As published in the Tremblant Express, December 2022 edition
On June 23, 2022, to fight inflation and the ongoing rise in real estate prices in Canada, Parliament passed a new law, the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act. This renewable moratorium will come into effect on January 1, 2023, and will last two years. However, residences located in recreational zones like Whistler and Mont-Tremblant will probably escape this new regulation.
It’s this exception that particularly interests us. Station Mont- Tremblant, as we know it today, was created in the early 1990s on the assumption that there would be foreign purchasers. And that’s what happened.
Over the years, numerous properties were bought by Americans in the ‘90s and early 2000s, followed by British purchasers from 2004 to 2009 – with favourable exchange rates playing a large part in this trend. In 2007, foreign owners represented 7.3 per cent of real estate ownership in Mont-Tremblant.
In contrast, the surprising rise in prices post-confinement was almost entirely related to Canadian purchasers. Today, the rate of non-Canadian owners in Mont-Tremblant is at its lowest level, with 446 foreign owners out of 13,772, or only 3.2 per cent of the housing stock. That’s what allows us, at Versants real estate agency, to anticipate a solid market in spite of the speed at which the prices increased.
It’s hard to predict the impact of this new law, particularly with the details still unknown. On the other hand, we can assume that in the short term, it will be positive – so long as it only applies to resort residential real estate.
In the two coming years, thanks to the funnel effect produced by this new law, demand will again become greater than supply.
