Montreal real estate’s record month

By Staff, with files from The Canadian Press | November 6, 2017 | Last updated on November 6, 2017
2 min read

Vancouver and Toronto get all the attention, but another Canadian housing market saw big gains last month.

Average Montreal island home prices hit a record high of almost $500,000 in October, rising 12.7% from the prior year, the area’s real estate board said Monday.

Single family homes in the city and suburbs saw price increases of 10% to nearly $630,000, condos were up 14% to more than $370,000 and buildings with two to five units grew 15% to $583,801.

Average prices in the city of Montreal rose at least 13% in all three categories.

Last week, real estate boards in Vancouver and Toronto reported October numbers that showed the markets gaining momentum again, after a lull following policy changes designed to cool prices.

Read: Toronto, Vancouver home sales heat up in October

The Montreal region’s prices remain a bargain even as average prices were up 9.2% to $386,911 from $354,163 a year ago. That compared to $780,104 in Greater Toronto, up 2.3% from the prior year and $1.04 million in Greater Vancouver, up 12.4%.

Paul Cardinal of the Quebec Federation of Real Estate Boards attributed monthly housing gains this year to strong job creation, consumer confidence, low unemployment and foreign migration.

With consumer confidence reaching a 10-year high, people are viewing it as a good time to make a major purchase like a house. “They have confidence that it’s a good time to buy because of their expectation about their job, about their revenues, about interest rates and about the market itself,” he said.

Last month was the most active October in eight years as the number of homes sold in the month increased 7% to 3,270, the real estate board said.

Greater Montreal homes also sold more quickly.

The strong activity came ahead of the federal government’s plans to tighten mortgage requirements.

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) will implement new lending guidelines at the beginning of next year. Among the changes being considered is a requirement that homebuyers who do not require mortgage insurance still have to show they can make their payments if interest rates rise.

Cardinal said there is anecdotal evidence that some buyers are moving up purchases to beat the changes. However, he doesn’t believe there will be much impact on housing activity in the city.

Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver president Jill Oudil said the OSFI changes “helped spur activity in the short term” in that market. “Many buyers are trying to enter the market before the changes are in place,” he said in a release.

Read: China pullback could hurt Canadian housing

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Staff, with files from The Canadian Press

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