The City of Montreal will soon adopt a new pre-emptive right by-law with the intention of accelerating the acquisition of land and buildings as part of its strategy to develop 60,000 affordable housing units in the city. , has learned The duty.
Since 2017, the City has had a right of first refusal, which gives it priority in purchasing land and buildings. The municipal by-law governing this power currently provides that these acquisitions can only be made to facilitate the realization of social housing projects, among others by community organizations and technical resource groups.
The administration of Valérie Plante will nevertheless present at the next meeting of the municipal council, on February 21, a draft regulation for the right of additional pre-emption which may apply to all types of dwellings. “This is the first fairly important step in a strategy where the City is going to start buying and acquiring a bank of land”, specifies the Duty Benoit Dorais, head of housing on the executive committee and mayor of Sud-Ouest.
This draft regulation comes at a time when the metropolis is facing a shortage of affordable rental housing, despite an overall increase in the number of apartments available to tenants in the metropolis. The City thus reports a vacancy rate of 1 to 2.2% for apartments whose rent is less than $1,000, a percentage that rises to 6.7% for apartments rented for more than $1,000 per month. . Rental housing is also particularly expensive, notes the City.
On the other hand, access to home ownership is becoming increasingly difficult, at a time when the average value of single-family homes and condominiums has increased by 23 and 17% respectively over the past year, underlines a summary decision-making of the next meeting of the municipal council, that The duty was able to consult under embargo.
Thanks to this first buyer’s right, which can be applied over a period of ten years on the selected lots, the City hopes to increase its chances of fulfilling its promise to facilitate the construction of 60,000 affordable housing units in the city within ten years, said Mr. Dorais.
Locations to be determined
The City plans to officially adopt this new by-law in March. The elected officials will then have to consider a resolution which will designate the buildings for which the City will wish to give itself priority of purchase at the time of the sale of these. However, no specific amount is provided for this purpose, unlike the pre-emption right regulation for social housing, for which the City has released at least 145 million since 2018.
“We don’t need the financial package. The settlement is in place, and we have the funds. The land that will present itself during the year, we will be able to buy it”, assures Mr. Dorais, however, who is also continuing his efforts with various “partners”, including real estate developers, in order to detail the rest of the the strategy that the City intends to apply to achieve its commitment of 60,000 affordable housing units.