Montreal lures families with incentives

[jesseps]

To help stem a net annual population drain of almost 20,000 people from the City of Montreal to surrounding suburbs, Mayor Gérald Tremblay Sunday unveiled what he called "a bouquet of measures" he said were designed to make the city more attractive and more affordable to starter families.

 

Under a new family-friendly motif symbolized by a teddy bear, he announced that a family with children purchasing a new home with at least three bedrooms will be eligible for a one-time subsidy of $12,500, on a newly built residence with a maximum purchase price of $295,000.

 

The previous grant limit under an earlier family-friendly subsidy program had been $10,000. It remains at that level for families with at least one child buying a starter home with fewer than three bedrooms, for a maximum purchase price of $265,000.

 

Households without children will be eligible for a grant of $4,500.

 

All the financial lures are for first-time homebuyers only.

 

Existing spending on such subsidy programs had been set at $48 million this year.

 

The new measures will increase that to about $60 million, Tremblay said.

 

The mayor also announced:

 

• refunds on the so-called municipal “welcome tax” on property deals for starter families, ranging between 40 per cent and 100 per cent for home purchases by households that qualify, depending whether they already have offspring;

 

• the gradual addition of extra-sized parking spots to be reserved for families adjacent to parks, arenas and other family destinations – to be illustrated by a teddy-bear symbol painted on the pavement and enforced under an honour system, but big enough to load and unload bulky baby strollers and/or hockey-equipment bags;

 

• the possible addition of child seats to the popular fleet of Bixi bicycles, a measure the mayor specified is under study but is not being confirmed;

 

• a half-year of free public-transit access for one adult user and two free Access Montreal discount cards to families who buy their first home within city limits under the program this year;

 

• a family focus on $7 million of previously announced parks-improvement spending this year, as well as four family-oriented zones to be developed on the Internet site of the city’s library system.

 

The fresh money for the measures announced Sunday will amount to about $12 million, largely funded by the province, other officials said.

 

When asked, Tremblay refused to predict how many starter families that otherwise would have left the city to establish their homes in outlying suburbs during 2010 would now choose instead to stay within city limits.

 

The net outflow of people from the city of Montreal to suburbs on and off the island totalled 19,265 in 2008-09, according to the Institut de la statistique du Québec.

 

"This is the first time in the past seven years that the figure is under 20,000," said Bernard Larin, an aide to the mayor.

 

“Among these 19,265 people, 15,300 are children under 15 or people aged from 25 to 39, those most likely to belong to families,” he added.

 

The net annual loss of families to the city is “probably under 5,000,” Larin said, citing those figures.

 

From 2003 through 2009, similar if less lucrative city programs were used by 5,500 families who bought their first home within city limits, Tremblay said.

 

Because of birth rates, immigration and other factors, Larin said, Montreal’s overall population edged up 3.3 per cent between 2001 and 2006. The number of households grew about one per cent.

 

The announcement was made in conjunction with a second weekend of open houses by real-estate developers – in a province where many apartment leases expire June 30, turning March into prime home-shopping time.

 

Seems interesting. The non welcome-tax is nice for new home buyers.

[pedepy]

free transit for one adult user ?? so basically they'd have to keep at least a car ... at well under a thousand dollars for a year this is pretty stupid. if it really was a money issue, two 6 month passes would've done the trick also..

[Malek]

free transit for one adult user ?? so basically they'd have to keep at least a car ... at well under a thousand dollars for a year this is pretty stupid. if it really was a money issue, two 6 month passes would've done the trick also..

 

The people behind that program know full well, that even if they give passes to two adults, no one would get rid of his car... why waste a pass?

 

Even at the Mayor's press conf. he was all about how the second car costs alot for suburbanites, which implies, that having one car in Montréal is the norm.

[Né entre les rapides]

Des maisons neuves ayant "au moins" trois chambres à coucher, coûtant au maximum $295,000, à Montréal!

 

J'imagine que ça doit exister, sinon on rirait! Mais à quel endroit? Proche d'une station de Métro j'en doute. Et si c'est près du bout de l'Ile (RDP/PAT), il y a de bonnes chances pour que plusieurs déplacements aient une destination assez éloignée (travail, études, loisirs, services personnels, etc). Si une bonne partie des déplacements est en transport en commun, ouf que de temps passé. Sinon, l'auto servira souvent.

 

Et puis, $295,000, ce n'est pas exactement bon marché, pour une famille québécoise (ou montréalaise, au choix!) moyenne. Ah, vous me dites qu'il y a des maisons (neuves) à moins de $250,000 (encore cher), à moins de $200,000 (j'en doute), à moins de $150,000 (impossible n'est pas montréalais!)

 

Tout cela juste pour dire BRAVO pour l'intention de retenir ou d'attirer les familles à Montréal, mais ce n'est pas facile.

 

Surtout de grâce, n'attirez pas des personnes/familles qui n'en ont pas vraiment les moyens, et qui vont se "tuer" à payer leur hypothèque et/ou à se déplacer exclusivement en TEC faute de moyens alternatifs, car malgré l'absence de ponts à traverser (présumément--si l'emploi convoité ne se trouve pas en banlieue, car ça arrive!), les déplacements dans la grande (et allongée) Ville de Montréal ne sont pas toujours si faciles.

 

Pour ma part, je pense que l'extension hors de l'Ile des modes de TEC rapides et à grande capacité (métro, train de banlieue) est globalement une meilleure solution pour assurer à bien des familles l'accès à un logement adéquat à un prix raisonnable. Bien sûr que cette "vision" contredit l'objectif d'attirer les familles à Montréal (sauf les plus aisées financièrement), mais c'est à mon avis plus réaliste dans le cas de Montréal comme dans celui de la plupart des grandes villes du monde "développé".

 

En principe, il y a une alternative--le logement locatif. Car après tout, ce ne sont pas tous les résidants montréalais actuels qui sont riches, et pourtant une majorité habite dans des logements fort convenables dans des quartiers bien intéressants, en payant des loyers passablement plus abordables que les paiements hypothécaires associés aux maisons neuves dans la ville. Le problème, c'est qu'il y a bien peu de NOUVEAUX logements locatifs assez grands pour abriter des familles moyennes, et leur prix doit être sensiblement plus élevé que la moyenne des loyers existants. Je réalise qu'il y a des limites aux moyens disponibles pour favoriser la "construction neuve locative abordable" (ne pas verser dans la "formule HLM"), mais il me semble que la Ville, dans ses efforts pour attirer/retenir les familles, devrait tout autant explorer des formules tournées vers le locatif, que vers la propriété.

[Né entre les rapides]

Par contre, voir mon commentaire d'aujourd'hui sous PROJETS/EN CONSTRUCTION concernant Place L'Acadie: Etonnant!

 

Et s'il peut y en avoir d'autres du gendre dans l'avenir, je n'en serai que plus heureux!