CANADA – QUÉBEC Trends and Developments Contributed by: Eleonora Eusepi and Bruno Burrogano, BCF Business Law LLP
ability of well-serviced industrial land within the urban perimeter of Montréal continues to push development outward into suburban and exurban locations. As a result, factors such as infrastructure capacity, munic - ipal development charges and transportation costs are playing a growing role in site selection and overall project economics. Regulatory and Legislative Developments Provincial housing strategy and municipal density policies The Québec government has articulated an ambitious housing strategy aimed at addressing the undersup - ply of residential units that has developed across the province over an extended period. This strategy is a direct policy response to housing affordability chal - lenges that affect households across the income spectrum, from market-rate renters and first-time buy - ers to lower-income households dependent on social and subsidised housing. It encompasses specific targets for new housing construction across tenure types and markets, incentives and programme sup - port for purpose-built rental development, and a suite of policy measures directed at accelerating regulatory approvals and reducing the administrative friction that has historically lengthened development timelines in the province. At municipal level, the City of Montréal has imple - mented zoning and urban planning reforms that reflect both the provincial housing strategy and the city’s own long-term vision for growth and development. These reforms include amendments to the city’s Règlement d’urbanisme, which governs land use, density, and built-form requirements across Montréal’s territory, and the ongoing implementation of the urban planning programme Montréal 2050, which sets out long-term land-use planning objectives including transit-orient - ed density, mixed-use development frameworks, and housing supply targets aligned with projected popula - tion growth. These reforms are directed at increasing residential density in transit-served corridors, facilitat - ing mixed-use development that integrates residen - tial, commercial, and community uses in appropriate locations, and meaningfully reducing reliance on low- density, single-family zoning in areas well-served by public transit and municipal services.
Montréal’s inclusionary housing policy, known as the Stratégie d’inclusion de logements abordables, has been in place in various forms and has been imple - mented at the borough level across the city. Several Montréal boroughs have adopted, or are in the pro - cess of developing, inclusionary housing policies that require a proportion of new residential units in significant development projects to be designated as affordable or social housing, integrated within market-rate developments or delivered through off- site alternatives. The legal and financial structuring of inclusionary housing obligations, including the negoti - ation of contribution agreements with borough admin - istrations, the allocation of affordable unit obligations across phased projects, and the financial modelling of affordable unit delivery, has become a significant and technically demanding area of transactional practice for developers, their legal counsel, and financial advi - sors operating in the Montréal market. Federal housing strategy At federal level, Canada has significantly expanded its housing policy toolkit in response to the national supply and affordability crisis, with direct and material implications for Québec developers, municipalities, and institutional stakeholders. Through the National Housing Strategy (NHS), CMHC administers major funding and financing programmes that support the development of new rental housing across the coun - try. These include the Apartment Construction Loan Program (ACLP), which provides low-cost, long-term loans to developers of purpose-built rental projects that meet defined affordability and energy-efficiency criteria, and the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), which ties federal funding transfers to municipal com - mitments to implement zoning and approval-process reforms that increase housing supply capacity. Mon - tréal’s HAF agreement commits the city to targeted permitting improvements and densification measures, creating both compliance obligations for the munici - pality and development opportunities for private sec - tor stakeholders who can move quickly to capitalise on a more streamlined regulatory environment. The federal government has also launched Build Can - ada Homes, a national initiative focused on accelerat - ing the construction of both market-rate and afford - able housing by leveraging federal lands, simplifying
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