A renewed wave of concern is rippling through Montreal this week after confirmation that the Quebec government has continued selling parcels of public land despite the province’s ongoing housing crisis. While none of the recent transactions occurred in Park Extension, the implications for the neighbourhood are unmistakable.
Public land is considered one of the last effective tools governments possess to develop deeply affordable, non-market housing. Once sold, that land leaves public control permanently, and with Montreal’s vacancy rate still near historic lows, housing advocates warn that every lost parcel reduces the city’s capacity to address the crisis.
In Park Extension, a community already strained by rising rents, renovictions and aging housing stock, this latest development deepens long-standing anxieties.
A Neighbourhood With No Margin Left
Park Extension remains one of Montreal’s most economically vulnerable districts. The majority of residents are renters, many of them families and newcomers, living in some of the city’s oldest buildings. Over the past decade, redevelopment pressures have transformed entire blocks, pushing rents upward and increasing turnover.
With few empty lots left and no room for horizontal growth, the neighbourhood relies heavily on policies made outside its borders, especially decisions about land use elsewhere in the city.
Housing specialists note that when the province sells its land rather than reserving it for non-profit or cooperative projects, the shortfall eventually hits places like Park Extension hardest. Fewer subsidized units built citywide means more competition for the limited number that exist, driving more families toward neighbourhoods where rents have traditionally been lower. Park Extension, already stretched, absorbs the shock.
A Citywide Problem Felt Locally
Montreal’s rental market continues to experience severe pressure, with average rents rising significantly and demand far outpacing supply. Community groups across the island have urged the provincial government to treat its land holdings as a strategic asset, one that could anchor long-term, genuinely affordable housing.
Their argument is simple: private-sector construction, even under affordability programs, seldom reaches the rent levels Park Extension households can sustain. Non-market housing does. But without land, those projects cannot happen.
Long-Term Stakes
Urban planners often describe public land as a “once lost, forever lost” resource. Its sale narrows the path for future housing strategies and locks in market-driven outcomes. For Park Extension, where the balance between affordability and displacement is already precarious, the long-term consequences of these decisions could be profound.
While the most recent land sales may have occurred outside the neighbourhood, the ripple effects will reach it. Tenants, community workers and housing advocates in Park Extension are watching closely, aware that the decisions made at the provincial level today will help determine who can afford to live in the neighbourhood tomorrow.
