Finding your dream home in Montreal

That dream home you've been conjuring up in your mind need not be on a tropical island somewhere in the South Pacific. Scale down your dreams a bit, and here on our own island - though admittedly not that tropical - there are numerous options available. Whether it's a resale home that turns your head, a custom-made unit, pre-engineered (formerly known as pre-fab) or the venerable pioneer log cabin, 21st- century-style, the real-estate market for Montreal and its outlying areas is alive.

Bertrand Recher, senior analyst for Central Mortgage and Housing Corp. in Quebec, said the market has recovered after an early 2009 slump.

"There was a very short stall in the first quarter of '09," Recher said. "But now sales of 'plexes, houses, row houses and condos have rebounded.

"There's a lot of activity in the resale market but with fewer choices, there will be a spillover into the new-home market in 2010," he predicted.

"The outlook for 2010 is good," he added. "Sales are going up in the second quarter of this year, if trends continue. Not a double-digit increase, but nevertheless a healthy increase in sales" - something Recher said was at least partly due to historically low mortgage rates.

Liza Kaufman, managing director of Quebec's Sotheby's International Realty, said the downtown market is strong, though it, too, experienced the slowdown in early 2009 that affected all areas of commerce.

"The market is strong in Westmount and Outremont," she said. "People see Quebec as a viable place to invest. It's a vibrant market.

"I like to compare Sherbrooke St. to 5th Ave. in New York." Kaufman used the example of the Ritz Carlton, which is getting a major facelift and condo conversion with 46 units being built, 18 of which have been sold. Prices range from $1 million to $11-million for 1,250 to 8,000 square feet.

Of course, land is at a premium in downtown Montreal and that has spawned a flourishing new-home sales market in Laval, the South and North Shores, Vaudreuil-Soulanges and the West Island. Even on the West Island, land for new homes is becoming scarce, but in Pierrefonds, sales are brisk at the Heritage sur le Lac project, with 200 new homes ranging from $366,000 to $750,000.

Builder Jean Brunet is one of three developers involved in Heritage sur le Lac, building homes tailored to clients with a taste for options.

"People like the idea of custom-built homes," said Jean Brunet sales representative Sylvain Danis. "With us, they can choose different countertops, flooring, stone or brick exteriors, kitchen cabinets and colours."

Jean Brunet Construction has 17 single-family models from which to choose, including two semi-detached townhouses.

"People have come from all over to buy here," Danis said. "Some are on their second or third home, mostly young professionals with children or parents living with them. They're looking for a piece of the country, with full services. Schools, libraries, parks, arenas - all are nearby."

The Barrau-Robertson family moved from their Outremont condo to Heritage sur le Lac last November. Servane Barrau, a children's clothing designer born in Paris, her husband, Dale, a flute maker and artist, and their two children, Ely and Noë, feel at home in their Pierrefonds dream house.

"We moved for the kids to be in a more peaceful setting," Barrau said. "I like this lifestyle compared to downtown. The kids can play outside. It's clean and there's plenty of space."

Both Barrau and Robertson work from home, something that was made difficult by the lack of space in their downtown condo.

"I'm very picky about style," said Barrau, who took full advantage of Jean Brunet Construction's custom home options. "This house is one of the best we could find for our budget. It's exactly what we needed."

The term pre-fab is outmoded, according to Dany Bonneville of Bonneville Homes in Beloeil, a business started 50 years ago by his grandfather.

"It's pre-engineered, not prefab anymore. The pre-engineered home has evolved over the years.

"All our homes are built in the factory in modules, assembled like Lego blocks, then moved to the construction site. People can use their own plans or use one of our designers. All our homes are built under controlled conditions, taking into account how weather affects the construction."

Bonneville has delivered pre-engineered homes across Canada and the U.S. The company's R-3000 building system assures buyers a saving of up to 25 per cent in energy costs.

"The pre-engineered business used to be all about small homes, but now we can build million-dollar homes," he said. "We're doing a lot of marketing to show people how far we've come."

It's rare that one man will take a home and build it from start to finish. But Johnny Helbo is as hands-on a builder as there is. His specialty is custom-made log homes, and business is good for this pioneer entrepreneur in Morin Heights in the Laurentians.

"This time last year business was dead, but things have really picked up," Helbo said. "The trend for people who want a country log home is towards a smaller unit, but gone are the days of the basic log cabin. Most I build have two floors."

This is not a build-it-in-a-month business, Helbo explained.

He strips his white pine logs by hand and works the logs green, allowing for the drying process in the construction as the logs age and dry out.

"The cachet for the log home goes back to our grandparents' days or before," he said. "They're natural, rustic and there's something about the fact that each piece was sweated over by the builder.

"I haven't made a log home that was the same as the one before," Helbo added, whose finished product starts at about $225,000. "There's just something about big wood that people love."

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Ian Howarth (2010, February 24). Finding your dream home in Montreal. The Montreal Gazette. Retrieved from http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Finding+your+dream+home+Montreal/2604825/story.html#ixzz0gU633QFE