Rents said to be down
Rents are said to be dropping, with the average price for a one‑bedroom in Montreal given here in one grid as now at $1,953 but in another at $1,723. An average studio in Quebec is said to be $1,428.
Rents are said to be dropping, with the average price for a one‑bedroom in Montreal given here in one grid as now at $1,953 but in another at $1,723. An average studio in Quebec is said to be $1,428.
CE 17:58 on 2026-01-12 Permalink
A friend of mine who lives in Toronto said that she knows people who are negotiating with her landlord to lower their rents when their leases come up for renewal. Her landlord sent her a letter saying they were increasing her rent and she’s going to move out because similar apartments are renting for less than she’s currently paying.
Nicholas 02:59 on 2026-01-13 Permalink
I don’t know what’s up at CFCF but they keep putting out misleading and inaccurate stories. The CTV Montreal story says average rents are down. But this is not average rents, i.e. the average people are paying for rents — it’s asking rents, or rents listed on online platforms (so rents no one is paying, but landlords hope someone will pay one day!), specifically rentals dot ca, which did this report that they’re cribbing from. They link to a CP story on CTV Business that mentions the word “asking” ten times, but CFCF doesn’t use the word “asking” at all. It’s like the Business desk posted a national CP story on savings account interest rates and CFCF used it to talk about mortgage interest rates.
The actual rent for any type of apartment on the Island of Montreal in 2025 was $1,283, up 12% from $1,147 in 2024, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corportation, a government entity. (Click on Quebec, then Montreal, then scroll down to the XLSX file and download it and open the third tab, Table 1.1.2.; there are tons of interesting stats in there.)
It is good that landlords are realizing they can’t demand as much as they used to be able to. But rents people pay are rising, but lower than market rents, which are higher but dropping slightly. If only the digital reporters rewriting others’ stories for their market understood what they were writing about we wouldn’t get these basic errors that undermine the entire article. But when you cut your reporters to the bone and don’t have beat reporters and make people put out multiple stories a day, you make mistakes like this.