In Montreal, the rental housing market is well regulated and developed. The process of selling or buying real estate is associated with many difficulties and details, and such transactions almost never happen without realtors’ assistance. As for renting apartments, it is a much easier process.
Conventionally, this can be illustrated like this:
The realtor takes on all the work related to finding tenants, drawing up an agreement and concluding a deal. A professional real estate agent carefully and scrupulously studies the solvency of future tenants, finds out credit histories, place of work, average income, etc.
Professional recommendations will help you do everything right. I have prepared a short guide for you. From the instructions below you will learn which notice boards you should choose if you decide to rent or rent out real estate without the any realtor’s support.
I recommend this service for a reason. Firstly, the site is absolutely free and any individual or company can place advertisements for housing of any category here. Next, you will find services for Montreal renters on Facebook Marketplace. This is a very convenient option, because thanks to it you do not have to shop till you drop looking for furniture and household appliances for a rented house or apartment.
According to statistics, 2/3 of landlords place advertisements for renting apartments on this platform. But not only private individuals place their offers for rental properties. Here you will find hundreds of properties located in Montreal from companies managing thousands of apartments.
How can you become a user of the platform and have access to fresh advertisements? Nothing could be easier – just create a profile on a social network and subscribe to the Facebook Marketplace group.
The peak popularity of this resource for finding housing for rent was in 2005 and later. Today, many announcements of this site are also duplicated on the Facebook Marketplace. The site is especially in demand among the older generation. 10-15 years ago, many landlords used the resource to rent out properties, and today many of them continue to work with Kijiji.
This option is suitable for those who prefer to choose immediately, seeing the property in front of their eyes. Not everyone likes surfing the Internet, studying platforms and reading reviews from other customers. Searching for housing on your own is when you decide on an area of the city where you would like to rent an apartment or house and go straight there.
There, walking along the avenues and alleys, you will probably come across advertisements for rooms and apartments for rent. Here the homeowners indicate their phone number. This search format is usually very fast and effective. You can find an apartment in a few days or even hours, but here you will need to spend a lot of time walking.
When renting housing in Quebec, you need to take into account the classification of apartments by the number of rooms. Here the total number of rooms in the apartment, not the number of bedrooms, is counted. This means that the advertisement for housing will indicate the number of rooms, including a kitchen area and a bathroom (the latter comes as half – 1/2). In more detail it looks like this:
The owner (lessor) sets the conditions for renting out an apartment. If the tenant agrees with the requirements of the homeowners, a lease agreement is concluded. Basic conditions are official employment of the person and a good credit history. Some landlords place restrictions on pets.
As soon as a verbal agreement is reached between the two parties and the tenant confirms his financial solvency and provides the necessary documents; the rental agreement is signed. The document records all previously agreed upon details: the amount of monthly rent, a breakdown of paid services, residents’ responsibility in the event of a breakdown of the landlord’s property, methods and terms for paying monthly payments.
In Quebec, the standard annuity length is 12 months.
A bad credit history or no credit history are not the most favorable circumstances for those who want to rent an apartment. However, this does not mean that renting an apartment in Montreal without official employment or a credit history is completely impossible.
Here everything will depend on the ability to come to an agreement with the landlord. And in many situations, homeowners will accommodate those wishing to rent a home if all clauses of the rental agreement are fully complied with. Simply put, you can rent an apartment in Montreal successfully without any credit history or a job if you can provide the landlord with other guarantees of solvency.
The most common option to prove solvency without official employment is to pay several months in advance.
Another option is to rent an apartment that has been on the market for a long time, but no one has rented it for various reasons. In this case, clients can even sign a rental agreement without prepayments.
A unique feature of the real estate market in Quebec is its peculiar binding to July 1st. Many property owners prefer to enter into lease agreements starting from this date, especially when it comes to long-term leases.
Thus, it turns out that July 1st is the biggest moving day in Quebec. On this day, old residents traditionally leave, and new ones move into houses and apartments.
You can even rent an apartment from October or November, but be prepared for the fact that the landlord will offer you a contract for more than 12 months (for example, 20-21 months), so that the contract ends on June 30.
The tradition of a new annuity agreement from July 1 is beneficial to all parties. Judge for yourself – when the time comes to move out of the apartment, tenants will have a huge choice of housing, which will be released by the beginning of July. This is also interesting for landlords, because the demand for apartments increases sharply at this time.
Most residential properties are actually put on the real estate market in July. However, an apartment can be rented in Quebec at any other time.
Throughout the year, landlords can put new apartments on the real estate market. Real estate transactions happen all the time. Some people buy apartments, others sell because they are moving to another place, and so on. Demand and supply for rentals are always relevant. There are always enough apartments for rent on the market at any time of the year for everyone.
If you want to know all the details about how to rent an apartment or house, I am at your service. I will answer all your questions and help you decide on the best house or apartment for rent. Write to me in instant messengers, or leave a request on the website.
