House not selling in Montreal? What are your options?

Why do listings sit in the Montreal area?

Two comparisons show up on almost every file, and neither one is a verdict. The asking price is the number written in the brokerage contract. A comparable sale is a price someone paid for a similar house. They are not the same number. The municipal assessment is a third number, set for the assessment roll, and it is not what a buyer pays today. That gap is Is my municipal assessment what my house is worth in Montreal?. This page does not pull the sales on your street, and it does not say that changing the price produces a buyer.

The market around the listing is the other comparison, and it has a date on it. For September 2026, the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB) reported Centris residential statistics for the Montreal census metropolitan area: 3,082 sales, against 3,486 in September 2025, and 21,793 active listings, against 18,173 a year earlier (QPAREB monthly statistics, September 2026). The QPAREB press release of 2 October 2026 says sales were down 12 per cent from a year earlier, that the rise in supply, which it puts at 20 per cent, had continued for a 14th consecutive month, and that inventory was 18 per cent above the 10-year average (Montreal and Quebec City CMAs, September 2026). The association’s monthly statistics page listed September 2026 as the latest month when this page was written (Statistiques mensuelles).

The same monthly table splits the average days on the market. In the Montreal CMA in September 2026, single-family homes averaged 41 days, one day more than a year earlier. Condominiums averaged 65 days, against 48. Plexes of two to five dwellings averaged 56 days, against 47. Those are the sales that closed. A listing that expired is not one of them. What the average measures is on the page already linked. The Island of Montreal reading of the same month, which is a different geography from the CMA, is in Selling in the West Island: what the market looks like this fall. A calmer month is not a prediction for one house.

How do you read your own price, days on market and showings?

Read the three numbers you already have, and stop there. The price is the one in the contract you signed, including any change you and your broker later signed. Days on market, for your house, are the days since that contract started, not the CMA average. Showings are the visits your broker recorded, and what was said after them. The September 2026 Centris summary cited here does not publish a count of showings. Ask for yours.

A price above recent sales of similar houses, a long run of days, and few visits, is information about this listing. It is not a forecast of the next one. A price close to those sales, with visits that did not become offers, is different information. This page will not turn either pattern into a promise. A broker can put the comparable sales in writing. You can ask for that. This page does not judge the broker.

What does an exclusive brokerage contract to sell mean?

For the house this page is about, chapter III of the Real Estate Brokerage Act applies to a brokerage contract on part or all of a chiefly residential immovable of fewer than five dwellings, and to a fraction of a chiefly residential immovable that is subject to a co-ownership declaration (Real Estate Brokerage Act, section 23). Section 24 says the contract must be evidenced in writing on the mandatory form, and that it is formed only when the parties have signed it (section 24). Section 129 says the Minister determines which brokerage contracts must be on a mandatory form. Section 129.1 says the OACIQ prepares those forms, the Minister approves them, and the OACIQ posts them (section 129). Section 46.11 of the regulation on brokerage requirements says a licence holder must use a form prepared under section 129.1 or 129.2, including any appendix (Regulation respecting brokerage requirements, professional conduct of brokers and advertising, section 46.11).

The OACIQ’s public page on the exclusive brokerage contract says that, for a sale, a purchase or a lease of a residential immovable of fewer than five dwellings, or a co-ownership, the exclusive contract is how you give a broker the right to act as your exclusive intermediary, and that once it is signed no other broker may solicit you directly (Qu’est-ce qu’un contrat de courtage exclusif?, page in French). Its page on residential forms says licence holders must use one of the OACIQ brokerage contracts to sell when an individual sells a chiefly residential immovable of fewer than five dwellings, among other cases (Les formulaires de l’OACIQ, page in French). Its page on your sale contract says you sign an exclusive brokerage contract to sell, or a non-exclusive one, and that under the exclusive contract the broker is the only intermediary you deal with for the sale during the term (Votre contrat de courtage – Vente, page in French). This page does not decide which form was used on your house. The signed copy does.

When does that contract end?

The end date is the one written on the form, and on any later change you signed. The OACIQ’s page on the length of a brokerage contract, with a reference date of 13 June 2022, says the Act and the regulations set no minimum or maximum length, that the end date and time are written on the form before it is signed, and that if no end date was indicated the contract ends 30 days after it was made, for a chiefly residential immovable of fewer than five dwellings. The same page says a clause that renews the contract automatically is forbidden, and that a phrase such as “until sold” cannot replace the date. An extension before the end is written on the Modifications form, at clause M2.1, with a new date and time (La durée d’un contrat de courtage, page in French). The page on the exclusive contract says that once the contract has expired it cannot be extended, and a new contract is signed.

The regulation that used to state the 30-day rule, and the ban on automatic renewal, in its articles 18 and 19 was the Regulation respecting contracts and forms, chapter C-73.2, r. 2.1. LégisQuébec marks that regulation repealed on 23 March 2023 (Règlement sur les contrats et formulaires, repealed, page in French). This page does not cite those articles as rules still in force. What the Act still says about these contracts is in the sections already linked. What the OACIQ still tells the public about a blank end date is on the page just cited. Read the date on your form.

