Investors stepping to the sidelines and lower international student numbers are hitting another big-city condo market
Flailing condo markets in Toronto and Vancouver have grabbed the headlines in recent years as both sink from one low to the next, with no end in sight to the crises facing the sector in those cities.
But another major market’s own condo correction is going largely unnoticed: Montreal, which has seen a pullback in condo purchase activity even if it hasn’t plummeted to the same depths.
Year-to-date condo sales in Montreal have plunged by 11% compared with the same period in 2025, according to the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB), as active listings surged by 20% year over year in February alone.
Condo market slides for unsurprising reasons
The perceived reasons for that slowdown will be familiar to anyone who’s been keeping an eye on the Toronto and Vancouver condo sectors: immigration cutbacks leading to a much lower number of renters and international students as buyers desert the space.
“The first thing is there are fewer students and there are fewer foreign investors,” Elias Vouloumanos, a Quebec-based broker and president at Équipe Vouloumanos with Hypotheques Montreal, told Canadian Mortgage Professional.
“These are things that I believe are affecting the market here. And there’s no real need for so many condos anymore. In the past, we had foreign investors that were driving up the prices and that’s gone.”
Still, lower sales aren’t sparking big price drops – unlike in Toronto, where condos in the $300,000s are suddenly reappearing in the market in a sharp reversal of the rampant price appreciation seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The median price of a condo in Montreal was actually 2% higher in February compared with 12 months prior, while year-to-date prices have increased by the same percentage.
Vouloumanos, though, doesn’t see the market picking up a brisk pace in 2026 on the sales front as investors continue to approach the sector with caution.
“I don’t feel like it’s going to recover in the next two or three years unless there’s another need and they create a market again, a demand for condos,” he said. “[Now] there’s no students, no immigration, and lots of supply. But the condos are not taking a hit like they are in Ontario. They’re just not moving as much.”
Don’t expect a wider Montreal market meltdown
Montreal’s real estate community isn’t sounding a note of alarm about the downturn, even if a rebound isn’t on the way yet.
Charles Brant, the QPAREB’s market analysis director, framed overall February market data for the city as a “sales stabilization phase” and said a rebalancing was underway in the condo segment.
“Overall the Montreal market is trending toward a more sustainable pace, especially in the condominium segment, both in terms of activity and price growth more closely aligned with household financial capacity and the specific realities of each sector,” the association said in its February market report.
And Vouloumanos said the wider Montreal market is still seeing decent activity – albeit at a much slower pace than the pandemic – with certain pockets and property types especially busy.
“What I’m hearing in the market is that for the houses priced between $300,000 and $800,000, some of those are still having bidding wars because there’s not a lot of supply of homes in that price range,” he said.
“There’s a lot of supply of homes that are old and above that price, and obviously don’t move as much because you’re talking about a different demographic and different income earners. But you have houses that are in suburban areas that are still going through bidding wars – especially if they’re renovated homes.”
Even properties requiring renovation can still see substantial interest. “The ones that need a little more work, you still might get multiple offers. It all depends on the pricing,” he said.
“So it’s just mainly the condos that are listed for quite some time. But single-family homes, I don’t think there’s much supply and there’s still a lot of demand for those.”
Make sure to get all the latest news to your inbox on Canada’s mortgage and housing markets by signing up for our free daily newsletter here.
