Off-Market Housing: Greater Montreal Aims for 20% by 2046 and Gathers 450 People on November 5

In brief: The Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) is holding a Housing Summit on November 5, 2026, with about 450 participants. Its goal: raise the share of off-market rental housing in Greater Montreal from 9% to 20% by 2046. The report behind it shows rents on vacant units rose 125% between 2014 and 2025, against 48% for wages. For a municipality outside the metro area, the summit offers a way to measure and a figure to watch: water and sewer capacity.

Off-market housing is housing whose rent is not set by the market: social housing, cooperatives, nonprofits, state-funded affordable units. The CMM wants to double its share in the metropolitan region. Even if your municipality is far from Montreal, the effort is a model of the target a region can set itself, and some of its numbers hold across Quebec.

Off-market housing: what the CMM announced

On October 14, the CMM announced its 2026 Housing Summit, to be held on November 5. According to Journal Métro, it will gather elected officials, experts, housing professionals and nonprofit members. Members of the new Parti Québécois government and of the opposition are also invited. The aim is to adopt a shared roadmap with concrete actions on four topics: infrastructure and development costs, off-market housing, densification and homelessness.

The numerical goal, reported by L'Éveil de Saint-Eustache, is to take the share of off-market rental housing from 9% to 20% by 2046. Montreal's mayor and CMM president, Soraya Martinez Ferrada, says: "The challenges are known and several solutions are already on the table" (our translation of the French quote).

A note on vocabulary: Journal Métro speaks of 9% of the "housing stock," L'Éveil of 9% of "rental" housing. Both report the same 20% target and the same horizon, 2046.

The numbers in the "Cap sur 20 %" report

Both outlets draw on the CMM's Cap sur 20 % report. Here is what they report from it.

• Rents. The average rent of vacant units rose 125% between 2014 and 2025, while wages rose 48%.
• Household strain. In 2022, 48% of renter households did not have the income to pay the reference average rent without spending more than 30% of their income on it.
• Vacancy. In 2025 the vacancy rate was 1.2% for the most affordable units and 4.4% for the most expensive.
• Homelessness. Public services tied to homelessness cost more than $1.1 billion a year in Quebec, according to L'Éveil.

That vacancy gap of 1.2% against 4.4% is the figure to remember. It shows the problem is not a shortage of housing in general: affordable units are what is missing, while expensive ones sit vacant. Our state of rents in Quebec and our article on the housing crisis in 2026 document this from their own angles.

The figure that concerns every municipality: 36,000 blocked units

Among the data cited by L'Éveil, one line reaches beyond the Montreal region: at least 36,000 housing units could not be built in Quebec in 2025 because of limited water and sewer network capacity.

The article cites no primary source for this figure. Read it as a reported order of magnitude, not an official statistic. But it touches a reality town councils know well: a zoned lot, a ready project and a sponsoring nonprofit are no use if the water main cannot keep up.

For a small municipality, the question comes before any housing grant: does your network have capacity for 24 or 36 more units? Our article on the FIERH program, whose call is closed covers funding for water infrastructure tied to housing. The one on municipal rules that block housing recalls what, in zoning and standards, falls directly to your council.

The context: a site breaks ground as the summit approaches

Journal Métro notes that the Quartier Molson, on the former brewery site, broke ground the same week. The first phase has 383 units, with a 150-unit project from the Société d'habitation et de développement de Montréal alongside. At full build-out the site should have nearly 5,000 units, including 1,000 off-market. Our article on the 1,650 affordable units selected in Montreal describes the selection of Montreal projects.

At the other end of the spectrum, a small project like Projet Acadie, 26 modular units installed in Montreal, shows that part of off-market housing gets built quickly when land and financing are ready. For the Montreal picture, see our modular overview for Montreal.

Two targets not to confuse: 2046 and 2050

There are now two 20% targets, with two horizons.

The FRAPRU, in its October 15 release, recalls that the PQ aims for 20% by 2050. The two targets do not measure exactly the same thing: one aims at off-market housing in the broad sense within a region, the other at social and community housing across Quebec. Our article on the PQ's plan and what it changes for municipalities details the second.

What it changes for a modular project

Little, directly. The summit funds nothing and creates no program: it aims at a roadmap. Three possible effects to watch.

• Demand. A 20% off-market target in Greater Montreal assumes many nonprofit, cooperative and housing-office projects. Housing cooperatives and nonprofit affordable housing are the two kinds of sponsors that could benefit.
• Infrastructure. If water networks limit construction, already serviced lots gain value. A modular project on an already connected lot avoids that constraint.
• Financing. No budget is announced with the summit. Our guide to funding affordable modular housing describes the existing programs.

The CMM has announced no measure on prefabrication, so we attribute no position on modular to this summit.

What municipalities outside Montreal can take from it

1. Measure the off-market share where you are. The CMM starts from a baseline (9%). An MRC that does not know its own cannot set a target. Data on the territory's housing offices and nonprofits is a starting point.
2. Count units blocked by networks. An inventory of water and sewer capacity, sector by sector, says where you can build without waiting.
3. Look at the vacancy gap. A 1.2% rate for affordable units against 4.4% for expensive ones is a measure any region can reproduce with CMHC data. For the September data, see our article on housing starts in Quebec.

If your municipality, MRC or nonprofit is preparing an off-market housing project, we can prepare a quote together.