All regions are analyzed by the annual poll done by the CMHC allowing to make comparisons of rental market situations in the greater Montreal region. The latest poll was done in October of 2007.
Without the region of metropolitan Montreal, going north, the market of the greater Lanaudière region provides us some very interesting figures. Recently a conference was given on this topic in Repentigny by the president of the APQ, Me Martin A. Messier. He mentioned there that the vacancy rate was still very low in this region, vacillating between 1,2 % only (for all apartments) in the Terrebonne area and 1,7 % in Repentigny.
In those two sectors rents are still affordable, and for apartments with two bedrooms, one even notices a slight decrease of the rent going from 649 $ per month in October of 2006 to 629 $/monthly according to last October’s poll. In Repentigny, landlords have increased their rents more, going from 576 $ in 2006 to 582 $ in 2007.
When going to the region of Joliette, however, one notices that the vacancy rate for all apartments was 3,1 % in October of 2007, a substantial increase over the year 2006 when the vacancy rate was about 2,3 %. Average rent for two bedrooms has gone from 489 $ to 531 $ from October 2006 to October 2007.
For 2008, vacancy rates will continue to rise in all regions.
In the second half of the evening, the president of the APQ has informed his audience about renewal of the lease, rental increase and about the pitfalls to avoid during the rental process. This part (of the evening) has been very interesting to the landlords who had taken the road and numerous questions from them proved how interested they were.