Two sizeable Montreal apartment buildings have been listed for sale by CBRE in recent days and, while one is 55 years older than the other, they're signs of ongoing interest and activity in the multifamily transaction market.

Le 6630 is a 22-storey concrete apartment building with 254 units at 6630 Sherbrooke St. W. in the west-end neighbourhood of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. CBRE has just begun marketing the property and Scott Speirs, vice-chairman and practice lead for CBRE Montreal’s national investment team, told RENX he expects strong interest from a broad range of institutional and private investors.

Le Cent-Onze is an 11-storey, 270-unit apartment building at 111 Alexis Nihon Blvd. in the borough of Saint-Laurent. It has already received interest from institutional and private investors since CBRE began marketing it.

“One dynamic at play in the Canadian marketplace at the moment is the shrinking investable universe,” Speirs observed. “Industrial investment appetite has decreased materially in the past six months, and that was roughly half the market over the past couple of years, so there is an increasing focus on multifamily.”

Le 6630

Le 6630 was built in 1967 and is being sold by a German family as part of a succession plan.

The building’s 89 studio units average 382 square feet, its 109 one-bedroom units average 655 square feet, its 55 two-bedroom units average 845 square feet, and it has a 900-square-foot penthouse. The apartments are 95 per cent occupied by a mix of young professionals, students, families and empty nesters.

Le 6630 has 82 indoor parking stalls, a laundry room, an indoor swimming pool, saunas and a rooftop terrace offering panoramic views of the Montreal skyline and the St. Lawrence River.

“It is a tremendous value creation opportunity,” Speirs said. “It is a building where the rents are 27 per cent below market in an outstanding location near Concordia University's Loyola Campus.

“It's exceptionally well-amenitized with a grocery store and pharmacy across the street. There’s significant gentrification happening in the immediate area and there are condos and new apartments directly behind the building.

“You’ve got a significant student population within the building, which typically means shorter-term tenancies and an ability to turn units over to market rents more quickly.”

Le Cent-Onze

Le Cent-Onze was completed in 2022 by Rosefellow, a merchant builder that generally sells what it develops, at the intersection of highways 15 and 40. 

“The construction is exceptional and it was built to a very high standard,” Speirs said, noting the property has attractive in-place financing of 2.75 per cent until 2028.

The building’s two studios, 120 one-bedroom units, 129 two-bedroom units and 19 three-bedroom units range in size from 543 to 2,398 square feet and are 95 per cent occupied.

Le Cent-Onze’s amenities include 295 indoor parking stalls, storage lockers, a rooftop swimming pool, a movie and games room, co-working spaces and a large fitness centre with a spa.

Rental demand generators include proximity to schools, employers within Saint-Laurent’s major office and industrial parks, and the Montréal-Trudeau International Airport. The Carbonleo Real Estate Inc. and L Catterton Real Estate-owned Royalmount -- the biggest private development in Quebec with a large variety of stores, restaurants, offices, green spaces, common areas and entertainment attractions -- is also nearby.

Lack of multires supply in Montreal

The multiresidential asset class is particularly attractive in times of uncertainty, which these are, and Speirs said Montreal has held up better from a leasing perspective than Toronto and Vancouver — largely due to a lack of supply in the market.

Speirs expects most new apartment buildings coming to market will be single-phase projects that developers can start relatively quickly and take on a bit less risk with than they would with large-scale, multi-phased developments.

Some developers intend to own their apartment buildings long-term while others are looking to sell them as soon as they’re completed.

The spread between what owners are looking to sell Montreal apartment buildings for and what purchasers are willing to pay has narrowed significantly in the last six months, according to Speirs, who anticipates lots of upcoming transactions.

“There will be more multifamily inventory during the course of this year. It is by far the most active asset class at the moment and numerous other opportunities will be coming very consistently during the course of this year.”