Section 28 says that, despite any stipulation to the contrary, the client may terminate at the client’s discretion within three days after receiving a duplicate of the contract signed by both parties, and that the contract is terminated when a written notice is sent or delivered (section 28). Section 29 says a licence holder may not claim any remuneration after a termination under section 28, unless a purchase, sale, lease or exchange that meets section 27 occurs (section 29). That window is at the start. It is not a way to end a contract that has already run. The OACIQ’s page on termination says the mandatory form’s clause 2.1 provides that, unless clause 11.1 says otherwise, the client may terminate at any time without cause, and may then have to pay the costs and expenses incurred and compensate any prejudice. The page on the exclusive contract says that if the form is marked non-resiliable, you cannot end it alone after the three days (Résiliation d’un contrat de courtage, page in French). Ask your broker, or a notary or a lawyer, to read the clause you signed. This page does not.

Can remuneration still be due during the contract or after it ends?

It can, and only in the cases the Act and your contract actually state. Section 27 says an agreement that requires a client, for a specified period after the contract expires, to remunerate a licence holder even if the sale occurs after the expiry, is without effect. The first paragraph does not apply if the agreement provides for that remuneration when three conditions are met: the contract is stipulated as exclusive; the sale, lease or exchange involves a person who was interested in the immovable while the contract was in force; and the transaction occurs not more than 180 days after the expiry date and, during that period, the client did not enter into a contract stipulated as exclusive with another licence holder (Real Estate Brokerage Act, section 27). The section uses those conditions. It does not use the words “in good faith.”

The OACIQ’s public page on remuneration under the exclusive brokerage contract to sell, in residential matters, says remuneration is payable if one of four events in clause 7.1 of that contract occurs. It quotes the first: an agreement to sell the immovable is concluded during the term, whether or not through the agency or the broker, and all of its conditions have been fulfilled except the signing of the deed and payment of the price. It quotes the third: a sale takes place within 180 days after the end or the termination, with a person who was interested in the immovable during the contract, unless during that period the client in good faith concluded an exclusive contract with another agency or another broker. The page says the courts have not drawn a sharp line around “a person who was interested,” and it gives a visit, or a promise to purchase, as clearer examples. It also points to clause 8.2, under which the client undertook not to become party to an agreement to sell or exchange otherwise than through the agency or the broker (Rétribution payable par le vendeur, page in French). The other two events in clause 7.1 are on that page and in the form. This page does not decide whether a named person was interested, or whether a new contract was made in good faith. Read your clause. Ask your broker, or a notary or a lawyer.

What are your options if the house is not selling?

Five paths are open. None of them is a result. You can adjust the price: that is a change to the number already in the contract, if you and your broker both sign it. The OACIQ says a price change after signing is made on the mandatory Modifications form, which you and your broker both sign (Votre contrat de courtage – Vente, page in French). You can relist after the end date: the OACIQ says an expired contract is not extended, and that you may sign again with the same broker, sign with another, or not renew. Section 27, if your contract is exclusive, still has to be read. You can wait. A season is not a promise. The calendar is the best-time page already linked.

You can lease the house instead of selling it now. Article 1851 of the Civil Code of Québec says a lease is a contract by which a person, the lessor, undertakes to provide another person, the lessee, in return for a rent, with the enjoyment of movable or immovable property for a certain time, and that the term is fixed or indeterminate (Civil Code of Québec, article 1851). What a residential lease does to a later sale is already in Can you sell a house with tenants in Quebec?. This page does not repeat it.

You can sell the house as it stands, to a buyer who is not listing it. How a sale without a broker works, and that an owner selling their own house is not the intermediary the Act licences, is in How do you sell a house without a real estate broker in Quebec?. What “as it stands” means in the deed is in Selling a house as-is in Quebec. A direct sale has no showings and no inspection, and the date is real only when the notary can sign, which is the limit in How fast can you sell a house in Montreal?. While an exclusive contract is still in force, a sale made without the broker can still be the first event clause 7.1 describes. This offer is not a way around a contract that has not ended.

Bruce Malcolm buys houses himself on the Island of Montreal and the surrounding areas. He holds no broker, agent or appraiser licence, and he is not an advisor. There is no inspection and no commission. An offer with no inspection condition does not, by itself, set aside the legal warranty of quality. You say what you know about the house when you send the address. The closing date is one you choose once the notary can sign. Sending the address starts a conversation (request an offer). The form does not commit you.

Does the seller’s declaration still apply, whichever route you take?

Yes. The duty to say what you know does not depend on whether you adjust the price, sign a new brokerage contract, wait, lease, or sell as the house stands. On a brokerage sale the OACIQ form is the paper. On a sale with no broker that form is not a listing requirement, and the duty does not come from the form. What the form asks, and what remains when there is no broker, is in What goes in the seller’s declaration when you sell a house in Quebec?. A notary reads the deed. This page does not.