Ah, Montreal rent. Paying rent is a pain point for many of us, especially when it takes up such a huge chunk of our monthly budget. Finding an affordable apartment in a good neighbourhood—with perks like modern fixtures and free parking—feels like hitting the jackpot. But in Montreal, that's becoming tougher as rental prices just keep increasing.
While rental costs have dropped in cities like Toronto and Vancouver over the past three months, Montreal landlords apparently didn't get the memo.
According to liv.rent's September 2024 report, rental prices in Montreal have been climbing all summer and show no signs of slowing down for the fall. In fact, the average city rent is up by $96 for an unfurnished, one-bedroom unit compared to this time last year.
Here are the stats and facts you need to know before you go apartment hunting in September/October 2024.
Some neighbourhoods are way cheaper than others
We all know the three most important factors in a property's value are location, location, and location. Apparently, this is even true when renting an apartment. The price gap between different neighbourhoods in Montreal has been getting wider for months, and this summer was no exception.
Liv. rent's report shows a huge price gap of $521 per month between Montreal's most and least expensive neighbourhoods for an unfurnished one-bedroom apartment.
Unsurprisingly, Westmount is the priciest, with an average rent of $1,944 per month, followed closely by Verdun at $1,964 and Downtown at $1,917. The Plateau-Mont-Royal is next, averaging $1,838.
Fortunately, there are more affordable options in Montreal compared to The Plateau. Villeray-Parc-Extension has the cheapest one-bedroom rentals, averaging $1,423 per month, and it’s one of the few neighbourhoods where rent prices have actually dropped since August 2024.
Saint-Laurent is the next most affordable area, with unfurnished one-bedrooms going for $1,555 per month in this West Island neighbourhood.
Ahuntsic-Cartierville and Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (seriously, we have to do something as a society about these hyphenations) are tied for the next-most affordable places to nab an unfurnished one-bedroom apartment, with both neighbourhoods averaging $1,564 per month. They're a bit of a mouthful to say, but they’re still solid choices if you’re looking to save on rent.
It might be worth checking out furnished apartments
Furnished apartments are seeing a decrease in price month-over-month as unfurnished apartment rental prices are on the rise, meaning the price gap between the two continues to get narrower. In some neighbourhoods, it's could be even cheaper to rent a furnished apartment than an unfurnished one!
The starkest price difference can be found in Verdun, where furnished one-bedroom units ($1,673 per month) are nearly $300 cheaper than their unfurnished counterparts ($1,964 per month). On average, it's also cheaper to not bring your own couch in The Plateau-Mont-Royal and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.
Living with roommates is still the cheapest option
Particularly in more expensive areas, it's far more cost-effective to split the rent on a larger apartment than to rent a smaller one alone.
In Westmount, for example, it would cost a single person $1,944 per month for an unfurnished one-bedroom unit. But a three-bedroom unit in Westmount would cost three roommates $1,128 each per month ($3,383 total). That's over $830 of savings that could be put towards an emergency fund or retirement investments. Or, you know, groceries.
This is best done, of course, combined with strategically choosing a cheap neighbourhood. According to the available data, the cheapest arrangement in September 2024 would be to live with two or more roommates in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, costing each tenant an average $685 in rent per month... suddenly that one-bedroom in Westmount sounds ridiculous.
The good news is that this data is limited
The thing to consider with Liv.rent's data is that it is pulled from multiple rental websites, and doesn't include individual rooms for rent. What's more, it's taking the average rent prices being listed online - not the actual prices people are paying.
This means that it's possible to find more affordable living arrangements than this data may suggest. Renting a room in someone's house, for example, or moving into a bedroom in an apartment where the lease was signed in a more renter-friendly time are both ways to help cut down expenses.
Good luck out there, Montreal. You might just need it!
