Home sales fell 32% in Montreal in February year-on-year
A total of 15,893 listings were listed in Greater Montreal in February, a number slightly above the pre-pandemic level.
Residential property sales in the Montreal area fell last month at a historic low for the month of February, but the majority of homes still continued to trade at or slightly above the listed price, the Association professionnelle des courtiers immobiliers du Québec (APCIQ) said on Monday.
A total of 2,996 dwellings changed hands in February in the census metropolitan area of Montreal, compared to 4,375 during the same month last year, the APCIQ said.
The number of properties listed for sale continued to rise in February, registering a 64% increase compared to last year. A total of 15,893 registrations were listed in Greater Montreal last month, a number slightly higher than the pre-pandemic level of February 2020, the APCIQ pointed out.
Prices medians of properties recorded a further decline compared to those of February 2022, in particular in the category of small income properties (plexes, these buildings of two to five units), where they fell by 8%. As for single-family homes, they fell 6%, while condominiums fell 4%.
Compared to January, however, median prices increased by 3% for condominiums and single-family homes. This growth reached 5% for plexes.
In addition, the slowdown in transactional activity in the real estate market is leading to longer average selling times for all categories of accommodation. It took an average of 82 days to sell a plex last month, up 27 days from February last year.
Single-family owners had to wait an average of 58 days to sell their property, 26 days more than a year ago, while this period was extended by 19 days for condominiums to reach 60 days.
“Despite the lengthening of selling times, the normalization of the transaction process and the return to less favorable market conditions for sellers, the price correction tends to pause for the moment. »
— Charles Brant, Director of the APCIQ's Market Analysis Department
This is essentially linked to the fact that it is mainly the properties the most desirable and least numerous on the market that find takers, he continued. However, this observation is not the same for plexes, which are more exposed to negotiation, given the problems of renovation costs and profitability associated with them in a context of sharply rising interest rates.
Dealing activity slowed in February in all major sectors in the Montreal region. In Vaudreuil-Soulanges, the number of sales fell by 39%, while it fell by 37% on the island of Montreal.
Sales in the other regions, namely the North Shore, the South Shore, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Laval, recorded declines of 26% to 30% in one year.
