Quebecers prefer the suburbs
A survey made for Remax shows that Quebecers prefer the suburbs when they decide to buy property – bad news for those who see urban densification as the way forward. However, in Mont St-Hilaire, a judge struck down two anti-densification bylaws, saying they contravened the urban agglomeration’s PMAD (Plan métropolitain d’aménagement et de développement), so there may be some hope the arable land around Montreal won’t be completely covered in concrete by 2050.
Jonathan 14:10 on 2020-05-28 Permalink
I can’t seem to find any more information on that survey. My first thought is that it only represents the views of people wanting to buy new property, not representative of Quebecers. It doesn’t include people who are quite happy where they are (regardless of whether they live in the city or in the suburbs). Also not clear as to what is considered ‘city’ and ‘suburbs’ and how they by that.
When I try to talk to my folks about moving to the city, they right away think I am talking about having them move ‘downtown’, though I may be thinking of VSL or Verdun. If they answered this survey and all they had was ‘city’ or ‘suburb’ as qualifiers, they would have said HELL NO to the city… but may just as well have had Verdun as a possible location to move to.
Bert 14:17 on 2020-05-28 Permalink
Perhpas this is the survey…. https://blog.remax.ca/canadian-housing-market-outlook/
Jonathan 14:18 on 2020-05-28 Permalink
Also a note that it surely doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands of Quebecers who can’t even contemplate purchasing property in the province, never could and surely can now never due to the affordability crisis. This survey just highlights the obvious – that yard space and house size is a marker of class and status.
CE 15:53 on 2020-05-29 Permalink
People in the suburbs often have a different idea about where downtown is. I had a co-worker who told me he was moving out of his parents’ house to the West Island to move “downtown.” His apartment was in northern CDN, not somewhere very many Montrealers would consider downtown.
JP 02:27 on 2020-05-30 Permalink
So true. My mom’s friend from DDO would say she was going downtown, when she was actually going to Plaza St Hubert.