Troubling increase in business closings comes at a bad time for Montreal
More city businesses have been closing than opening over the past year
Although the city of Montreal’s headline GDP increased around 2% for much of 2024, the city's business sector has not been faring well. Data from Statistics Canada shows an ongoing...
Montreal office and industrial sales volumes fall to lowest in four years
City’s drop in transactions follows trend in the rest of Canada
Transaction activity in Montreal’s office and industrial sectors continued to decline in 2024, echoing a trend across Canada.
Ottawa's industrial sector is likely to be more resilient than the rest of Canada
Tenants' local focus should help the city’s industrial sector weather the trade storm
In contrast with other Canadian industrial markets, manufacturing tenants in Ottawa make up only around 15% of occupiers, based on industrial leases signed over the last five years...
Quebec's economy faces heightened risks in volatile US-Canada trade dispute
Trade-related disruptions likely to vary among major provincial cities
Quebec produces a wide array of goods, and its largest city, Montreal, has a diversified manufacturing base across numerous sectors. Nearly 75% of Quebec exports are shipped to the...
Montreal’s aging population has major implications for real estate market
Oldest age cohort forecast to increase rapidly compared to overall population
The oldest age group of Montreal's population is projected to grow the fastest, according to data from the Institut de la statistique du Québec or ISQ, underscoring what will likel...
Small business delinquencies reach highest point on record
Increased uncertainty around U.S. trade and tariff policy poses a new challenge for small businesses
PayNet’s Canadian Small Business Delinquency Index, or CSBDI, shows that more small businesses are behind on their bill payments than during the Great Financial Crisis or the initi...
Quebec’s rent control board allowed rents to increase twice as fast as inflation in 2024
Average permitted rent increases in 2025 expected to be in line with 2024 levels, if not slightly higher
Quebec’s rent control board, known in French as the Tribunal administratif du logement or TAL, recently released the average rent increases it authorized on apartment units subject...
Office vacancy falls as Ottawa tenants fill sublet space in latest buildings
Vacancy rate in newest office properties significantly lower than older structures
A notable trend has emerged in Ottawa’s office market: office buildings constructed in 2010 or later have significantly lower vacancy than older buildings constructed in 2009 or ea...
Even as they slow, retail rent increases in Ottawa continue to outpace inflation
For the first time in years, downtown market outperformed other areas in 2024
Retail rents slowed their annual increase rate from over 6% in 2023 in many Ottawa submarkets to 3.3% in 2024. Unlike recent years, retail rents in the wealthy western submarkets o...
Wave of expiring office leases expected to peak in 2025
After two record-setting years, office lease expirations are set to rise even higher this year
Over the past two years, a record amount of office leases expired in Canada, compounding the sector's challenges. In 2023 and 2024, roughly 15 million square feet of office space c...
Population decline could have significant consequences for Montreal real estate
Montreal’s population estimated to decline by around 50,000 people by 2033
The population of the Regional County Municipality of Montreal, which includes the City of Montreal plus all independent cities on the Island of Montreal, is forecast to decline by...
Top three fastest-growing municipalities in Quebec are in Montreal’s North Shore
Expected ban on agricultural land sales may affect housing affordability in these currently more affordable areas
The three fastest-growing municipalities in the province of Quebec are in Montreal’s North Shore: Mirabel, La Rivière-du-Nord and Montcalm.
Multifamily investors follow renters to lower-cost areas outside downtown Ottawa
West Ottawa, East Central and increasingly Outaouais see increase in apartment sales
Since 2019, the Ottawa suburbs within the East Central and West Ottawa submarkets have attracted more than 45% of all apartment property sales during any given year. This is expect...
Focus of Montreal industrial development has shifted to the South Shore
North Shore, Laval are next most-active areas in adding industrial space
Where the most new industrial space has been added in Montreal over the past few years is something of a tale of two cities. Established, densely populated on-island locations incr...
Nation's construction starts for office and retail property hit nine-year low
Groundbreakings for industrial property drop to pre-pandemic levels
New construction starts across the retail, office and industrial sectors have plummeted to a multi-year low. Elevated construction costs, changing performance fundamentals and incr...
Canadian working-age population increases, but future less rosy
After jump in 2019-2023, working-age population set to slow starting in 2025
Canada’s working-age population, or the 15–64-year-old cohort, has grown by over 1.6% per year on average between 2019 and 2023 across Canadian cities, or census metropolitan areas...
Smaller cities attracted working-age Quebeckers between 2019-2023
Sherbrooke saw fastest growth in 15-64 age cohort
The Montreal census metropolitan area, or CMA, saw its working-age population, defined as the 15 to 64 age cohort, grow by roughly 83,600 persons between 2019 and 2023, or plus-0.7...
Ottawa investible commercial real estate universe continues to grow
Growth across sectors except for office, where aggregate values down 20% compared to 2019
Prior to the pandemic, in 2019, the aggregate size of Ottawa-Gatineau’s office and apartment sectors were roughly equal, at around $25 billion each. Retail stood at $22.5 billion, ...
Quebec’s immigration numbers at risk of declining further than forecast
Government’s decision to review future immigration targets could lead to lower population growth
Based on recent estimates, the government looks set to welcome around 59,000 permanent residents this year and up to 67,000 next year. While these levels are in line with Statistic...
The Port of Montreal strike could stoke demand for extra industrial space
Extended strike would have negative consequences for provincial, national economies
The Port of Montreal's shutdown of most operations for an indefinite period on the evening of Nov. 10 followed the longshoreman’s unit and the Maritime Employers Association, or ME...