How Much Rent Can You Afford in Montréal?

The widest gap of any Canadian city

Nowhere else in the country do the two rent averages diverge this far. Montréal’s occupied two-bedroom average is $1,346; its asking average is $1,900. That is $554, or 41.2%.

The cause is a combination Montréal has more of than anywhere else: very low turnover at 9.4%, a large stock of older rent-regulated units, and a long tradition of tenants staying put.

It means Montréal’s reputation as an affordable city is true of people who already live here and increasingly untrue of anyone arriving.

Québec’s rent regime works differently

Québec does not set a single province-wide cap the way Ontario does. The Tribunal administratif du logement publishes annual guidance and either party can contest a proposed increase before it.

The practical effect is similar to a cap for tenants who know their rights and stay, and non-existent for units between tenancies. That asymmetry is what the 41% gap is measuring.

It also means a new tenant’s starting rent is largely unconstrained, even though their subsequent increases will be.

Thirty-nine zones, and most of the island is still under $1,500

Montréal is the only large Canadian city where the neighbourhood table is mostly good news. Of 39 CMHC survey zones, only downtown and Île-des-Sœurs break $2,000 for a two-bedroom ($2,092). Anjou/Saint-Léonard is $1,119, Montréal-Nord $1,126, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve $1,314 — all on the island, all on the métro or a short bus from it.

The catch is in the vacancy column. Montréal-Nord is at 0.7%, Saint-Jérôme 0.8%, Iberville 0.6%. The cheap zones are cheap because sitting tenants are paying rents set years ago under a lease-renewal regime that makes moving expensive, and the units simply do not come free.

CMHC Rental Market Survey, October 2025, survey zones, row and apartment units. A dash is a cell CMHC suppressed for sample size. Zone averages include row houses, so they can differ by a few dollars from the apartment-only citywide figures quoted above.

The surveyed average also hides the July 1 problem. Because most Québec leases still end on the same day, the asking market clears once a year, and the $1,900 a newcomer is quoted for a two-bedroom is what that one-day market produced — $554 above the $1,346 sitting average, the widest gap in the country.

A city of renters that is, on average, not overstretched

• 46%of households rent
• 27.9%of renters spend 30%+ on shelter
• $76,000median household income (2020)
• 7.8%of renters in subsidized housing

46% of Montréal households rent — the highest share of any city on this site by a distance — yet only 27.9% of them spend 30% or more of income on shelter, the second-lowest figure of the sixteen. Only Québec City does better.

Both facts come from the same place: decades of renewal rights and a rent-fixing tribunal kept sitting rents low for a very large tenant class, on a median household income of $76,000 that is among the lowest here. The people that system does not protect are the ones the calculator is for — anyone signing a new lease this year.

Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population, Census Profile, Montréal census metropolitan area. 837,475 renter households out of 1,835,705.

Still the cheapest big city, even at asking rents

The gap is startling, but the absolute numbers remain the lowest of any large Canadian market. A Montréal two-bedroom at $1,900 asking is $760 below Toronto and $1,200 below Vancouver.

Vacancy is tight at 2.9%, and asking rents are down only 1.6% year over year — a much shallower decline than Calgary or Vancouver.

The cheapest large market, even after the gap

The 41% gap is the widest in Canada, and Montréal still comes out cheapest. At $1,900 asking for a two-bedroom it is $760 below Toronto, $1,200 below Vancouver and $450 below Ottawa.

Only Québec City, at $1,430, and Edmonton, at $1,580, ask less among the centres surveyed.

Required income at the 30% standard is about $76,000 a year — roughly $30,000 less than Toronto demands for the same number of rooms. For anyone weighing a move between the two, that difference is larger than most salary adjustments.

Québec City makes an instructive comparison within the same province: its gap is 12.0% against Montréal’s 41.2%, on turnover of 13.0% against 9.4%. Same rules, different tenure patterns, very different outcomes.

Where Montréal rents are heading

Montréal asking rents are down just 1.6% year over year — one of the shallower declines nationally, against 4.5% in Vancouver and Calgary.

Vacancy is 2.9%, tighter than Toronto, Vancouver or Calgary. Montréal is not experiencing the loosening that Alberta is.

Within Québec the pattern is uneven: Côte Saint-Luc has seen asking rents fall 12.9% and Longueuil 10.9%, both far steeper than the island average. City-wide figures conceal a good deal of variation between boroughs and suburbs.

Québec has no cap, and a refusal right instead

Increase cap

None — TAL recommends 3.1% for renewals from 2 April 2026A recommendation, not a ceiling. A tenant may refuse a proposed increase; the landlord must then apply to the TAL to have the rent fixed.

Deposit

None — landlords may not demand a deposit

Notice

Three to six months before the lease ends

Disputes

Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL)

The TAL’s 3.1% figure for 2026 renewals is a recommendation. On a $1,346 sitting two-bedroom that is about $42; on the $1,900 asking rent, $59. A tenant who thinks a proposed increase is too high refuses it in writing within a month and stays; the landlord then has to ask the tribunal to fix the rent. And no deposit of any kind may be demanded — first month’s rent is the whole up-front cost, which changes the move-in maths more than the rent does.