Faced with a boiling Real estate market, Quebec City wants to hit a big blow. Its family access program will soon be improved to allow the purchase of more expensive houses, whether new or existing.
If you really want to promote access to property for families, you have to give them a potential home basin to buy
pleads the advisor responsible for the housing at the executive committee of the city of Quebec, Marie-Pierre Boucher.
From next month, the maximum value of properties eligible to a loan subsidized by the city will drop from $ 370,000 to $ 440,000.
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Marie-Pierre Boucher, Councilor of the Louis-XIV district and housing head to the executive committee. (Archives photo)
Photo : Radio-Canada / Xavier Gagnon
For the first time since the launch of Access Famille, in 2015, buyers will not be limited to the new market, but will also be able to opt for an existing house.
It is unique in the province. Quebec City is the only one to make a family loan to allow them to buy a house.
The city is given a year to assess the impact of new measures.
We prioritize our families
Marie-Pierre Boucher believes that the measures announced are necessary to preserve the affordable character of the Quebec real estate market.
Since the beginning of the year, the value of properties has increased faster in the capital than anywhere else in the country.
We prioritize our families. We find it important that our families find a roof, but also a living environment
she explains.
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The Access Family program will soon be extended to existing properties. (Archives photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / Bruno Giguère
To help a larger share of the population, the maximum salary of households eligible for a grant will drop from $ 150,000 to $ 165,000.
The interest -free loan offered by the city can reach 5.5 % of the value of the properties registered in the program.
For example, a couple who pays their house $ 440,000, the maximum amount planned by family access, can benefit from a loan of $ 24,200. This sum will be refundable to the city at the time of resale of the property.
Mixed welcome from promoters
If the real estate environment welcomes the increase in the value of the property eligible for family access, the opening of the program to existing houses is far from consensus.
The biggest problem is that it will accentuate the rarity
Gabriel Pomerleau, broker at Via Capitale.
According to him, leading new buyers to the existing market is likely to feed the bidding phenomenon which returns in force in Quebec, due to the small number of registrations on the territory.
We should rather try to fill the lack of properties
deplores Gabriel Pomerleau. Access family is a great program to do that.
A loss of speed initiative
Certainly, from the pandemic, fewer and fewer households take advantage of family access to buy a property in Quebec.
Between 2020 and 2023, the taking of possession linked to the program plunged by 64 %.
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According to the city, the low number of transactions completed through family access since the start of the year justifies the changes to the program.
Marie-Pierre Boucher recalls that a young household who becomes a owner often frees an apartment in a context of housing shortage in Quebec.
