{"id":295373,"date":"2025-11-20T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/295373\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T12:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T12:00:14","slug":"three-real-estate-markets-that-are-bucking-national-trends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/295373\/","title":{"rendered":"Three real estate markets that are bucking national trends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Montreal is the largest city in Canada where real estate prices have increased, growing 7 per cent in October.Christinne Muschi\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Canadian housing prices have been stagnant for months, but a handful of cities are managing to outperform despite the effects of economic uncertainty. <\/p>\n

Home values across most of the country were unchanged on a year-over-year basis for the fourth month in a row in October, according to data from Wahi, a digital real estate<\/a> platform, and Real Property Solutions, a Canadian property valuation service provider.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Montreal, Halifax and the Ottawa-Gatineau region have been emerging as markets that are reliably growing \u2013 even as weakness in the condo market and in Vancouver and Toronto weigh heavily on national real estate prices. <\/p>\n

The Globe and Mail spoke to realtors and Wahi economist Ryan McLaughlin to dig into why these three markets are strengthening.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Have homes gotten pricier \u2013 or has money lost its value?<\/a><\/p>\n

Ottawa-Gatineau<\/p>\n

Ottawa-Gatineau is the only major census metropolitan area within Ontario to post notable growth. Wahi-RPS data shows home values grew by 4 per cent in October on a year-over-year basis, reaching an average of $725,190.<\/p>\n

Jason Pilon, broker of record at Re\/Max Pilon Group Hallmark, said the fact the region includes Gatineau, a Quebec city, is one reason for the strong growth.<\/p>\n

He estimates prices in the Gatineau side have grown by roughly 6 per cent over the past year, while the Ottawa side has only increased by about 2 or 3 per cent.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s largely because housing<\/a> in Gatineau is cheaper. Affordability has been a major factor driving buyers to Quebec, which has historically been a low-priced property market.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of buyers are crossing the river and going into Gatineau for more space and lower price points,\u201d said Mr. Pilon.<\/p>\n

However, Mr. Pilon attributed Ottawa\u2019s stable employment base in government, consulting and health care as a reason why the Ontario side of the region has also grown this year. <\/p>\n

What kind of house does $680,000 get you across Canada?<\/a><\/p>\n

Montreal<\/p>\n

Montreal is the largest city in Canada where real estate prices have increased, and it performed strongly in October with a 7-per-cent growth in prices. Montreal was still outpaced by Quebec City, which has emerged as one of the hottest markets in 2025 and grew by 11 per cent.<\/p>\n

A major factor is that Montreal\u2019s market has always lagged behind other urban centres, giving it lots of room for growth, said Marc LeFran\u00e7ois, a real estate broker with Royal LePage Tendance in Montreal. <\/p>\n

However, affordability isn\u2019t the only thing Montreal has going for it. Mr. LeFran\u00e7ois said the city\u2019s economy has been relatively resilient in the face of trade uncertainty with the U.S. <\/p>\n

Quebec\u2019s aluminum and lumber industries are at risk, but those industries are far from Montreal. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, Mr. LeFran\u00e7ois noted that Montreal\u2019s reputation as a renter-friendly city is waning. He said rental prices have inflated by roughly 9 per cent over the last year \u2013 more than what should be allowed even between tenancy changes under the province\u2019s rules for landlords.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people have said if I\u2019m going to pay so much for renting, I\u2019m going to look at buying property,\u201d said Mr. LeFran\u00e7ois. That is heating up the city\u2019s real estate market in turn.<\/p>\n

Wahi-RPS reported that the average home value in Montreal is just $734,790 \u2013 nearly $400,000 cheaper than Toronto, making it much easier for a renter to actually transition into home ownership.<\/p>\n

Halifax<\/p>\n

The Atlantic region\u2019s largest city saw its real estate market explode after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prices eventually cooled around 2023, but Wahi\u2019s Mr. McLaughlin said growth has returned this year and it has brought average selling prices to all-time high levels in recent months.<\/p>\n

Halifax\u2019s real estate values grew by 4 per cent in October to an average price of $622,500.<\/p>\n

Mr. McLaughlin said Halifax is benefitting from high interprovincial migration to Nova Scotia. The province is third behind Alberta and Prince Edward Island in this category. <\/p>\n

Halifax also has a relatively low unemployment rate of roughly 6 per cent \u2013 lower than the national average and than cities such as Montreal. <\/p>\n

All of this has led to a scenario where supply is tight, demand is strong, and houses are consistently selling at elevated prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Montreal is the largest city in Canada where real estate prices have increased,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46,2741],"class_list":{"0":"post-295373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-pf-ca"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}