Demand for single family homes continued to soar in September. It was the second month in a row that the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board (GMREB) reported a 10 percent increase in total sales.
That lifted Laval by four percent for the year-to-date, overcoming a rare downturn earlier this year.
In addition to that setback, the boom in sales has spurred more residential construction here than ever before. As reported in last week’s edition of The Suburban, the value of construction permits issued by the city is up by a whopping 70 percent for the year-to-date, January to September, compared to the same period last year.
Median single family home prices, which fell two percent in September, are up by one percent so far in 2015. Condominium sales, in contrast, remained flat last month, though prices edged higher by one percent, bringing median condo prices back up to where they were in the first nine months of 2014.
Prices generally lagged the Montreal region, thanks to a residential real estate rebound on the Island of Montreal this year, where they had been depressed under the previous Parti Québécois provincial government.
Last week, a report jointly prepared by PwC Canada and the Urban Land Institute suggested that foreign investors might begin targeting the Montreal region for acquisitions.
Canada is seen throughout the world as a political safe haven with strong rule of law and a well-developed, stable real estate market, and Montreal-region housing prices appear to be a relative bargain compared with other Canadian cities of similar stature.
“The momentum on the Island of Montreal continued into September,” GMREB vice-chairman Sylvain Girard said in a statement. “Sales have increased every month since February so that cumulatively for the year, the number of transactions is up by nine percent, compared to the same period last year. This is due, in particular, to the strength of single family home sales, which have increased by 17 percent.”
