Montreal’s housing market ended 2025 on a softer note even as the full year showed clear gains in sales and prices, underscoring the delicate balance facing brokers, lenders and borrowers in Quebec’s largest metro.
According to the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB), Montreal-area home sales fell on a year-over-year basis in December, despite more activity overall for the region in 2025.
The board reported that 2,831 properties changed hands in the Montreal census metropolitan area in December, down 10% from 3,145 a year earlier, even as annual sales for 2025 came in higher than in 2024.
At the same time, sales were 7.7% higher overall for the year as a whole, as median prices also rose across each housing type.
Listings, prices and December’s pullback
On the supply side, the board said new listings totalled 2,529 for December, down 5% year-over-year, but rose 9.4% overall in 2025.
Median home prices were reported higher across all categories in December, led by a 7.8% increase for a single-family home to $625,000. The median price of a plex rose to $830,000 year-over-year in December (4.1%), while the median price of a condominium increased to $425,000 (1.4%).
Earlier in the year, Montreal’s residential real estate market saw a sharp uptick in September, with sales across the census metropolitan area (CMA) rising 11% year-over-year to 3,520 transactions. That momentum, combined with rate cuts from the Bank of Canada, helped underpin demand even as borrowing costs remained elevated by historical standards; the central bank’s policy rate, which had peaked at 5.0% in mid‑2023, had dropped to 2.75% by March 2025.
Affordability strain stayed front and centre
The improvement in volumes did little to ease affordability pressures. A recent QPAREB study found that the share of after-tax family income devoted to monthly mortgage payments has more than doubled at the provincial level, rising from 15% to 32%.
“Montreal families now allocate nearly 48% of their income to mortgage payments,” the study added. “Current conditions leave little hope for a rapid improvement in affordability,” said Charles Brant, QPAREB’s market analysis director.
For mortgage professionals, the 2025 figures highlights a market where lower rates and rising sales meet persistent income and price constraints.
As Hélène Bégin, QPAREB senior economist, previously said, “A family’s financial ability to become a homeowner in their region depends largely on their disposable income, which must be sufficient to cover mortgage payments.”
In Montreal, 2025 closed as another year in which buyers did more deals, but only by stretching harder to make them work.
CMP
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