Buying a condo is more complicated than choosing an apartment to rent. How do you successfully complete this project and ensure that you have acquired a profitable investment? Here are five useful guidelines from habiter.com.

1. Buy in the right location. Where do you want your condo to be in Montréal? On the Plateau, in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, or Old Montréal –  which will soon be the residential district of choice – southwest Montréal, or downtown? In addition to the cost of your future home, this factor is essential to consider before you start looking.

2. Put your trust in a reliable builder. A reputable and sound real estate developer is unlikely to leave you “up the creek” before completing the work. Also, its reputation and the quality of its construction will help maintain your resale value.

3. Consider more than just your apartment alone. When you buy a condo you are also buying part of the building: the corridors, elevators and everything else belong to you in a proportion corresponding to your percentage of occupation of the building. These parts of the building are known as “common property.” Are they well constructed? Will they need a lot of maintenance?

4. Consider condo fees as an investment. Instead of looking for the lowest fees, find out instead how they will be invested: careful maintenance, establishment of a reserve fund, good services, etc., and also ask who will be responsible for managing these amounts. Is it a private firm or will you have to be get involved?

5. Gain an understanding of life in a co-ownership. Despite the fact that your condo was handed over to you in a turnkey transaction, this does not mean that after taking possession you need only think about your own four walls. In addition to your own apartment you are a co owner, with others, of an entire building, and this has certain implications: you are living “in common” with those other individuals, which is very different from apartment living.

For all our articles, visit www.habiter.com .

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The Montréal condominium market has never run out of steam in any major way: this is one more proof that it is a prime investment sector. While returns on mutual funds and stock market investments have been declining since October 2008, real estate is becoming a safer hedge than ever before.

How can investors protect themselves from the bleak economic outlook and poor returns? By opting for real estate and, above all, by paying special attention to the location or district in which to invest.

Neighbourhoods “on the way up” like Rosemont-La Petite Patrie, the western part of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce or, even better, Old Montréal and locations close to the Bonaventure Expressway – the location of new construction like the M9 project – will enable shrewd investors to shelter their capital from many crashes.

Given the ever increasing standards of consumer demand, real estate companies like Développement McGill are offering top-of-the-line condos in contemporary designs. As well, “green” projects are gradually making progress in the residential sector. Examples are the Square Benny condos and La Tohu’s Pavilion representing the architecture of the city itself.

In short, as we often hear, the construction sector is the backbone of our economy, and real estate does in fact seem key to renewal of economic confidence.

For all our articles, visit http://www.habiter.com/en/

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As numbers of residents and workers take off, Old Montréal has become an ideal place to set up service and neighbourhood businesses. If you’re thinking about establishing a business, what are you waiting for?
Redevelopment of this neighbourhood, launched with creation of the Multimédia District a decade ago, is now continuing with many high-end residential projects, such as the M9 project,  777 Gosford Street and Orléans, steps from the Notre-Dame Basilica, that offer an affluent clientele a wide choice of top-of-the-line modern apartments.

All the experts will tell you that – as the Americans say – location, location, location is key to the success of any service or retail business. Old Montréal has many real estate and condo projects and people moving into the area need these businesses.

And what do the new residents of this fast-growing district want ? Services, amenities, in a word businesses meeting their needs. And on top there are workers and business people in leading-edge industries – communications, media, advertising, design, new technologies – photographers’ studios, production and movie companies that all help to make Old Montréal the place to be in the 2010s.

At the same time, all of the businesses now investing in this district – retailers of all kinds, food and neighbourhood businesses, convenience stores and other service businesses – will be in the forefront of this district that is still taking shape.

Given the impending transformation of the Bonaventure Expressway to an urban boulevard, with the initial phase announced in June 2009 (a project as large as the Quartier international de Montréal), and redevelopment of the Brennan, Duke and  Wellington street areas, there are wide-open opportunities for many types of businesses and companies.

Opting to do business in this new district will provide you with a strong basis for success. Your imagination and business smarts will do the rest!

For all our articles, visit http://www.habiter.com/en/

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People buying condos in Montréal are not always the young “in” folks we see in the ads. Often, they are 50 and up, representing key new players in city living.

In Old Montréal and elsewhere downtown, whether we are talking about lofts or traditional condos, many clients of the real estate industry are couples or singles already retired or about to make this transition.

Several factors account for the attraction, from the perspective of the half-century generation, of condo urban life in Montréal.

– Suburban living no longer meets their needs. Recreation activities focusing on young families, neighbourhoods deserted from 9 to 5: suburban baby boomers are simply bored.

- In fact, new needs are being felt by people aging in the 21st century. Those who reach their 55th  birthday (or more) nowadays are still fully active in sports, recreation, travel and the world of work. Baby boomers can look forward to another 20 years or so of active existence, and they are planning to make the most of this time of their life with a condo in Montréal.

