Montreal housing market outsells Vancouver and Toronto for the first time in a decade
Total housing sales in Montreal and its surrounding areas increased eight percent to 44,448, according to aHuffpostreal estate report.
It was “on fire” last year thanks to low unemployment and hot economic growth. Montreal, unlike Toronto and Vancouver, has no foreign buyers tax to dissuade offshore interest in their real estate market.
Analysts did mention that there were a few more buyers from China investing in the city than previous, but their growth was marginal and concentrated in wealthier, downtown neighbourhoods.
Sales growth was up 20 percent in five of the city’s most popular neighbourhoods, bolstered by condominium market activity.
Looking across to Toronto and Vancouver, they saw sales decline 18 percent and 10 percent respectively.
“The overall sales growth far exceeded his expectations. He said the last time growth in Montreal sales outpaced Toronto and Vancouver was in 1998. [Paul] Cardinal thought new mortgage rules implemented in the fall of 2016 would impair the number of first-time buyers and reduce the total number of transactions.
But Quebec's best consumer confidence in 15 years and a high number of permanent residences stimulated demand and compensated for the new rules and higher mortgage rates during the summer."
Similar to other parts of the country, Montreal is seeing demand decline for free-standing single-family homes in favour of multi-unit buildings or complexes. Luxury accommodations also saw strong demand; people are scooping up million dollar homes at a rate 20 percent higher than last year, while condo sales over $500,000 rose 42 percent over the same time period.
The average price of homes on the Island of Montreal rose about six percent to $467,496, which is downright affordable when you look at Toronto’s market averaging over $700,000 and Vancouver’s rolling around $1.4 million.
Très bon!