Montréal remains the most active market for plexes

Montréal remains the most active market for plexes with 53% of all transactions registered in January 2006. The real estate market generally continues to perform well within the Greater Montréal area, if figures released publicly by the Montréal Real Estate Board (MREB) are any indication. The S.I.A. (R) index recorded 3,169 sales for all property categories.

“This is an 8 % increase compared to January 2005 with 2,936 residential properties being sold.”

For the first month of 2006, the sales volume was $649 million, an increase of 17 % compared to the $554 million in January 2005.

”The economic trend continues to be excellent for the purchase and sale of properties, and we believe that 2006 will be the same as in previous years,” says Michel Beauséjour, FCA, Director of the Greater Montréal Real Estate Board.

On January 31, there were 33 214 residential registrations in the S.I.A. (R) network. Last year at this time, there were 29,336.”

Always for January, the average worth of unifamily dwelling properties was $204,000 in the Greater Montréal area, an increase of 10% compared to $186,000 in January 2005.

Michel Beauséjour adds that: “In Québec, Greater Montréal remains the area with the easiest access to property. We usually have a greater lead than other metropolitan areas such as Toronto or Vancouver for example. Their average price for properties was $446,000 and $327,000 respectively in December 2005.”

Unifamily dwellings sold - by administrative region, and percentage increase over 2005 – are: Montréal (average increase of $306, 000 for an increase in value of +5 %); Laval ($205,000, or +7 %); Montérégie ($197,000, or +12 %); Laurentians ($190,000 or +17 %); and Lanaudière ($153 000, or +8 %).

The MREB states, however, that these averages do not necessarily reflect the value of properties in Greater Montréal, and are just indices.

Attraction for plexes in Greater Montréal has increased. 360 sales were recorded in January 2006 compared to 310 for the same period last year, and represent a 16% increase. The average price of plexes (2 to 5 dwellings) was $275,000 last month compared to $247,000 in 2005, an increase of 11 %.