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Montreal · Quebec · First-time buyer

Buying your first home in Montreal

5% down. FHSA + RRSP HBP stacked. Pre-approval in 24 hours. Bilingual service is mandatory. Large duplex/triplex investor pool.

5% downFHSAHBPFTHB rebate
FSRA #13737 (Ontario) · Quebec files placed by a partner licensed in Quebec4.9 on Google (256 reviews)(opens Google in a new tab) Advisors in 16 languages
Entry-level scenario · Montreal
On a $483,500 Montreal condominium
Condominium median, Q2 2026 · 2678 sales — not the $835,000 all-types median
Down payment
5% — whole price is under $500K
$24,175
Insurance premium
4.00% CMHC/Sagen/CG at 95.0% LTV · financed
$18,373
Mortgage amount
At 4.09% · 30-yr amort
$477,698
QC welcome tax, after rebate
$5,363 less a $5,091 first-time rebate
$272
Est. monthly payment
Principal + interest only
$2,296/mo
Cash to close, on top
Tax, legal, title, inspection, adjustments
$5,076
At the $835,000 all-types median the same rules give $58,500 down and $3,881/mo, needing about $175,000 of household income against $105,000 here.
Illustrative only. Your rate and amount depend on your file. An advisor will give you your exact numbers.
First-time buyer mortgages in Montreal

What does a first-time buyer mortgage look like in Montreal?

Montreal's median single-family home price was $835,000 in Q2 2026, across 1,350 sales. First-time buyers targeting entry stock in Plateau Mont-Royal or Ville-Marie are shopping the condominium band at $483,500, not Montreal's $835,000 all-types median — at the legal minimum that is $24,175 down and roughly $2,296/mo principal + interest at 4.09%, with the FHSA and RRSP Home Buyers' Plan stacked against it and a $5,091 first-time-buyer rebate against the welcome tax.

Centris (APCIQ), Q2 2026. Source.

Written by the Mortgage Squad Advisors Editorial Team · Reviewed by Surrayya Afzal, Principal Broker, FSRA #M14001433 · Figures current to June 2026

Down payment min
5%
On insured mortgage, first $500K
FHSA room
$40K
Tax-deductible + tax-free withdrawal
RRSP HBP
$60K
Per spouse, repay over 15 yrs
Pre-approval
24 hr
Soft credit only

Which Montreal homes do first-time buyers start with?

What the Q2 2026 Centris release shows across the island. The type of home you shop sets your down payment, whether insurance is available, and the income you need. The highlighted row is the one this page uses.

Single-familyPrice: $835,000Sales: 1,350Minimum down: $58,500
Condominiummodelled herePrice: $483,500Sales: 2,678Minimum down: $24,175
Plex (2–5 units)Price: $910,000Sales: 845Minimum down: $66,000

Centris (APCIQ), Q2 2026. Source. Minimum down payment is the federal tiered rule applied to each row, not a board figure.

The down payment on a $483,500 Montreal condominium

A $483,500 purchase is entirely below the $500,000 threshold, so the minimum is a straight 5% — $24,175. Against that, the two registered accounts do most of the work.

More detail

One person's full FHSA ($40,000) and Home Buyers' Plan ($60,000) is $100,000; a couple who have both maxed can bring $200,000 of tax-advantaged money to the table. On this file one person's full room covers the $24,175 minimum outright, with $75,825 left for the cash-to-close below.

How a first-time buyer mortgage works — the rules, the penalties and the paperwork that are the same in every city — is covered in full on our first-time buyer mortgages guide. This page keeps to what is different in Montreal.

First-time buyer mortgages across Montreal

Does your Montreal neighbourhood change the file?

Yes. From Plateau Mont-Royal to Verdun, the usual type of home in each area changes how a first-time buyer file is underwritten.

What each Montreal neighbourhood means for a first-time buyer mortgage6 areas · Plateau Mont-Royal, Ville-Marie, Outremont, Saint-Laurent…

Plateau Mont-Royal, Ville-Marie, Saint-Laurent, NDG, Verdun

Plex (duplex to sixplex) and walk-up condo · Downtown and Old Montréal condo, plus heritage conversion · Post-war detached, semi and newer condo · Walk-up condo and plex, 1920s–50s · Plex and converted condo near the river

A condominium purchase is underwritten with the corporation as well as with you: the status certificate can surface reserve-fund or special-assessment problems that stall an approval no matter how strong your own file is.

Outremont

Upper-band plex and detached

Detached and semi stock is where the tiered minimum down payment bites hardest, because the price is usually the highest in the market — the legal minimum here is rarely the flat 5% buyers plan around.

Regional Quebec lenders we shop, alongside the big banks and national lenders:

Desjardins Laurentian Bank
Montreal market

What Montreal’s market means for your first-time buyer mortgage.

Montreal recorded 1,350 sales with an average days on market of 41 days (Centris (APCIQ) Q2 2026, Island of Montréal). Bilingual service is mandatory. Large duplex/triplex investor pool.

Divided or undivided: the ownership question that decides your lender list

Quebec has an ownership form most of Canada does not, and on the Island of Montréal it is common enough to catch buyers who have never met it.

