Real Estate and the Pandemic: Quebec City’s Market Well Positioned to Recover

The Quebec City real estate market is well positioned to recover from the economic damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Royal LePage House Price and Market Forecast Study.

The large size of the public sector in the region (government services), jobs from Laval University and the local health system have a positive effect on the market, which historically remains relatively more stable than other markets in the province, the study notes.

Royal LePage experts for the Quebec City region therefore estimate that “the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local economy and house prices will be less pronounced than elsewhere in the province.”

Prices stable in the first quarter

It should be noted that for the first quarter of 2020 — before pandemic measures reached the province — house prices remained stable in Quebec City: the median price of two-storey houses, single-storey houses and condominiums combined reached $299,897, a very small increase of 0.1% over the same period last year.

“Despite the pandemic, sales activity remained significantly higher than in the first quarter of 2019, increasing by 32.8%,” the Royal LePage study notes and the real estate agent William Gaudreault also confirms.

Separately, the median price of two-storey homes in the Quebec City area increased slightly by 0.5% over the first quarter of 2019, to $360,648. Single-storey homes increased 1.3% to the median price of $276,853. As for condos, the price change represents a 3.6% decrease compared to the same period last year, while the median price is now $233,618.