Montreal West Island Real Estate — market insights from Pearl Kezele & Jason Fitzpatrick

By Pearl Kezele & Jason Fitzpatrick (Team Kezele), Royal LePage Village

Royal LePage published its Q3 House Price Survey two weeks ago, and one line from president and CEO Phil Soper has stayed with me ever since: "buyers can afford to wait – and uncertainty gives them a reason to... The opportunity is there; the confidence to act remains elusive."

He's describing the whole country. The national aggregate home price slipped 0.8% year over year to $810,000, with the market treading water for months — sales volumes on track to finish 2026 below even 2025's subdued pace. Trade tensions with the U.S., a new minority government in Quebec, an Alberta referendum question: each one another reason for buyers to pause. Read the national survey as the frame behind our local numbers — not breaking news, just the weather we're all standing in.

But here's the thing about a market where buyers, in Soper's words, "have negotiating power, but lack confidence." Pearl has been reading this cycle for 42+ years, across every kind of market, and I keep coming back to one uncomfortable truth.

Today's buyers are not avoiding risk. They are avoiding decision. The risky market was 2022: bidding wars, waived inspections, bully offers over asking. This market is the safe one — time to think, more homes to choose from, room to inspect, room to negotiate. The market handed buyers every advantage except a deadline, and it turns out the deadline was the only thing that ever made them move.

And there is a harder edge to it, one a lot of buyers won't admit even to themselves. Many are waiting for low rates, low prices and no competition to arrive together — the perfect time. That wait is wasted by mechanism, not just bad luck: low rates are what CREATE the competition. When borrowing gets cheap, the crowd shows up. You cannot have low rates, low prices and no competition at the same time — the combination buyers keep waiting for cannot exist. So they are not only avoiding decision; they are waiting for a market state that can never arrive.

Now zoom in on our corner of the country, where the national frame meets the local numbers. Greater Montreal's aggregate price rose 2.9% year over year in Q3 — against Toronto's 3.7% decline and Vancouver's 4.0% drop. Quebec's market keeps doing what it has done for years: quietly outperforming the rest of the country.

And the West Island sits right inside that pattern. APCIQ's Q3 figures show Ouest-de-l'Île-Sud at 209 sales with a single-family median of $820,000, and Ouest-de-l'Île-Nord at 314 sales with a median of $745,000 — sales down, listings up, prices holding. Active listings are up double digits in both sectors, giving buyers the most choice they have had in years.

One line on Quebec's minority government: read it as policy context, never politics. Housing stays a priority under any government here, because real estate wealth underpins the provincial credit rating and household balance sheets. The referendum-era frames of 1995 do not apply in 2026 — this is a bilingual, integrated economy with retirement wealth concentrated in homes. Elections give buyers reason to pause; they do not change the fundamentals.

So what does this phase mean, in plain terms?

For buyers: this is the most buyer-friendly setup we have seen in a decade — more homes to choose from, more time, more negotiating power, and Montreal prices still rising while the national picture is flat. The advantage is real, but it is perishable. The deadline that used to force decisions — the bidding war, the bully offer — is gone. The discipline to decide now has to come from you.

For sellers: well-priced homes still move — 38 to 48 days for a single-family home in the West Island. But the margin for overpricing has shrunk fast. With more listings and hesitant buyers, the winners are priced right on day one, not listed high and chased down.

The policy makers created this game — the trade shocks, the rate environment, the election calendars. We don't predict their next move; we interpret where you are in it. And after 42+ years of reading this cycle in Montreal West Island Real Estate, we can tell you: this is a normalizing market that rewards decisive buyers and disciplined sellers.

Curious what your West Island home is worth in today's market? Ask Pearl & Jason for a free, no-obligation home valuation — visit https://montrealwestislandrealestate.ca/home-valuation, or send us the word VALUE in Messenger.




Sources: Royal LePage House Price Survey and Market Forecast, Q3 2026 (published October 15, 2026); APCIQ Q3 2026 residential barometer (Centris data).




Buyers Have the Power — They Just Don't Have the Confidence | Montreal West Island Real Estate

Royal LePage's Q3 survey: buyers have negotiating power but lack confidence. What the national frame and West Island's Q3 numbers mean for buyers and sellers — from Pearl Kezele & Jason Fitzpatrick.

Buyers Have the Power — They Just Don't Have the Confidence