Pandemic has spurred Montrealers' interest in country homes!

It’s early days yet to call it a trend, but real-estate agents say they are noticing a bump in demand by Montrealers for properties in the Laurentians and the Eastern Townships — and that the COVID-19 pandemic might be a factor.

Comparing sales of properties in the Eastern Townships between May 11, when the industry re-opened after a six-week pause, to June 10 with sales for the year-earlier period showed more than double the number of buyers from Montreal and the South Shore, said Christian Longpré, co-owner of Royal LePage Au Sommet in Magog. And 78 per cent of transactions involve people who want to live there full time, he said.

Many worked from home during the pandemic “and businesses had no choice but to get used to it,” he said on Monday. As a result, more businesses are open to having employees work remotely, “and people see it is possible to work maybe a few days a week from home and a couple from their offices.”

Some buyers had planned to move to the country eventually, he said, but were spurred by the pandemic to make the move sooner. Clients include urban condo owners who can get more space — and land — for their money in the country and families who were confined to apartments during the pandemic.

The average price for properties in the Memphremagog region is about $300,000, said Longpré, whose brokerage has branches in Knowlton and Sutton. One client paid under $300,000 for a century-old two-bedroom house on three acres.

Clients are telling Louis-Charles Ménard, president of Re/Max Bonjour in St-Sauveur, that they don’t want to go through a second wave of the pandemic in an urban area.

Ménard said 45 per cent more properties in the Laurentians were sold in the first two weeks of June than in the year-earlier period.

Thomas Morris, a residential real-estate broker with M Real Estate, put two of his listings in the Laurentians that received no offers last summer back up after things re-opened in mid-May: one received an offer in less than 24 hours, the other within a week.

“The demand this year is so much higher,” he said. “Now there is this whole new pool of buyers who are wildly motivated and I know that, up north, brokers have not seen that before.”

Among clients are younger people who want to rent in downtown Montreal and own a cottage up north, Morris said.

The pandemic has made many reconsider long-term plans, he said.

“I think in general people are just saying we need somewhere to vacation that doesn’t require us to go to another country.”

Julie Saucier, director of the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers, said it’s too early to tell whether these purchases are part of a trend connected to the pandemic. Traditionally, March, April and May are peak months for the industry in Quebec, but the fact that it was on pause for much of that time this year could be one reason June has been this busy so far, she said.

It’s possible that the pandemic will change purchasing patterns and behaviours, Saucier said. Among questions to consider: Will more people want space for home offices? Will the pandemic have a second wave? As a result of horrors visited upon frail residents of the province’s long-term care centres during the pandemic, will more families want houses with space for aging parents?

She said the association’s market analysis team will analyze the province-wide database of property listings used by Quebec’s real-estate agents and brokers, Centris, for trends.