Montreal

Montreal is Canada's second-largest city and the cultural capital of French-speaking North America, a metropolitan area of around 4.6 million people that has become the best-performing major housing market in the country. More affordable than Toronto or Vancouver, it combines a deep student and talent base, McGill, Concordia, UdeM and UQAM, with a creative economy and a distinctive European character in neighbourhoods like the Plateau and Old Montreal. Crucially for foreign investors, Quebec imposes no provincial foreign-buyer tax, a relative advantage over British Columbia and Ontario, although the federal foreign-buyer ban still applies. While Toronto and Vancouver correct in 2026, Montreal is forecast to keep growing.