– Services nearby: live entertainment venues, boutiques, hospitals, restaurants, movie theatres: if you live in a suburb they can be reached only by automobile, but these amenities are within walking distance downtown – a big plus for baby boomers ready to move there.

–  An active social life. Single, widowed or divorced baby boomers living alone often move back downtown to end their isolation, socialize and create a new network of friends.

Conclusion: for this generation of Canadians in the mood to say goodbye to the swimming pool, the lawn mower and all the maintenance associated with a house that became too big for them after the children left home, life begins at 50 – or later!

And to meet the needs of this demanding and fairly well-heeled clientele, there are lots of contemporary style real estate projects and apartments!

For all our articles, visit http://www.habiter.com/en/

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Between Griffintown and the Peel Basin, the little streets making up Montréal’s old industrial heart are looking forward to a wonderful future with the impending redevelopment of the Bonaventure Expressway. This is a real wake-up call for investors!

Buying a condo or setting up your business before the work gets under way could be a very lucrative investment.

Following redevelopment of the Peel Basin and creation of the Quartier international just west of the Faubourg-des-Récollets, urban planners are now targeting the Bonaventure Expressway. This is great news, since Montréal’s busiest access route deserves better than the concrete pillars of this section dating back to Expo 67.

For condo buyers as well as Montréal real estate developers, the neighbourhood around the Bonaventure Expressway is already creating tremendous interest.

How will our familiar old expressway be transformed? If the project goes ahead as planned, it will become an urban boulevard, a bit like McGill College Avenue or the area around the Quartier international. New buildings, boutiques and stores and a whole downtown community will be born. Residents and business owners will enjoy new green spaces and pathways as well as new transit routes, all part of the development launched by La Société du Havre.

The Quartier international and Multimédia District are close by and outstanding architects have already produced designs reflecting Montréal’s flair and creative genius, such as the Cognicase Building, Duke Street, the Autodesk building and de la Commune Street, and successful new residential and commercial projects like M9 by Sid Lee Architecture, on the corner of Prince and Wellington streets.

Further clues that should spur investors: fine restaurants whose reputations are spreading by word of mouth, fashion and design boutiques attracting sophisticated Montrealers of all ages, whose addresses are still unfamiliar but will become well known  –  all are being drawn to this district.

For investors as well as individuals looking for a condo in Montréal, the future Bonaventure boulevard as well as Brennan, Duke, Queen and Wellington streets and the surrounding area are a district you must explore…so don’t wait any longer!

For all our articles, visit http://www.habiter.com/en/

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After the boom resulting from development of the Multimédia District, Old Montréal is now going through a housing boom and has gained the status of a city neighbourhood leading every trend. Buying here is a really good deal in many ways.

Old Montréal is bubbling with life. Following the advent of the Quartier international and several upmarket hotels – Le St-James, Place d’Armes, Intercontinental, Gault, to name but a few – it has benefited from a real facelift, but without losing an ounce of its architectural appeal.

Old Montréal is now more than a Canadian tourism showplace: it has become a model of the art of city living. It should be high on the list of anyone looking for a condo in Montréal – for several reasons:

• The historical value of its buildings. As well as ensuring that your condo will keep its value and even appreciate, this character also impacts on new construction, since not just anything at all can be built in the “Old Town”: architectural quality is a basic criterion that developers have to meet.

• A trendy place: Leading fashion designers’ boutiques, as well as wine bars like Aszú and fine restaurants – Le Local, Grange vin et bouffe, etc., – and high-class snack bars like Le Cartet and Olive et Gourmando can be found in the neighbourhood. You are within walking distance of the best places to eat in Montréal.

• Quality of life. Close the door of your new home and walk around the Old Port, drop in to see a movie at the Imax, take in the Musée Pointe-à-Callière, or explore the Lachine Canal cycle path…whether you own a bike or not, since Bixi stations are just steps away.

• A new class of “tuned-in” city dwellers. People like you are choosing Old Montréal as a destination for their return to downtown after years living in the suburbs, and as a way to hook up with Montrealers who have come from all parts of Europe and elsewhere, are retired or work downtown and…walk there.

The district is still changing and growing ever livelier: it will be the place to live during the 2010s. Will you be one of those people?

For all our articles, visit http://www.habiter.com/en/

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Since it was announced slightly more than a year ago, Phase 2 of the project (there will be 4 phases in all) has earned kudos for its dynamic, avant-garde architecture, designed by Sid Lee Architecture (formerly knowned as Nomade). Buyers have clearly been impressed by the quality of the plan: 34 units have already been sold, even before the sod-turning ceremony. Residential and commercial units are still up for sale.

For more information on the project, call 514 947-5597 and visit Développement McGill
or Montreal Condo Projects M9.

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