According to data collected by the Québec International agency, the average annual salary in the Old Capital is $64,000.
However, the average price of a house in Quebec is $405,000, indicates Ratehub.ca.
The mortgage site adds that to avoid having mortgage payments represent more than 40% of income, one would instead need an annual salary of $88,000 to own a home.
Quebec City’s semi-detached homes – available at an average price of $335,000 according to Ratehub – would also be too expensive for the average worker. You’d need an annual income of $75,000 to avoid being squeezed.
What about condos?
The only option on the real estate market for a salary of $64,000 would remain a condo, whose average price is $250,000.
A salary of $60,000 could “theoretically” be enough, RateHub mentions, but that would represent a considerable percentage of annual income.
And the rents?
Apartment prices have exploded since the pandemic in the National Capital. According to Kijiji, which calculates housing rents in Quebec City, the average monthly rent would have increased by $395 per month in just four years, going from $800 in 2020 to $1,195 in June 2024.
Current rent would represent 36% of the income of an average worker.
In the eyes of Nicole Dionne, the facilitator of the Housing Information and Animation Office, these data are “mind-boggling.”
“When we have high rents, we have difficulty putting money aside, because the majority of our income goes towards our living expenses,” she lamented in an interview with Noovo Info.
Thus, excessively high rent prevents many tenants from being able to leave their apartment in order to access individual property, concludes Ms. Dionne.
See Mathieu Boivin’s report in the video.
