Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada told real estate professionals this week that her administration is changing course on the city's housing policy after eight years under former Mayor Valérie Plante.
Martinez Ferrada said she entered politics, in part, because she opposed the city’s existing regulatory approach to housing, particularly the Bylaw for a Diverse Metropolis, known as the 20/20/20 rule.
The bylaw, adopted under the Plante administration, requires new residential projects to include 20% social housing, 20% affordable housing and 20% family-sized units. Developers have long argued that the rule rendered many projects financially unworkable, especially as construction costs and borrowing conditions worsened.
“I decided to get into municipal politics because I was very critical of the city’s approach,” Martinez Ferrada said. “I didn’t like it,” she told an audience Wednesday at the Montreal Real Estate Forum.
Martinez Ferrada said City Hall’s approach to housing regulation had become overly rigid and ineffective.
“I was critical because I felt it was an approach that was too coercive, and it wasn’t working,” she said. “We need an approach that is more collaborative and rooted in the reality of the market.”
'Every project is different'
The mayor said her administration intends to revise how the bylaw is applied, with a focus on restoring project viability while continuing to pursue social and affordable housing goals. Each project, she said, should be evaluated on its own economics rather than forced into a one-size-fits-all framework.
“Every project is different,” she said. “Each site has its own constraints, and we need to work with that reality.”
One Montreal real estate veteran expressed optimism about the new era. Lloyd Cooper, executive vice chair at Cushman & Wakefield, praised the new mayor in a separate panel at the same conference. He noted that Ferrada Martinez met with real estate professionals during her campaign to sound out their needs.
He described it as a contrast to the previous eight years under Valérie Plante was a time when the industry struggled to be heard. Cooper likened Martinez Ferrada to former mayor Denis Coderre, who during his reign from 2013 to 2017, attended meetings help woo potential out-of-town office tenants. “This new mayor will help bring us action,” Cooper said of Ferrada Martinez.
During her appearance at the conference, Martinez Ferrada also took aim at Montreal’s development approval system and its configuration that divides planning authority among 19 boroughs. Inconsistent rules, timelines and interpretations between boroughs and the central city added unnecessary delays to projects, she said.
“We have a responsibility as a city to ensure agility in our governance,” she said. “I don’t want people waiting months just because we aren’t talking to each other.”
Some $500 million available for housing
Her administration has created a new mayors’ table intended to better align borough leaders and standardize approval processes across the city. The mayor said the city holds a substantial inventory of unused land and buildings, including properties in areas such as Chinatown and along Saint-Laurent Boulevard, that have remained dormant for years despite pressure on the housing supply.
“I was surprised to see how many buildings and parcels are sitting unused,” she said. “Some of them have been idle for three or four years.” Martinez Ferrada said mobilizing those assets is part of her broader plan to accelerate housing delivery. She also highlighted the city’s financial capacity to support projects struggling with economics.
“We have about $500 million in reserves that we can use to address the housing crisis,” she said, pointing to tools such as land acquisitions and financial partnerships with the private sector.
The mayor also singled out eastern Montreal as a major long-term growth opportunity. She said roughly 40 million square feet of land in the east could support significant new development if paired with major transit investments.
“Just with the Blue Line extension, we’re talking about roughly 50,000 potential housing units,” she said. “The development potential in the east is enormous.”
Martinez Ferrada closed her remarks with a direct appeal to the development industry, urging closer collaboration with City Hall as the city works to restart stalled construction.
“We’re available, we want to listen, and we want to help,” she said. “My objective is simple. I want to see projects move forward.”