Sales of residential properties in the Montreal area fell last month to a historic low for a month of February, but the majority of homes still continued to trade at the list price, or slightly above, indicated on Monday. Professional Association of Quebec Real Estate Brokers (APCIQ).
A total of 2,996 homes changed hands in February in the Montreal census metropolitan area, compared to 4,375 for the same month last year, the APCIQ said.
The number of properties listed for sale continued to rise in February, showing an increase of 64% compared to last year. A total of 15,893 registrations were listed in Greater Montreal last month, which was slightly higher than the pre-pandemic level of February 2020, the APCIQ pointed out.
Median property prices showed a further decline compared to February 2022, particularly in the small income property category (plexes, buildings with two to five units), where they fell by 8%. As for single-family homes, they fell 6%, while those for condominiums fell by 4%.
Compared to January, however, median prices have increased – by 3% for condominiums and single-family homes. This growth reached 5% for plexes.
In addition, the slowdown in transactional activity on the real estate market leads to longer average selling times for all housing categories. It took an average of 82 days to sell a plex last month, 27 days more than in February last year. Single-family owners had to wait an average of 58 days to sell their property, 26 days more than a year ago, while this period was extended by 19 days for condominiums, to reach 60 days.
“Despite the lengthening of sales times, the normalization of the transaction process and the return to market conditions less favorable to sellers, the price correction tends to mark a pause for the moment”, underlined in a press release the director of the APCIQ’s market analysis department, Charles Brant.
“This is essentially linked to the fact that it is mainly the most desirable and least numerous properties on the market that find takers,” he continued. However, this observation is not the same for plexes, which are more exposed to negotiation, given the challenges of renovation costs and profitability associated with them in a context of sharply rising interest rates. »
Transaction activity slowed in February in all major sectors in the Montreal region. In Vaudreuil-Soulanges, the number of sales fell by 39%, while it fell by 37% on the Island of Montreal. Sales in the other regions, namely the North Shore, the South Shore, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Laval, recorded declines of between 26% and 30% over one year.