List Price and Sold Price in Montreal: Reading the Gap

A SOLD sign never says for how much. In Quebec, the sale price is not displayed: it is published later, somewhere else, and the gap with the list price appears on no listing sheet. Here is who sees that number, when it becomes consultable, and what the gap actually measures.

Why the sold price is not displayed in Quebec

The rule is in the OACIQ guideline on the protection of personal information, section 7.2.4. As long as the deed of sale has not been published in the Registre foncier (Quebec’s land register), the price written in it is confidential information concerning the buyer and the seller. The regulator specifies which number it is talking about: the sale price obtained, “whether or not it corresponds to the initial listing price”. The gap is taken for granted; what is regulated is its publication.

The guideline on advertising goes further. In its section on advertising completed transactions, updated on June 17, 2026, the OACIQ calls it a prohibited practice to advertise the sale price of an immovable or any percentage that would allow the amount to be deduced. A broker may not display the initial asking price written in the brokerage contract either. Sections 111 and 112 of the Regulation respecting the conditions for the practice of a brokerage transaction, the conduct of brokers and advertising govern these mentions. The reason is concrete: if the transaction does not go through, a seller whose accepted price is already public negotiates from a position of weakness.

This is not a permanent secret, it is a dated one. The OACIQ’s reasoning stops at the publication of the deed. After that, the document is consulted like any other: under the land register and cadastre fee schedule in force since April 1, 2026, consulting a document, whether the index of immovables or a deed, costs $1.50. The sale price is therefore not invisible. It is deferred, and it never arrives accompanied by the price that was being asked at the start.

Between brokers, the route is different. With the authorization the seller gives at clause 6.1 of the listing brokerage contract, the price obtained is transmitted to the information dissemination service, which makes reliable comparables possible. But that database may not be released to the general public, and the sheets handed to a client must be masked of anything identifying the seller: photos, address, owner’s name. So comparable sales can be presented to you and defended one by one. Nobody can recite the neighbour’s price to you before it is published.

In Montreal, there is also a free and official door: the owner of a residential building of five dwellings or fewer may consult the sales in their sector, 2024 being the reference year of the 2026-2027-2028 rolls. The City attaches its warning: those sales “may or may not be comparable to your property”.

What the list price is, and what it is not

The list price is a decision, not a measurement. It is written into the brokerage contract, and section 112 of the regulation requires that the price advertised be the one provided for in that contract. Nobody has validated it yet by paying.

The opinion of value, on the other hand, is regulated. When a broker advises a seller on the value of their immovable, the broker must give a reasoned and substantiated opinion in accordance with generally accepted practice and the rules of the art, under section 76 of the same regulation. In residential, that means a comparative analysis with similar properties recently sold in the same sector.

Hence a consequence few sellers anticipate: the gap between the two numbers measures first the quality of the initial decision, and only after that the state of the market. The method for auditing those sales is detailed in the article on comparables.

Listing below market value as bait is prohibited

This is the most useful sentence on the OACIQ page about setting the sale price, updated December 17, 2025: a price clearly below market value and below the comparables used, for the purpose of creating a bidding war, is not permitted. Listing low to provoke competition is therefore not a debatable strategy, it is a breach.

The rules governing multiple promises push in the same direction. The seller’s broker must inform the other brokers or potential buyers without delay of the existence of any promise to purchase, without disclosing its content, and present all proposals as soon as possible after receiving them, without regard to chronological order or to the identity of the buyers. To the seller tempted to set a deadline so everything arrives at once, the OACIQ replies that this strategy runs counter to that obligation.

A sold price far above the list price therefore proves nothing about anyone’s talent. What it mostly says is that the starting number was low. The full mechanism is in the article on bidding wars in Quebec.

