Who makes up the Greater Montereal property market?

National housing agency Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released a detailed study on the home buyers in Greater Montréal, fleshing out the types of clients found in parts of the Montréal metropolitan area for the first time.

In the research, reported by the Canadian Press, CMHC noted that about 60% of buyers in the Montréal Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), including all Island of Montréal, North Crown and South Crown municipalities, were households aged 25 to 44.

Almost half of the households who left Montréal to buy a home elsewhere in the CMA were couples aged 25 to 44 who bought a single-family home. Interestingly, the city of Montréal, lost more buyers to each of the other sectors of the CMA than it gained from those sectors.

Moreover, in the central portion of the North Shore, a region that houses the municipalities of Blainville, Boisbriand, Lorraine, Rosemère and Sainte-Thérèse, only 45% of households who purchased a single-family home did not choose move to other sectors.

CMHIC economist Francis Cortellino provided an explanation to this by further characterizing those who migrated to other sectors. “The suburban sectors generally attracted more young families and young couples without children looking for single-family homes. These suburban sectors also attracted buyers from other sectors of the CMA, including a number from the city of Montréal,” he said.

Looking closely at the market that preferred attached properties, it can be observed that they are the households who are younger in age.

“One-person households accounted for 45% of condominium buyers across the CMA. Another 30% were couples without children, and only 13% were families. The figures for single-family homes were just the opposite: 45% of buyers were families, and 12% were one-person households,” the study revealed.

The condominium buyers in the city of Montréal followed the same trend. Most of them were first-time homebuyers, under the age of 35. However, select sectors, such as Anjou, Saint-Léonard and Île-des-Sœurs, enticed a larger proportion of clients over the age of 55. In other suburban sectors, the condominium segment attracted buyers of all ages, and mainly one-person households.

Finally, the proportion of single-family house buyers who were families was greater in the pricier areas of the CMA. This leads to the conclusion that, in these sectors, buyers were older, aged 35 to 55, and potentially with children.

This study was based on that was based on the latest Census (2016) and focused on examining residents’ households' geographic origin, age, household types and median before-tax income. 

 

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