Greater Montreal Area posts record home sales in May, up 15 per cent from 2016
MONTREAL — A record number of homes were sold in the Montreal area last month, the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board said Tuesday amid concerns that a foreign buyers’ tax in Toronto could be having a spillover effect on Canada’s second-largest city.
There were 5,057 properties sold in May, a new high for that month and up 15 per cent from a year ago, driven by a hot condo market.
Some real estate market watchers have wondered whether a 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers in the Golden Horseshoe region, which encompasses the Greater Toronto Area, would drive sales in Montreal.
Paul Cardinal of the Quebec Federation of Real Estate Boards said it’s too soon to say whether the tax, which was passed by the Ontario government last month and made retroactive to April 21, would have had any impact on transactions.