, certain parts of the\nMontreal Island are shooting up while other areas remain stable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales activity in\nareas like Kirkland and L’\u00cele-Bizard\/Sainte-Genevi\u00e8ve have increased\nsignificantly in the second quarter of 2019. In Kirkland specifically, the\nnumber of sales over the last four quarters have gone up 8% but the number of\nsales went up 28% in the second quarter of this year.\nL’\u00cele-Bizard\/Sainte-Genevi\u00e8ve continues similarly. Over the past four quarters,\nsales activity only rose 6% but in the second quarter of 2019, there was a 23%\nincrease in sales activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other areas have\nhad double-digit growths in sales activity over the past four quarters and\ncontinued to do so in the second quarter of 2019. Ahuntsic-Cartierville had a\n19% increase in sales activity over the last four quarters and a 20% increase\nin sales activity in the second quarter of 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In terms of the types of buildings,\ncondominiums were the hottest in the second quarter of 2019. Sales activity was\nup 2% and the median price was up 9%. The median price of Single-family homes\nwas also up 6%, and multiplex prices shot up 7% in the second quarter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the demand for\npurchasing real estate increases due to Montreal\u2019s strong economy and\npost-secondary schools, the demand for rental units has also increased. In\nfact, the vacancy rate<\/a> for homes in the city has hit 1.9%\u2014the\nlowest since the early 2000s. This has resulted in soaring rent prices and even\nsome landlords who aren\u2019t willing to rent out their units due to prospectively\nbeing able to charge more in the near future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A non-profit by\nthe name of Generation Squeeze<\/a> conducted a study and found\nthat the average home price in Montreal would now have to fall $131,000, or\napproximately 35%, to be considered affordable. This seems unlikely as\nauthorities like the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation<\/a>\n(CMHC) sees Montreal real estate prices climbing through 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the\ngrowing unaffordability in Montreal, there is hope. Similar to Toronto and\nVancouver, government policy is being laid down to make housing more\naffordable. In June 2019, Mayor Val\u00e9rie Plante proposed a social housing bylaw\nto help low-income earners fare better in the city. The bylaw pushes real\nestate developers to include social housing in new multi-unit developments. 20%\nof new units will be reserved for government-subsidized social housing, or else\nthe developer will have to pay a fee. The question remains whether this bylaw\nwill truly help the people living in Montreal or simply further reduce the\nalready tightened supply of homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Montreal\nisn\u2019t as expensive as some of the other cities in Canada, prices are increasing\nquickly in the city. The bustling economy, strong post-secondary educational\ninstitutions and the increasing government policies in other cities are driving\ndemand up for Montreal real estate. At the same time, supply is limited, making\nhousing less affordable than it once was. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Montreal. Known for the French culture, beautiful buildings, and its magnificent hill\u2014Mount Royal. But over the last year, the city has been drawing new attention as Canada\u2019s hottest real estate market. As other major Canadian cities are hitting a plateau or price adjustment in their inflating home prices, eyes are being turned towards other Canadian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,35,49,43,38],"tags":[397],"class_list":["post-1140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buying","category-first-time-home-buyer","category-first-time-home-buyers","category-investing-in-real-estate","category-renting","tag-montreal-real-estate"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1140"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1146,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140\/revisions\/1146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Whats-hot-IN-Montreal_-1024x1024.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/affordable-paradise-1024x1024.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n