C$668,200 Montreal apartment: buy or keep renting with high association fees?

[teaAndHorizon]

A poor choice here could mean carrying expensive ownership costs and then selling just as I need to relocate. A comparable Montreal apartment is around C$668,200, and its interest, property tax, maintenance and association dues would put the monthly outlay well above my current rent.

I am likely to stay for five to seven years. I can separate mortgage principal from the true costs, as suggested, but I am less sure how to model resale expenses, the return forgone on the deposit and the possibility of an awkward sale. Building insurance exposure, energy use, rising dues and the management workload also seem easy to underestimate.

Would a sensible compromise be to compare renting with both a normal resale case and a forced move after five years? I would be interested in a Montreal example that includes recurring costs, reserve-fund risk and the full cost of exiting.

 

[zane_reads]

With a five-to-seven-year horizon, I would not treat the mortgage payment as the main comparison. Separate principal from interest, then add taxes, dues, maintenance inside the unit, buying and selling costs, and the return your deposit could earn elsewhere. Equity is valuable, but it does not automatically offset a large monthly gap or an expensive exit.

 

[measureTheRoom]

What are the apartment’s interior area and current monthly dues? Without those, price per square metre says little. I’d also want the building’s available financial records, planned major work and insurance history. Low reserves plus an aging, maintenance-intensive building could turn apparently manageable dues into a much bigger ownership risk.

 

[zane_reads]

Agreed on the area, but I wouldn’t compare price per square metre in isolation even after you have it. Parking, storage, floor, condition and energy use can distort that figure. For the rent-versus-buy sheet, use three exit prices rather than assuming appreciation: lower, unchanged and higher. Then deduct estimated selling costs in every case and see how much equity remains after five and seven years.

 

[readTheRidge]

Owning would be my preferred outcome if the apartment remains workable after a move, but the landlord option is the obstacle rather than an automatic safety net. The missing fact is whether the unit has broad rental and resale appeal: for example, would its layout, location and monthly dues suit ordinary buyers and tenants, or only a narrow group?

If keeping it would genuinely be acceptable after allowing for vacancies, repairs, insurance and management, the five-to-seven-year horizon becomes less rigid. If not, I would judge the purchase on a sale at the planned move date and avoid relying on a future tenancy to make the figures work.

 

[even_thread]

The association dues need to be split conceptually: routine shared services are consumption, while contributions that strengthen building reserves may reduce future exposure. A high fee is not automatically bad, and a low one is not automatically reassuring.

 

[even_thread]

One addition: inspect what the dues actually cover before comparing them with rent. Heating or other shared energy costs can make two headline fee amounts incomparable. I’d build one table for cash flow and another for net worth at the planned move date. If buying only wins under optimistic resale assumptions, while renting wins under unchanged prices and preserves mobility, that tells you where the decision’s real risk sits.