A price set too high is paid first in days

The other end of the mistake does not produce a spectacular gap, it produces time. According to APCIQ’s release of August 6, 2026, the Montreal census metropolitan area counted 19,790 active listings in July 2026, up 17% year over year, for 3,338 sales completed in the month. Average selling times were stretching: 38 days for the single-family home, 3 more than a year earlier, and 55 days for the condominium, 9 more. The plex was the exception, at 46 days.

In that kind of market, a price set too high does not correct itself. The OACIQ in fact requires the broker, during the term of the brokerage contract, to advise the seller so the price can be adjusted as the market evolves. Each successive reduction stays visible in the history brokers have access to, and becomes a negotiating argument.

Before touching the number, situate it: the home value estimator gives an order of magnitude to set against the comparables. The full diagnosis when nothing moves is in the article on a property that is not selling.

The municipal assessment does not predict the sold price

The assessment roll answers a different question, on a different date. The ministere des Affaires municipales describes it as an inventory of a municipality’s immovables, assessed on the same basis and on the same date, in force for three years.

In both cases, that date precedes the roll’s coming into force by 18 months. Laval writes it plainly: the assessment of your property “therefore does not necessarily reflect its current market value”. The City sums up the exercise in one sentence: for the 2025-2026-2027 triennial roll, the assessor determined the value based on the last visit and on the probable price you could have obtained had you sold on July 1, 2023.

The roll is therefore a poor starting point for a list price and a poor finishing point for a sold price. It remains the right document for another step, explained in the article on contesting your municipal assessment.

What a buyer can deduce from a listing, and what they invent

Two mentions are often read the wrong way.

“Sold in 6 days”. The count runs from the signing of the brokerage contract to the fulfilment of all conditions, not from the date the promise to purchase was accepted. So it is not the delay between going online and the first offer.

The “sold” mention. It appears only once all the conditions of the promise have been met. A property still showing its price may very well be the subject of an accepted but conditional promise.

What is missing also has to be said. APCIQ’s monthly releases for the Montreal CMA publish sales volumes, active listings, median price variations and selling times. They publish neither a ratio of sold price to list price, nor a proportion of sales completed above the displayed price. No primary source therefore lets me put a number on the average gap between the two prices, and I would be wary of anyone who hands you that percentage. What public data really allows you to read is detailed in the article on the market numbers.

Setting your maximum price before filing a promise

The maximum price is a number you write down before knowing how many competitors there are, because afterwards it is no longer a ceiling but a memory. Three elements set it, and none of them comes from an online listing: recent adjusted comparable sales, your borrowing capacity confirmed by your lender, and the cash amount you will add if the lender’s appraisal comes in below the price paid.

Remember too that the seller has the right to refuse a promise to purchase even if the price and conditions match their expectations, as the brokerage contract provides: the highest offer is not necessarily the one accepted. Borrowing capacity is confirmed with a mortgage broker, the effects of a signed promise with the notary.

Frequently asked questions

Can my broker tell me what the house next door sold for? Not before the deed is published in the Registre foncier: until then, the price is confidential information concerning the buyer and the seller. The broker can, however, use that sale as a comparable, provided the elements identifying the seller are masked, including the address and the photos.

How long after the sale does the price become consultable? There is no fixed delay. The trigger is the publication of the deed in the Registre foncier, which follows the signing at the notary’s office. The document is then consulted for $1.50 under the fee schedule in force since April 1, 2026.

Is listing below market value to create a bidding war a valid strategy? No. The OACIQ writes that a price clearly below market value and below the comparables used, for the purpose of creating a bidding war, is not permitted.

My municipal assessment jumped a lot. Can I ask for that amount? That would mean basing a 2026 price on the market conditions of July 1, 2024 in Montreal or July 1, 2023 in Laval, and the gap can run in either direction.

To go further, read the method for auditing comparables and what Montreal market data actually lets you say.

Want to know where your property stands before announcing a price? Write to me: we look together at the comparable sales in your sector, and at the list price they support.

Georges Matar

Residential Real Estate Broker · RE/MAX DU CARTIER INC.

Contact Georges