Resicom – Holiday Investment – 04-21 – LB

Overseas Property Investors Pushing Montreal Property Prices

Montreal property prices have reached a new high in the third quarter of 2017 according to latest reports released.

The aggregate price of houses and condos rose to $384,055 during the three-month period that ended on Sept. 30, according to the Royal LePage House Price Survey.

The new high in Montreal property prices equates to a year-on-year rise of 6.6 per cent, and a 3.2 per cent increase from the previous quarter, according to the survey, which is based on Royal LePage sales data.

Central Montreal property prices recorded the largest rise, where median selling prices of two-storey houses grew by 7.2 per cent over the quarter to $740,214. That’s constitutes a huge increase of 19.2 per cent from the equivalent period in 2016.

Dominic St-Pierre, Royal LePage’s senior director for the Quebec region, commented: ‘If you look at the last 25 years, there’s just two years where there was an actual decrease in price year over year. Prices are usually going up, now we see that the increase in prices is accelerating a bit.’

However, he felt that the increases are much healthier than those seen in cities like Toronto and Vancouver, with underlying economic growth driving them, rather than speculation.

The Bank of Canada has already increased interest rates twice over the summer, and is expected to do so again. But Mr St-Pierre doesn’t expect a slowdown in Montreal property prices.

He said: ‘Because the market is so strong, because the demand is so strong, there’s a strong pressure on supply and that’s why we think that, no matter the increase in interest rates. The market is going to be pretty strong over the coming year.’

The biggest surprise in the Royal LePage House Price Survey was the increase in the number of foreign buyers in Montreal as a result of new taxes in Vancouver and Toronto.

St-Pierre believes that overseas property investors still account for less than two per cent of all purchasers, saying: ‘It still doesn’t have a huge effect on the overall market.’

However, that could change if the number of international buyers continues to grow at pace.

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