Montreal has experienced, since the early 2000s, a strong development of new residential construction with a very marked preference for condominiums (or divided ownership). These condominiums are assembled in high-density constructions, towers that change the face of the city. For example, in the Sud-Ouest borough, condominium-based residential development accounted for 88% of housing starts between 2000 and 2015.
The development of rental housing has since resumed with some vigor on the island of Montreal, without ever reducing the attractiveness of condominiums in new real estate projects. In the borough of Ville-Marie, the start of condominiums (condos or undivided properties) followed, between 2019 and 2021, a progressive curve higher than that of starts of rental housing, yet they are also increasing.
In most of these new projects, we notice an intensification of the occupation of space which translates into a large volume of residential production at height. In the city center, we are following the trend, with projects for 50 or 60-storey towers: the Maestria project, in the Quartier des spectacles (1,000 housing units), 1111 Atwater, 1 Square Phillips, not to mention the Bridge- Bonaventure in the Pointe-Saint-Charles district and in Ville-Marie providing for 7,500 housing units of all types. In several other areas of the city, real estate developers are only interested in projects that still have a high urban density (six to ten floors) marking a difference with the rest of the urban fabric.
The condo is the preferred residential product of real estate developers. It is extremely profitable: the initial investment it requires can be recovered in a relatively short time, with a more than appreciable rate of return. Enough to attract private and institutional investment funds in the financial arrangement of various real estate projects for ten years. However, it is not out of a taste for futuristic architecture that so many residential towers are built. The scarcity of land and their high financial value in a city like Montreal force the design of this type of project to obtain the high profitability sought by promoters and their partners, investment funds.
In addition, new rental units now compare to condos in their design and promotion. There are a good number of projects exceeding the usual height standards in the neighborhoods of Montreal. The advertising packaging of these projects borrows a lot from the condo experience, for example by offering the same range of services (exercise room, swimming pool, living room, urban chalet, etc.). We even use the expression “rental condo” to attract customers.
They also innovate by offering different sizes, ranging from micro-condos (less than 500 square feet, some down to 385 square feet) to penthouse (2000 square feet). This strategy of densification by splitting the living space, producing a large number of these micro-condos, seems to be becoming a common practice.
The publicity for these projects emphasizes the deployment of a new lifestyle and a new urban living environment (a lifestyle): a significant part of life would take place outside housing in favor of shared spaces. Some promoters speak of a “vertical community” where young and old, couples and single people rub shoulders. But this can only include wealthy individuals. The availability of two- and three-bedroom condominiums for families remains limited.
It is a multifunctional residential model that is being exported outside of Montreal. The imposing Solar Uniquartier building complex, near the Du Quartier REM station and the DIX30 in Brossard, is a good example. The desired added value of this “new district”, being linked to the development of public transport, gives an indication of the paths that future real estate projects will take.
Observable consequences
Residential development in Montreal over the past twenty years has reshaped the urban fabric, of course, but above all the relationships between social classes in the neighbourhoods. These projects, even with promises of construction of social and affordable housing, will considerably transform the social composition of the residents of these neighborhoods in the medium and long term.
This gentrification through new construction favors the presence of more educated, wealthy social groups who have no family. It causes a form of segregation of the urban space, so much does it exclude social groups who cannot obtain these expensive residences which are the condo or the “rental condo”. This new phenomenon, without being the only cause, clearly amplifies the current affordable housing crisis.
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