Despite the challenge of the tighter mortgage lending rules, home sales increased in Quebec in 2018, outperforming expectations.
The Quebec Federation of Real Estate Boards says that sales were up 5% year-over-year to a total of 86,557 transactions recorded by the province’s Centris database.
It was the fourth consecutive annual increase in sales and also saw a new record for sales in Montreal – 46,753 sales, up 5% year-over-year.
Montreal’s condo market saw a 13% rise in sales with single-family home sales up 1% and plexes (2-5 units) up 3%. Luxury sales were also strong with a 30% jump in sales of condos over $500K and a 14% increase in sales of single-family homes of $1 million or more.
Across the province, sales were up 13% for condos and 3% for both plexes and single-family homes.
"Once again, the Québec residential real estate market ended the year on an excellent note with 18,858 transactions in the fourth quarter, 6 per cent more than the same period in 2017," stated Yanick Desnoyers, Manager of the QFREB's Market Analysis Department. "This was the best result in 18 years for a fourth quarter.”
Saguenay and Gatineau took the lead among metropolitan areas with increases of 11% and 7% respectively. Notable increases were recorded in Sherbrooke (+6%), Montréal (+5%) and Québec City (+4%), while activity declined in the Trois-Rivières metropolitan area (-1%).
Median prices continued to rise for the second year in a row across the province. The median price of both single-family homes and condominiums increased by 3 per cent to reach $250,000 and $237,000, respectively.
