Earlier this month, multiple Canadian ministers and Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante announced that the governments would collaborate to fund new low-income housing for students in Montreal.
The 123-unit development, named La Rose des vents, will be a six-storey building located in the Technopôle Angus eco-district in Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie.
The building will include commercial space, a social community space on the first floor for tenants and neighbourhood residents to gather, paid laundry facilities, bicycle parking, and a bulletin board area.
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What's an "eco-district"?
The Technopôle Angus eco-district is a neighbourhood in Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie featuring 895,000 square feet of housing, offices, public space and green space — all "designed according to the most stringent planning and environmental standards," according to the website.
The new student housing project will be part of an "energy loop" with the other buildings in the green neighbourhood, reducing the entire neighbourhood's drinking water and energy usage.
How much will the units cost?
David Harris, media relations officer for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), told MTL Blog that the building will hold 87 studios, 32 two-bedroom apartments and two three-bedroom units.
Thirty-seven of the building's 123 units will be rented at 78% of the median rent in the area, and affordability will be maintained for at least 20 years.
Using the CHMC's median of rental prices, the median rent for a studio apartment in the area is $600.
Harris said that the lowest-priced 37 units will be priced at approximately $580 per month.
Élise Tanguay, public relations rep for UTILE, told MTL Blog the remaining studios will be priced at $735.
Two-bedroom units will be priced at $1,150 monthly, while both apartments with three bedrooms will cost $1,750 monthly.
Who can rent the units and when?
Tanguay told MTL Blog that UTILE's objective is to rent the units exclusively to students — if the organization is unable to do that, they will expand to non-students.
"But regarding the huge demand for student housing, we think that we will have no problem renting all the apartments to students," Tanguay said.
The units are expected to be rentable by summer 2022.