Quebec will announce this Friday that it is offering nearly 200 million to an organization administered by real estate developer Christian Yaccarini to build 1,001 affordable housing units, we learned. The Press.
This is an unprecedented amount for a project of unprecedented magnitude. The provincial and federal governments and the mayor of Montreal will be meeting for the announcement this Friday.
These will be “new affordable housing units intended for low- or modest-income households,” indicates a decree published this summer at the Official Gazettebut has gone unnoticed until now. The funds will be paid “during the 2025-2026 to 2027-2028 financial years.”
According to our information, Some of these housing units will be built on land in the Angus eco-district, at the corner of Molson Street and Mont-Royal Avenue in Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, which until recently was intended to accommodate offices. The new buildings would also include a commercial space and space for a daycare.
The Angus eco-district was developed by Mr. Yaccarini and his Angus Development Company.
This time, it is the Société du patrimoine Angus Résidentiel, a non-profit organization also headed by Mr. Yaccarini, that will receive the $193,000,000 grant, according to the decree published this summer. This is therefore a contribution of just under $200,000 per apartment.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Christian Yaccarini, initiator and project manager of the revitalization of the Angus district
In addition to the housing planned in the Angus eco-district, several other locations are planned for Mr. Yaccarini’s rental projects, according to our information.
Neither Mr. Yaccarini nor the Montreal mayor’s office would comment on the reports. The Press.
“Fast lane”
The summons sent to the media on Thursday describes the creation of a “fast track” to “accelerate the massive construction of affordable housing, throughout Quebec.”
According to the text of the decree to the Official Gazettethis fast track consists of directly subsidizing an entity – a non-profit organization in this case – through the Société d’habitation du Québec (SHQ). Specific agreements are signed in each case.
The same edition of the Official Gazette also reports other subsidies – much more modest – for real estate developers. Immeubles Régime VII inc., a company belonging to a pension fund, will receive nearly 30 million to build a 205-unit building in Quebec City.
More modest projects are also planned in Laval and the Laurentians for vulnerable clienteles.
All grants over $1 million must go through publication in the Official Gazettehence these publications.
Municipalities and stakeholders in the housing world have long denounced the complexity of the Quebec government’s financing programs, whose delays expose them to fluctuations in construction costs.
“We really want every dollar invested to go to the right place, to the right partner, and for it to deliver,” declared last week the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, to The Press. “I think that in housing, there has not necessarily always been a lack of money, there has just perhaps been a lack of vision, then of rigor, and that is what we are trying to reframe.”