As Montreal booms, city's reputation for affordable apartments takes a hit!
10 Jun 2019
MONTREAL — When Erica Fagan and her fiance started looking for a new apartment in their St-Henri neighbourhood, they thought they had reasonable criteria: they wanted a two-bedroom place where they could bring their own appliances and their cat, Odin.
But when she started looking, the 31-year-old found there was almost nothing in her price range of $1,200-a-month, much less a two-bedroom that accepted animals. Affordable apartments that were posted online were scooped up almost immediately, leading her to constantly scour Kijiji, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.
“I would say within the hour of some places going up they’d get so many replies (the owner) couldn’t answer any more,” Fagan said in a phone interview.
“Someone we know is a homeowner in St-Henri, and her neighbour said that within an hour of putting up her duplex for rent, she got about 300 responses.”
Fagan’s story has become a common one this year in Montreal, where the lowest vacancy rate in decades has led to a mad scramble to find housing and, according to housing advocates, is threatening the city’s reputation for affordable rent.
Fagan and her fiance managed to find a new apartment meeting their criteria, but it meant leaving St-Henri for nearby Cote-des-Neiges, where they’ve settled in to the top unit of a fourplex.
“We’re happy, we love the area and it has everything we need, but we’re a little sad we were priced out (of St-Henri),” she said.
Francis Cortellino, an economist for the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, says the city’s vacancy rate last year dropped to 1.9 per cent, the lowest it has been since the early 2000s.
