Record sales and historic peak in house prices in Quebec

$ 279,000. This is the average cost of purchasing a single-family home at the turn of December in the greater Quebec City region. For a plex, it’s $ 335,000. In November, the price acceleration was 18% for plexes, 8% for condominiums and 7% for single-family homes.

These historic highs do not however scare buyers.

In fact, they were more likely than ever to buy a property last month. A record for a month of November was set with 1,019 transactions in the census metropolitan area (CMA) of Quebec.

The north crown is popular

The northern crown of Quebec is particularly popular with buyers. The progression is spectacular with a 127% increase in transactions compared to November 2019.

There are a lot of purchases of second homes in resort areas, such as the northern crown of Quebec, underlines Charles Brant, director of the Market Analysis Service at the APCIQ, for whom this is not the only explanation.

The increase in transactions is exceptional everywhere in the region: the South Shore (+ 45%) and the agglomeration of Quebec (+ 41%) are also doing well.

The increase is also observable in all types of properties: plexes of 2 to 5 units (+ 91% of sales), condominiums (+ 82%) and single-family (+ 36%).

The pandemic and Montrealers

The pandemic and teleworking play a major role in this rush to houses in Quebec, according to Charles Brand.

The analyst notes that many Montrealers are leaving the island to settle elsewhere in the province, including the Quebec region.

We noticed in our last analyzes that a lot of people from Montreal have been settling in the Quebec City region since last year. The pandemic is playing a fairly major role: Montreal is losing people, the regions are recovering some of the households and Quebec is one of them..

The rise will continue

Charles Brand’s crystal ball predicts that records will continue to fall over the coming months in Quebec, both in terms of transactions and in terms of selling prices.

Compared to other large North American cities, house prices in Quebec are still low. Compared to Montreal for example. It is still very advantageous.

Obviously, market opportunities are still interesting because the market [de l’immobilier] will continue to increase in Quebec City, which is not necessarily the case in Montreal, he adds.

Labeaume reacts

Mayor Labeaume reacted Thursday morning, on the sidelines of a press conference on heartwarming activities.

I repeat, we live in a bubble in Quebec. We have no idea of ​​the differences in the average cost of house prices in Quebec. I don’t have the figures with Montreal, but there is a difference, especially in the purchase of plexes, he mentioned. I don’t have the explanations, I’m a bit like everyone else, I haven’t seen many geniuses who have understood, the only explanation is the low interest rates.

Labeaume also indicated that Quebec is heading towards a year for the construction of rental housing.