New Leases

Downtown Montreal retains its appeal, but the current trend is toward shorter leases and smaller offices. Interviews with rental brokers concentrating on downtown Montreal office space gave us a front-row view of trends in the office real-estate sector. Their observations couldn’t be clearer : there’s no reason to fear a mass exodus from the downtown core as companies are keen to stay there :

• Lease renewals : 53%
• New leases : 28%
• Lease transfers : 19%

Housing starts

The residential sector has encouraging news for downtown Montreal. Sales of new and existing condos have bounced back since the dramatic drop during the second quarter of 2020. Montreal is as seductive as ever ! And for the housing starts market, downtown is still active as you can see with data below :

Student’s come back

The return of CEGEP and university students to downtown Montreal has been one of the most encouraging events in the past few months. The impact of in-person classes on the city is felt everywhere – in restaurants, public places, buses and the Métro.

Montreal’s academic hub has finally reconnected with one of its most enduring qualities !

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