Renting in Montreal

Montreal's unique neighbourhoods are part of what makes the city so vibrant! Get to know the different areas of the city and the distance to campus as you begin your search for housing.

Distance to campus

As you expand your search away from campus, keep the public transit map in mind. Living within a 10-minute walk of a public transit station will make your commute to campus much easier.  

Montreal's public transit system is efficient and affordable. The downtown Sir George Williams Campus has its own underground metro stop, Station Guy-Concordia.

The Loyola Campus, in the borough of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, is accessible by several bus lines, in addition to the Concordia shuttle bus, which runs between the two campuses throughout the day.  

Apartment sizes

Montreal has its own unique way of characterizing how big an apartment is:

• a 1½ is a large room with kitchenette and bathroom;
• a 2½ is two separate rooms, plus bathroom.
• a 3½ has a separate bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom;
• a 4½ has two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bathroom;
• a 5½ usually has three bedrooms, and so on.

Average price ranges

Many different neighbourhoods in Montreal could be considered good for a university student, depending on your priorities. Here is the average price you can expect to pay for neighbourhoods near campus:

Neighbourhoods further from campus might have more affordable options, including Parc-Extension, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, LaSalle, Ville-Émard, and Ahuntsic-Cartierville. You could also consider commuting from suburbs north and south of the St. Lawrence River, like Laval, Longueuil and Brossard, which are connected to the Island of Montreal via public transit. 

Where to look

• classifieds.csu.qc.ca — see ads posted by other Concordia students looking for roommates, or individual apartments posted by landlords looking for student tenants. You can register to view ads using your offer of admission letter. 
• likehome.info — offers useful information about different aspects of renting an apartment in Montreal, including an overview of Montreal neighbourhoods. Please note that the published price ranges on this site may be dated. 
• places4students.com — Concordia has partnered with Places4Students to offer off-campus housing options.
• Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace have listings for short- and long-term rentals all over Montreal.

What to ask

When you're visiting or communicating with an apartment agent or landlord, we suggest that you enquire about the following: 

• Clarify what would be included in the rent versus what is your responsibility. Ask if major appliances are included, such as the refrigerator and stove, or if you will have to provide your own. 
• Find out whether heat is included. If not, plan for extra winter costs. Check with Hydro Québec to see the approximate cost of your electricity bill. 
• Ask about the unit's history with vermin, pests and damages.
• For your safety, it's illegal for landlords to rent a unit that doesn't have a window. Confirm each bedroom has at least one outside window, or a sprinkler system, or a door leading directly outside, in compliance with building codes.  It's also important to make sure your landlord has equipped your apartment with a working smoke detector.

Signing a lease

If you submit an application for a rental, you are legally bound to sign a lease if your application is accepted.

It’s not a good idea to send out multiple applications at the same time. A useful trick is to make your application valid only for a certain time frame, say 48 hours. (You can make a note of this on the application, and inform the landlord when you’re communicating with them.) That way, if you don’t hear back from the landlord within a short period of time, you can keep looking.

Tips for signing a lease

• Never assume that by communicating with a landlord over text or Messenger, you are making an official agreement about a lease. Until you sign a lease, you are under no obligation to commit to an agreement, and neither is the landlord.
• Sometimes landlords request money at the time of the application. Be aware that there’s no guarantee that an application fee will either be refunded, or will be credited toward your rent. Send a landlord money online at your own risk.
• Be sure the lease you sign is one mandated by the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL), which is the required lease document in Quebec. If needed, you can purchase a Lease of a Dwelling from Les Publications du Québec.
• Make sure all your responsibilities as a tenant are clear and that anything included in the agreement is written in the lease. The landlord will often add an appendix and/or list of building regulations. Make sure you read this through carefully.

Deposits

Deposits for more than the first month’s rent are not permitted in Quebec; a landlord cannot ask you for anything more than the first month's rent.

Landlords cannot ask you for your social insurance number, student visa, credit card, or photocopy any of your personal information, though they can verify your name and address with a piece of photo ID.

Rent increases

Quebec has a rent control system, which is unique in Canada. What does rent control mean for tenants? Your landlord can only legally increase your rent by a certain percentage per year, as determined every year by the Quebec government. In other words, you should not be paying more than a small percentage more than the previous tenants of any apartment.

On the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL) lease (the only legally binding lease document in Quebec), be sure to check “section G,” where the landlord is required to write the lowest rent paid for their rental in the last 12 months. The rent you are being charged can only be a government-approved percentage more than the amount in section G. If a landlord has left section G blank in the lease, you can ask them to provide that information and they are required by law to do so.

If the amount in Section G is much lower than what you are being charged, you have 10 days after the section is filled out to request a hearing with Quebec’s rental authority, the Tribunal administratif du logement. By requesting a hearing (which you can do online), you are starting the process of potentially lowering your rent back down to the legally approved level.

Rent control is in place to defend your rights as a tenant, but it’s up to you to make sure your landlord is complying with the rules.

Lease transfers

When you move out, you can pass your lease on to a friend (called a lease transfer, or transfer de bail), without the rent increasing beyond a government-approved percentage, usually between one and three per cent. You always need to ask your landlord’s permission in writing before assigning a lease transfer to a friend.

Remember that within a landlord-tenant dispute, Concordia University will never get involved. A landlord cannot report a tenant to Canada customs, nor to the university, for a matter having to do with housing. They can call the police for matters to do with creating a disturbance or any criminal activity, but anything related to utilities or apartment maintenance is not a police matter.