Attendants at the recent Quebec Apartment Investment Conference in Montreal were informed that the Quebec model in response to the high home prices situation in Canada which provides affordable housing for seniors has begun to see the model embraced by other regions.

According to Maxime Camerlain, vice president of marketing at Chartwell Retirement Residence Toronto is following the lead of Quebec to create an additional 330 apartments of affordable rental spaces for seniors.

Quebec is taking the lead in senior’s rental housing in Canada as it has half of the almost 220,000 private residential housing for seniors. In Quebec, home affordability is very evident for seniors with the average monthly rent in the province at $1,626 while in Ontario; the average rental price is $3,499. Unit’s counts in Quebec are also higher with fewer services provided.

Nevertheless, seniors are now more willing to spend more on quality rental services even though Quebec provides affordable rental. Seniors are more concerned about the services they receive.

However the increasing trend in spending more on service will be firmly implemented by the present baby boomers as their perspective is they need to spend their earned money on them services they receive after all; they have already taken care of their children’s need.

In the past, seniors were more concerned about taking care of the needs of their children, but the current generation of seniors is ready to spend more on themselves.

In Montreal an increasing number of rental units are being constructed than condos. 52% of units in Montreal are rental units. However, despite the large number of affordable rental units being made available, people consider the service that are provided, hence Chartwell aims at providing new units within 500 meters of a grocery or pharmacy. Seniors are in more need of such services which means such services around rental units will draw in more renters.

New development projects are also trying to make such services to be found within their buildings. One of such will be Arbora, a 450-unit mixed-used project in the Griffin town neighborhood of Montreal. The project will include a bakery and pastry shop in the building explained Annie Lemieux, present of the development company.

High land cost in Canada has prompted developers to come up with creative ways to provide rental housing to ensure the land is wisely made use of.

Rental housing in Quebec is highly competitive in comparison to other provinces which mean developers have to go the extra mile to become popular. According to Francis Charron, vice-president of real estate developer Batimo, which collaborates with Chartwell to create seniors housing stated “you are only as good as your last successful project.”