The salary required for a house of 100 square meters

House prices have skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic in Quebec, and a new study by HelloSafe reveals that you currently need to earn an average of $91,000 in gross salary to be able to afford a house of around 1,000 square metres. foot.

The HelloSafe study assumes a home with a living area of ​​100 square meters (about 1,075 square feet), or the equivalent of a two-story cottage with a house measuring 24 by 24 square feet. Prices used are May 2023 prices. Buyers will receive a 5% down payment plus a five year fixed rate mortgage of 4.89% over 25 years.

HelloSafe notes that it used this type of mortgage because it is “the most classic.” Real estate prices are taken from the Properstar website.

high salary

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

If this salary seems high, it will be much higher in several places in the provinces. The required gross salary on the island of Montreal would be $251,100, while it would be $140,987 at Laval, $118,532 at Laurentians, $116,970 at Montérégie and $107,247 at Outaouais.

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

Easy access

The first thing that catches your eye, as HelloSafe PR manager Alexandre Desuters confirms, is that accessibility is difficult in almost all regions of Quebec.

“Affordability is a real issue,” he notes. With the income required per family to have this type of property, we understand that Montreal is totally overrated. »

This situation leads many families to look in the suburbs for something less expensive… exacerbating the problem of access to these places.

“This is why we see fairly large numbers in the suburbs of Montreal,” says Alexandre Desuter.