Latest news with #Montreal-area
Montreal Gazette
6 days ago
- Business
- Montreal Gazette
‘Technical reasons' delay launch of Opus card app for commuters with iPhones
News Montreal commuters will be able to trade their Opus cards for an app this fall, the regional transit authority says — as long as they have an Android. iPhone users will have to wait until 2026. The virtual Opus card is the latest in a broader bid to modernize payment options for Montreal-area transit. In April 2024, the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM) launched an app allowing transit users to load their Opus card by tapping it to their phone. This latest project will allow riders to ditch the physical card for an app. After that, the agency plans to allow users to tap their credit or debit cards directly to the fare reader, a technology it has already deployed in Laval. Digital payment options have been slower to get off the ground in Montreal than elsewhere, admitted Sylvain Perras, ARTM executive director of digital transformation. 'We probably started later,' he said. 'We're now working on catching up.' Commuters in cities including Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa can already board transit with a tap of a credit or debit card. Testing is underway for the virtual Opus card, Perras said. Fewer than 200 employees have been using the app in a trial since June, he said, and the agency invited 600 commuters to download the app Thursday. Android users will have access to the app sometime this fall, Perras said, without providing an exact date. 'It could be October, November.' The iPhone app has been slower to get off the ground, Perras said, citing 'technical reasons,' without offering specifics. About 61 per cent of Canadian smartphone users have an iPhone, while about 39 per cent use Android, according to web traffic analysis website StatCounter. Perras wouldn't provide a detailed timeline for the app's rollout, insisting he didn't want to make promises that might not be kept. But he said all commuters should be able to download virtual Opus cards at some point in 2026. New payment options should help improve ridership numbers, Perras said, adding some people avoid public transit when it seems too complicated. This story was originally published July 18, 2025 at 12:31 PM.
Toronto Star
10-07-2025
- Business
- Toronto Star
Montreal home sales up in June as median price rises around 7% from last year: board
Montreal-area home sales were up in June compared with the same month a year ago, as prices rose around seven per cent across all housing types. A real estate sign is posted outside a home in Pointe-Claire, a city in Montreal's West Island, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi CMU RJB flag wire: true flag sponsored: false article_type: : sWebsitePrimaryPublication : publications/toronto_star bHasMigratedAvatar : false :
Global News
10-07-2025
- Business
- Global News
Montreal home sales up in June as median price rises around 7% from last year: board
See more sharing options Send this page to someone via email Share this item on Twitter Share this item via WhatsApp Share this item on Facebook Montreal-area home sales were up in June compared with the same month a year ago, as prices rose around seven per cent across all housing types. The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says 4,385 homes changed hands in the region last month, up 15.5 per cent from 3,798 sales in June 2024. Get weekly money news Get expert insights, Q&A on markets, housing, inflation, and personal finance information delivered to you every Saturday. Sign up for weekly money newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Active listings rose 1.8 per cent year-over-year to 18,122, driven by inventory growth in the condominium market, while there were fewer single-family homes and plexes on the market compared with last year. There were 5,654 new listings throughout the Montreal area last month, up 6.4 per cent from a year earlier. Year-over-year median price growth was similar across all housing types, led by a 7.4 per cent increase in the price of a single-family home to $627,000. The median price of a plex rose 7.1 per cent to $830,000 and the median price of a condo increased 6.6 per cent to $426,494.
Montreal Gazette
30-06-2025
- Business
- Montreal Gazette
Montreal asking rents up 71% since 2019: Statistics Canada
By Asking rents for Montreal-area apartments have soared by hundreds of dollars per month since the beginning of the pandemic, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday. The asking rent for the average two-bedroom apartment increased by 71 per cent from 2019 to 2025, with the typical unit now going for $1,930 compared with $1,130 in 2019. One-bedroom apartments saw a 57 per cent increase from $980 in 2019 to $1,540 in 2025. The report notes that asking rents tend to be higher than rents paid by long-term tenants, and offer a picture of current market trends. The data comes on the heels of figures reported last week by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) that paint a similarly bleak picture of housing affordability in a post-pandemic Montreal. The national housing agency's report shows that mortgage costs and expenses for newly purchased homes in the Montreal area sat at 48 per cent of the average income as of 2024, compared with 34 per cent in 2019 — the worst deterioration in housing affordability of any major centre in the country. For the CMHC, the solution to rising unaffordability lies in increasing supply. 'There's a lot of things we can do to help foster more supply,' CMHC chief economist Matthieu Laberge said. According to the agency's model, Montreal-area builders would need to start work on about 72,000 units every year until 2035 to return to the 34 per cent housing-to-income ratio homeowners enjoyed in 2019. But the report says the area is only on track to build less than a third of those units — around 23,000 per year. 'We can't keep doing the same things we've always done,' Laberge said, suggesting affordability can be restored via 'new ways of building, like modular or prefabricated' housing. Regulations restricting housing also need easing, he said. But a McGill urban planning professor was skeptical, saying increased supply was no antidote to unaffordability. 'This whole idea that building more luxury housing means that we're going to have more affordable housing doesn't actually hold out,' Anna Kramer said. 'I'm extremely skeptical of those supply side reports that are put out by the CMHC and others, because it's really favouring the for-profit development industry,' she said. 'The larger picture is that housing is being financialized,' with developers' goals of increasing profits at odds with solutions to unaffordability. 'Instead of just saying a number of housing units,' Kramer said policy-makers need to make sure that the right types of units are being built — and ensure they stay at the right prices through measures including stronger rent control. She criticized Quebec's 2025 rent guidelines, which called for 5.9 per cent rent increases for units that don't include heating, leaving room for even higher increases in some cases. 'I'm always a bit cautious when I talk about financialization,' Laberge said, given that housing investments are often a way to save money and fund retirements. Though he said affordability would improve if housing became a less attractive investment, he pointed to remote work as a major reason that high housing costs spread to cities including Montreal. During the pandemic, Laberge said people from Vancouver and Toronto — where housing unaffordability was already prevalent — moved to places like Montreal. 'They went elsewhere in the country and propagated the affordability crisis,' he said. Increasing supply would return affordability to pre-pandemic levels across the country, Laberge said, creating acceptable conditions everywhere but Toronto and Vancouver, where he said more significant change is needed. Housing costs in those cities continue to top Montreal by a wide margin. Two-bedroom apartments are now listed at an average of $3,170 in Vancouver and $2,560 in Toronto, though average asking rents have slightly decreased in recent months in both cities. This story was originally published June 25, 2025 at 4:00 PM.
Vancouver Sun
26-06-2025
- Vancouver Sun
Last three victims of Quebec Airmedic helicopter crash recovered
The search for three people who were unaccounted for after a medical transport helicopter crashed on Quebec's North Shore came to an end late Wednesday night after police divers located their bodies in a lake. Montreal-area company Airmedic says Quebec's provincial police have found the bodies of its two missing crew members, along with a patient, in Lake Watshishou, located 1,000 kilometres northeast of Montreal. 'This confirmation has deeply moved our team,' Airmedic said in a statement at around 10 p.m. Wednesday. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 'A time of remembrance begins for the Airmedic family. We will take the time to pay tribute to them and honour their commitment. They lost their lives while attempting a rescue —a gesture that reflects their passion, their vision, and the meaning they gave to their profession.' The crew was performing a medical transport when it crashed last Friday. Rescue crews found one survivor — a male crew member — the day of the crash with non-life-threatening injuries. The company said the coroner's office will share the identity of the victims once their families give consent to do so. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has opened an investigation into the crash. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