More detail

In divided (divise) co-ownership — the ordinary condominium — you hold title to your unit. In undivided (indivise) co-ownership you hold a share of the whole building alongside the other owners, with a notarised agreement setting out who occupies what. The listings look alike and the price difference is often the reason a buyer is drawn to the second one. The financing is not alike at all. An undivided share is funded by a short list of lenders rather than the full panel, at a higher minimum down payment, and the lender assesses the co-ownership agreement and the other owners' conduct as well as your file — because a share is harder to realise on than a titled unit. That narrower panel is the whole cost of the discount, and it is worth pricing before you fall for the apartment. The pockets where this comes up most are exactly the ones with the oldest and most attractive stock: the Plateau, NDG, and the walk-ups either side of them. Ask which one a listing is before you ask anything else about it, and if the answer is undivided, get the mortgage question settled before the offer rather than after.

The Montréal plex ladder, and the line at the fifth door

Plexes are not a niche here. In the second quarter of 2026 Centris recorded 845 plex sales on the Island of Montréal at a median of $910,000 — a higher median than the single-family one, which is the clearest sign in the data that these are bought as income property rather than as cheaper houses.

More detail

Two rules govern how they are financed and both are worth knowing before you shortlist. First, two to four units is residential lending: the file is underwritten with a rental offset, at its own minimum down payment, and lenders differ widely in how much of the rent they will count — which is usually a larger swing in what you qualify for than the rate is. Five units or more crosses into commercial, where the panel, the underwriting and the documentation all change, and where the property's income rather than your own carries the file. Second, an owner-occupied plex and a purely investment one are different products, and which it is has to be declared at the start rather than corrected later. Two things regularly stop plex files that should have worked: a conversion that was never properly registered, which can fail the appraisal outright, and the exterior-staircase walk-up stock some lenders read conservatively. We settle both before an offer goes in.

FAQ

First-time buyer mortgages in Montreal — common questions.

Don’t see yours? Ask Maya, our AI assistant, in 50+ languages. How Maya works.

What does a first-time buyer mortgage work out to on Montreal's Q2 2026 median price?

Island of Montréal median price, single-family homes — Centris (APCIQ) put the Montreal median at <strong>$835,000</strong> for Q2 2026. For a first-time buyer mortgage that makes the legal minimum down about <strong>$58,500</strong> (5% to $500,000, 10% above, 20% over $1.5M). The same board counted 1,350 Montreal sales in Q2 2026, with an average days on market of 41 days. Your own property and balance replace these numbers on the file.

How much does the first-time buyer mortgage figure change between condominium and plex (2–5 units) in Montreal?

Montreal's board publishes each segment separately, and the gap is the point. At the condominium median of $483,500 the legal minimum down is about <strong>$24,175</strong>; at the plex (2–5 units) median of $910,000 it is about <strong>$66,000</strong>. The table on this page carries every row from the same Q2 2026 release.

What transfer tax applies to an $835,000 purchase in Montreal?

About <strong>$12,049</strong> at the median. It is paid in cash on closing (or, in Quebec, billed by the municipality afterwards) and cannot be added to the mortgage. Our <a href="/land-transfer-tax-calculator">land transfer tax calculator</a> runs your own price.

What's the average first-time buyer file size in Montreal?

Montreal's median single-family home price is approximately $835,000, so the typical first-time buyer file we see here sits in the $709,750–$960,250 band. Your specific neighbourhood and property type can move that materially.

What does a first-time buyer mortgage cost on a typical Montreal home?

On Montreal's $835,000 median single-family home price, a representative first-time buyer file at minimum down works out to about $58,500 down and roughly $3,881/mo (principal + interest at 4.09% over a 30-year amortization). Budget about $12,049 for Montreal’s welcome tax on top, which the city bills months AFTER closing rather than collecting on the day. Your exact numbers depend on the property and your file — we run them precisely before you commit.

Why compare lenders for a first-time buyer mortgage in Montreal?

Because the lender decides more than the rate: how Montréal property types are read, how much of your income counts, and what the file costs to move. In Quebec the file is placed by a mortgage professional licensed in Quebec, through our partner network.

How much do I need for a down payment in Montreal?

On the $483,500 condominium figure, the legal minimum is $24,175 — 5%. The whole purchase sits under the $500,000 threshold, so the flat 5% rule genuinely applies here. Anything under 20% down also means a default-insurance premium — 4.00% on this file, or $18,373, financed into the mortgage. We model the insured and conventional paths side by side so the choice is yours rather than the lender's.

What are the closing costs for a first-time buyer in Montreal?

Budget roughly $5,076 beyond the $24,175 down payment on a $483,500 purchase: $272 in welcome tax after the $5,091 rebate, about $1,800 in legal fees, $350 for title insurance, $500 for an inspection, $1,654 of provincial sales tax on the insurance premium, and around $500 in adjustments for prepaid property tax and utilities. Add $300-$500 if the lender orders an appraisal. All of it is cash at closing — the insurance premium itself is the one item that gets financed, and in Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan the tax on that premium specifically cannot be.

Who regulates a first-time buyer mortgage in Quebec?

Mortgage brokering in Quebec is regulated by the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers). Mortgage Squad Advisors is licensed by FSRA in Ontario (Brokerage #13737) and serves clients across Canada: Quebec files are processed by licensed mortgage professionals in your jurisdiction through our partner network, in compliance with AMF requirements. All advisors are FINTRAC-trained. Ask us for the registration details that apply to your file.

Ready to start your first-time buyer mortgage in Montreal?

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