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Quebec  + Canada  + Multi-residential Housing  | 
Montreal developers are paying fines rather than building social housing.

Perceived Developer Nemesis Plante to Leave Montreal Mayor’s Chair

Montreal developers will not have to battle with Mayor Valérie Plante over city real estate development and land-use policies after November 2025.

Plante has announced that she will not seek re-election after she completes her second term in office.

The mayor is often perceived as a nemesis to developers, who have criticized her social housing policy and, as CoStar noted, the city’s delays in approving projects in such districts as Bridge-Bonaventure, one of two areas in which the city aims to develop 15,000 mostly multi-family units altogether.

As Connect previously reported, many developers have opted to pay fines or hand over properties rather than build new social housing properties in accordance with a development policy implemented in 2021.

The controversial bylaw requires developers to pay a fine or relinquish land, buildings or individual units to the city if new projects exceeding 4,843 square feet do not contain social-housing components.

Plante blamed the province for failing to provide adequate funding. Over the past year, many social Montreal social and affordable housing projects have been launched. Several are led by non-profit groups which have received investments from the city, province and federal government under various housing programs.

Plante’s critics include Luc Poirier, a South Shore developer, and Mélanie Robitaille, the new president of Montreal-based development firm Rachel Julien, CoStar reported.

The mayor also faces a personal lawsuit from another developer Sarto Fournier, whose proposed downtown multi-residential tower was put on hold after Plante’s administration lowered the height zoning to four floors, according to CoStar.

Fourner told CoStar that he will reject any settlement offer and plans to go to court.’

Plante, the first woman to serve as Montreal’s mayor, told reporters that she recently realized she was not able to serve four more years with the same level of energy that she has always given. She called her decision “heartbreaking.”

Despite the criticism against her, Plante vowed to keep doing things her way in her final year in office.

“In the next year, I won’t be slowing down,” she told CTV. “Just watch me.”

Photo: City of Montreal

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Inside The Story

City of MontrealValérie Plante

About Monte Stewart

Monte Stewart serves as Content Director - Canada for Connect Commercial Real Estate. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monte provides daily news coverage of major Canadian commercial real estate markets, including Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Calgary. He has written about the real estate sector for various media outlets and Avison Young since the early 2000s. In addition, he has covered sports, general news and business for several leading wire services and publications, including The Canadian Press, The Associated Press, The Calgary Herald, The Globe and Mail, Research Money, The Daily Oil Bulletin, Natural Gas World and The Toronto Star. Monte is active in his community as a youth basketball coach and raises funds for such charitable causes as Movember.

  • ◦Financing
  • ◦Policy/Gov't
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