If you unearthed the ideal house, only to discover that it borders a cemetery, would the argument of the “quiet neighborhood” leave you unmoved? A good number of buyers seem to be uncomfortable with the idea of fixing their homes close to grave markers, which sometimes gives brokers a cold sweat. But for others, it’s not death to drink! What meaning should be given to these reservations? Let’s try to unearth some answers.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
To revive the challenge of a lifetime, all you have to do is talk to real estate broker Gabriel Laflamme about the Laval house next to a cemetery that appeared in his listings five years ago: it is the property that has given him the most lead. to struggle during his career. “When some showed up to visit, they got out of the car, saw that it was next to a cemetery, then fled immediately, without even entering the house,” he recalls.
Put on a much less dynamic pre-COVID-19 market than today, the single-family home required long weeks of work and 70 to 90 visits – triple its average at the time – before finally find a taker. And this, despite a price adjusted from the start, below the average for the district.
PHOTO FROM THE GABRIELLAFLAMME.COM WEBSITE
Broker Gabriel Laflamme had to be patient to find a buyer ready to acquire a house whose yard overlooked a cemetery, in a pre-COVID-19 context.
“You have to be patient to find the right person, because the pool of buyers is much smaller. Some are more affected than others: it depends on the culture, the personal history…”, observes Mr. Laflamme. Its other tools: highlight the assets of the property, while being transparent, with a note specifying the proximity of a cemetery. Arrangements such as natural hedges hiding the view of the stelae can also help. But everything also depends on the market context, underlines the broker RE/MAX: in 2020-2021, with demand at the peak, this same property would have flown away in a week…
Not disturbing, even touching
If many buyers are uncomfortable with the idea of occupying a house next to a place of eternal rest, this is not the case for the family of Véronique Lamontagne, who acquired a property in 2017 on the edge of the Jardins Memorial Back River cemetery, in the Ahuntsic district of Montreal. The graves just across the fence? Nothing to worry about.
It wasn’t really a problem for us. It is certain that during the visit, when we opened the curtains of the room, we said to ourselves that it was a little special, but that was not a factor in the decision.
Véronique Lamontagne, who acquired a property on the edge of a cemetery
“It especially made the house a little more affordable than other properties in the neighborhood,” says the one who moved in with her husband and two daughters. The eldest, aged 7 during the move, was rather perplexed at first, then quickly got used to the idea of these neighbors like no other.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
In the city, houses and buildings are sometimes built very close to funerary sites. Some residents, like Véronique Lamontagne, are not at all bothered by this fact.
“I imagine some people find it a bit morbid, but that’s how we know that our life has a beginning and an end. I do not find it disturbing, ”continues Mme The mountain. Is the neighborhood so quiet, as we like to joke? Generally, yes: funerals, occasional, are short and discreet. On the other hand, maintenance work (lawn mowing and leaf blowing) is sometimes carried out in the early morning. Grieving relatives also come to pray at the graves of the missing. “It’s touching, but not disturbing,” insists Mme The mountain. Unusual fact: rumors are circulating in the neighborhood about “witchcraft rituals” taking place in the cemetery during the night, but the resident says she has never seen anything with her own eyes.
Did the small family fear that the proximity of the funeral site would harm a possible resale? Not really: being above all happy to have been able to take advantage of a less spicy price, she is aware that he will also be slightly deflated if he takes the idea of moving – which is not in his plans. “I imagine it may take longer if we don’t adjust the price, but that doesn’t worry us too much,” she philosophizes.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
According to anthropologist Luce Des Aulniers, the effect produced by a resting place can be different depending on whether it is a “cemetery-garden” or a “cemetery-necropolis”. In our photo, the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery.
The clash of times
That said, a large part of the population (some 80% according to the estimate of the broker Gabriel Laflamme) does not appreciate this mortuary proximity. What is hiding behind this coldness?
From the outset, the anthropologist Luce Des Aulniers distinguishes between cemeteries-gardens, beautifully laid out and planted, and cemeteries-necropolises, where the piling up of graves can create an unattractive effect of oppression. “It’s almost a metaphor for the weight of the dead carried by humanity”, launches the academic specialist in the themes of mourning and death, specifying however that some may be reluctant to rub shoulders with any cemetery, whatever the location. style… while others adapt to it without concern, within the framework of a “culture of proximity”.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
The pile of graves can create an oppressive effect, indicates Luce Des Aulniers, which makes the prospect of occupying a residence located near a cemetery even less attractive.
“It’s a sensitivity that varies a lot depending on the era,” she adds, pointing out that the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery, which was far from the urban density at the origin, finds itself today surrounded by inhabited spaces. There are certainly questions of hygiene and pollution, but they do not occupy the top of the concerns.
“Currently, this sensitivity is exacerbated by the fact that the cemetery implies a completely different relationship to time from that linked to our daily lives, our ways of living and inhabiting. Faced with this shock, it may seem like an insult, even if it can be a source of very beautiful aesthetic and artistic manifestations. This relationship is found in our daily psyche, this completely understandable resistance to avoiding death”, indicates the anthropologist from UQAM.
PHOTO FROM INFODEUIL.CA
The anthropologist Luce Des Aulniers, specialist in the question of our relationship with death and cemeteries, offers interesting reflections on this subject on the specialized site infodeuil.ca.
The latter also underlines the heritage role of these places, but also educational, involving “education to a certain community of destiny, which reminds us that we are mortal. […] He puts his supra-individual reality in the face, while we live in an ultra-individualistic society, it is a reminder that encompasses our existence”.
And the beliefs? Of course, some are still alive. “There are all kinds of ethnocultural myths, personal or collective mythologies, organizing stories from the afterlife, which persist”, underlines Mme Des Aulniers, who specifies that the conception of the sacred is not inevitably religious, but can be linked to mystery.
According to the anthropologist, cemeteries remain powerful triggers of memory and imagination, which raise “the question of the place of the dead in the face of the conquest of earthly space and in our affectivity”. “It’s a beautiful open field!” “, she believes.