Housing

Reading Between The Lines of Montreal’s ‘Cheap’ Rents

Compared to Toronto and Vancouver, Montreal’s real estate market looks enviable—but its rents are shaped by factors other cities can’t replicate.
Montreal’s vacancy rate fellow almost a full percentage point in 2018 to 1.9 percent, well below what’s generally considered a healthy rate for a city’s rental market of 3 percent.Caryn Rousseau/AP

In 2017, the average cost to rent an apartment in Toronto was $1,300 CAD a month. In Vancouver, it was $1,297. But in greater Montreal that number was $766.

It’s a startling difference for a city that requires little quality-of-life compromise to live in. Montreal has an enviable vibrancy and cultural richness and one of the highest rates of restaurants-per-capita in North America. It is smaller than Toronto but larger than Vancouver, the two hottest real estate markets in Canada.