As Brossard's home prices keep rising, challenges mount for first-time buyers

Sasha Konjkave and his girlfriend started house-hunting about two months ago, wanting an upgrade from their condo in Brossard, Que.

The couple wanted to stay in the city on Montreal's South Shore, but given the hot housing market, they also set their sights on neighbouring areas.

They ended up buying a house in nearby Saint-Hubert for $540,000.

"Brossard was way too expensive," Konjkave said. "For the same property in Brossard, we may have had to pay maybe $600,000 or $700,000."

Aside from high price tags, the couple encountered another increasingly common residential real estate reality: bidding wars.

"[A listing] comes out, and you have to call them as quickly as possible, because they're booking, maybe, the Friday, Saturday and Sunday to do the visits," Konjkave said. "It's all 15 minute blocks, and it's full from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening."

Brossard's real estate market is seeing a drop in listings, coupled with a price increase that's among the highest in the province.

The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB) groups Brossard and Saint-Lambert together in its quarterly reports.

The most recent figures show the area's median single-family home price over the last 12 months ($658,500) was still lower than on the island of Montreal ($685,000).

But in the last five years, the median price here jumped by 80 per cent — compared to a 67 per cent rise in Montreal.

"The market is really, really tight — and is overheating, actually — and we can see that there's a shortage of inventory," said Charles Brant, the QPAREB's market analysis director. "It creates some bidding wars, and it drives rapid acceleration of the prices."

Brant points to an exodus from the island of Montreal in recent years, along with infrastructure investments and the arrival of the Réseau express métropolitain light-rail network in Brossard.

Real estate broker Jessica Tam says she still has buyers from Montreal who can get a larger property in Brossard with the same budget.

But she points out that the city's hot housing market makes it harder for some first-time home buyers to find something here.