Salary required to afford a 100 m2 house

Home prices in Quebec have risen significantly since the start of the pandemic, and a new study by the firm HelloSafe shows that you currently need to earn an average gross salary of $91,000 to afford a home. The house is about 1000 sq.ft.

HelloSafe’s study assumes a home with 100 square meters of living space (about 1075 square feet), or the equivalent of a two-story cottage with a 24-by-24-foot square home. Prices used are as on May 2023. Buyers have a 5% down payment as well as a five-year fixed rate mortgage at 4.89% for a total term of 25 years.

HelloSafe suggests that this type of mortgage is used because it is “the most classic”. Property prices are taken from PropertyStar website.

High salary

Thus, in Quebec, it takes $91,448 in gross annual salary per household to pay the mortgage on a home, estimates HelloSafe, which is conducting the first study of its kind in the province.

If this salary appears high, it is much higher in many places in the provinces. The required gross salary on the Island of Montreal is $251,100, compared to $140,987 in Laval, $118,532 in Lawrence, $116,970 in Monterrey and $107,247 in Outaouais.

At the other end of the spectrum, a buyer should earn $68,277 in Bas-Saint-Laurent, $79,433 in Chaudière-Appalaches, $85,183 in Estrie, $88,448 in the Capitale-Nationale area and $882 in Llanaudiere 103.

Poor accessibility

The first thing that Alexandre Desouter, director of public relations for HelloSafe, emphasized is that access is difficult in almost all areas of Quebec.

“Affordability is a real issue,” he notes. With the income required for each family to afford this type of property, we understand that Montreal is absolutely overpriced. »

This situation is pushing many households to look for the suburbs to find less expensive ones… which exacerbates the problem of access to these places.

“That’s why we see very high numbers in the suburbs of Montreal,” says Alexandre Desouter.