Montreal's Average Rent Dropped — Here's What That Means (& How We Compare To Toronto)
Now that moving day has come and gone, folks may be settling into their new homes and beginning to grumble about the cost of rent, which feels like it's been increasing for years. And it has! But on the month-to-month scale, that trend seems fuzzier.
A decline, but only short-term
According to housing data analysis performed by liv.rent, the average rent in Montreal has been decreasing slightly for the past two months. Between July 2023 and August 2023, the average rent for an unfurnished one-bedroom apartment fell by $86 to $1,587 monthly. That may sound promising, but the average rent is still $80 higher than it was this time last year, according to liv.rent's data.
So, which neighbourhoods have been feeling that crunch the most?
Most expensive Montreal neighbourhoods
The most expensive neighbourhood for the standard unit type — an unfurnished one-bedroom — in August was the Plateau, where rents have been consistently high for years. Westmount and downtown, two other areas often sitting at the top of the rent hierarchy, followed close behind the Plateau in August. In Westmount, the same standard unit type cost an average of $1,699, while the average downtown sat at $1,708.
The Plateau, for context, cost an average of $1,747 for that same unit type.
Montreal's cheapest neighbourhoods
Montreal's falling rent trend held for nearly every neighbourhood except longtime low-rent haven Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, where the price for a standard unit rose to $1,452 — still less than $1,500, miles away from Toronto's average rent. It's still not the cheapest, though. That honour belongs to Saint-Laurent, where the standard unit is going for an average of $1,411.
Not all units are the same, either — when comparing furnished and unfurnished one-bedroom units, the former is approximately $163 more expensive than the latter across the city, liv.rent found.
How Montreal compares to Toronto and elsewhere
Let's keep things in perspective, though — in the GTA, every municipality except Vaughan-Richmond Hill saw average rents of over $2,000 monthly for unfurnished one-bedroom apartments. And even in that case, the average rent was $1,902 — not much better than a full $2k. Downtown Toronto's average one-bedroom costs nearly $3,000, too, more than double Montreal's cheapest neighbourhood.
In Vancouver, the lowest rent average is $1,970, worse than even Toronto, but certainly far above Montreal's highest-costing neighbourhood.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
