Bidding wars infiltrate Montreal’s rental market amid housing shortage

The housing shortage in Montreal is creating a bidding war for rentals across the island.

Thalita Costa de Moraes says she and her husband spend hours online every day, hoping to find a home for their growing family.

She says the process goes far beyond just making an offer.

“Write a letter, explain why you want to live here, tell the landlord about your family,” she explains.

All the same, the family says they’ve been turned down three times – despite at one point offering $550 a month extra.

The winning bid? $800 over asking.

“We didn’t know how much more we should offer because of course we wanted to get the house, but we’re not going to offer twice as much money,” she said.

Real estate broker Mark André Martel explains the problem is there just aren’t enough units to go around.

“In cases when there is more demand...there’ll be multiple offers and be competition,” he explained.

Last year saw a boost in construction, including a 19 per cent increase in Greater Montreal.

The Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) says there are currently 16,400 new units.

But there is still a shortage.

Giacomo Ladas from rentals.com says the market is stagnant.

“Montreal is a very tight rental market,” he said. “Vacancy rates are low, turnover rates are low, they’re not moving as much as they used to.”

He says high costs and red tape are slowing down new builds, and the new units that do go up are often not what renters are looking for.

“No one wants to buy a condo right now and these developers are now forced to rent them out, a lot of times at a loss, just to move them,” he said.

To attract new tenants, Ladas says developers are sometimes throwing in perks, like free internet of months of free rent.

All the same, he says affordable rentals remain the biggest issue.

The CMM estimates the region needs 3,000 new social and affordable units every year for the next decade.