Why Buyers and Sellers Finally Moved in 2025, and What’s Next for Quebec CRE
Release Date: 01/16/2026
How to Survive with 18% Office Vacancy in Montreal | Concrete Strategies for Property Owners with Laurence Binette
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Montreal’s office market is showing nearly a 17–18% vacancy rate. Landlords must offer more concessions, invest heavily in their buildings, and completely rethink their strategy. So how do you stay competitive in 2026? In this episode, Laurence Binette, Director of Brokerage at AlFID, explains how an integrated real estate group with more than 350 employees manages 32 commercial buildings, 2,000 residential units, and 1,000 student housing rooms while continuing to innovate in a complex market. We discuss major transactions, asset optimization, free rent concessions worth $100 to $125 per...
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Is the Montreal Office Market Really Making a Comeback? What the Numbers Don’t Tell You
Espace Montréal Podcast
Is the Montreal office market truly recovering, or is it just a temporary illusion? In this episode of Espace Montreal, Axel Monsaingeon sits down with André Plourde, Executive Vice President and one of the most influential brokers in the Montreal market, to break down 35 years of real estate cycles, crises, and comebacks. From Cité du Multimédia to Place Ville-Marie and trophy office buildings, André shares a ground-level reading of the market, the mistakes property owners must avoid, the new expectations of tenants, and why some buildings are winning while others are falling behind. An...
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Royalmount’s Comeback: The Leasing Playbook Behind Montreal’s Fastest Retail Turnaround
Espace Montréal Podcast
Royalmount is not just “doing fine” it is accelerating. In this episode sits down with , Partner at and SVP Leasing, to break down what actually drives a successful mixed use destination in Montreal. They explore how consumer habits are changed, why occupancy momentum matters more than first month headlines, and how the right tenant mix, events, and access strategy can reposition an asset quickly. You will hear the measurable results behind the Royalmount lease up, the expansion logic for phase two retail, why a hotel on site makes sense, and how Class A office demand is being reshaped...
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How to Build a $1.2B REIT from Scratch — Lessons from BTB’s Founder
Espace Montréal Podcast
How do you go from being a tax lawyer to building a $1.2 billion commercial real estate portfolio? In this episode of the Espace Montréal Podcast, sits down with , President & CEO of , to unpack the real story behind one of Québec’s most successful publicly traded real estate investment trusts. Michel shares the risks, doubts, and hard lessons behind launching a REIT before most people even knew what one was — including capital raising, surviving the 2008 financial crisis, navigating COVID, and maintaining discipline in volatile markets. This conversation is a masterclass in...
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Why Buyers and Sellers Finally Moved in 2025, and What’s Next for Quebec CRE
Espace Montréal Podcast
Quebec’s commercial real estate market has changed fast, and the old “local only” playbook does not hold up anymore. , partner at , joins to unpack what appraisers are seeing before the headlines: how developers now chase opportunities across the province, why 2024 felt frozen, and what shifted in 2025 to bring buyers and sellers closer together. Louis also shares the real story behind PDG’s roots coming out of Desjardins, how the firm grew through acquisitions and mergers, and why a merger has to be “1 + 1 = 3” or it is not worth doing. They dig into PDG’s full-service model...
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Montreal CRE 2026 Outlook: Office Comeback, AI, Housing Policy, and Where Capital Is Moving
Espace Montréal Podcast
Montreal commercial real estate is entering 2026 with a very different set of tailwinds and constraints. In this episode, Axel Monsaingeon sits down with James Papadimitriou, Senior Partner at and a long-time governance leader, to unpack what is actually changing beneath the headlines. They cover why “alternative” real estate is increasingly an operating business (hotels, senior living, data centers, student housing), how AI and automation could reshape industrial and construction productivity, and what programs like Canada Builds Homes could mean for financing, land, and delivery speed....
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Persist to 2026: Why Net Lease Real Estate Is Winning in an Uncertain Market
Espace Montréal Podcast
The commercial real estate recovery everyone expected in 2025 did not arrive. Instead, investors are being forced to rethink risk, cash flow, and capital allocation heading into 2026. In this episode of the Espace Montreal Podcast, Axel Monsaingeon speaks with Marie-Claire Laflamme-Sanders, Senior Vice President and Practice Lead within ’s Québec Capital Markets Team, about why net lease real estate has become one of the most resilient investment strategies in today’s uncertain market. Drawing on insights from the Toronto Real Estate Forum and active transactions across Canada,...
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Commercial Real Estate in Quebec Is Splitting Into Winners and Losers: What 2026 Will Reward
Espace Montréal Podcast
2025 was a turning point for Quebec commercial real estate, and the gap between winners and losers is getting wider. In this end-of-year conversation, Axel Monsaingeon sits down with Andrew Cross to unpack what actually shifted across office, retail, and industrial, and what smart owners, investors, and tenants should watch as 2026 begins. They talk about why strong malls keep winning despite the e-commerce narrative, why lower-tier office stock is being forced into conversion or repositioning, and how innovation like automation and robotics is reshaping industrial demand. The episode also...
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Retail Is Back in Quebec: What’s Driving Near-Zero Vacancy and the Mixed-Use Shift
Espace Montréal Podcast
Quebec retail is outperforming expectations. Triple-A centres are running near-zero vacancy, rents are stabilizing, and consumers are spending more time in places that feel like destinations, not just shopping stops. In this episode, Axel Monsaingeon sits down with retail real estate leader Manon Larose to break down what is actually working right now: why retail is no longer “online vs in-store,” how the tenant mix is shifting toward food, fitness, beauty, and entertainment, and why mixed-use is becoming the default playbook for major sites like Carrefour Laval and Royalmount....
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Redeveloping Carrefour Laval Into a Mixed Use District (Parking, Transit, ESG, Returns)
Espace Montréal Podcast
Cadillac Fairview has been shaping downtown Montreal for decades, but the next chapter is about turning legacy retail land into full neighborhoods. In this episode, Axel Monsaingeon sits down with Jeroen Henrich, Senior Vice President of Development at Cadillac Fairview, to break down the shift from condos to rentals, why underutilized parking fields are now some of the most valuable real estate in Quebec, and how mega-sites like Carrefour Laval get redeveloped without hurting retail performance. They dig into master planning as “3D chess”, transit and infrastructure constraints, ESG...
info_outlineQuebec’s commercial real estate market has changed fast, and the old “local only” playbook does not hold up anymore. Louis Bergeron, partner at HPDG, joins Axel Monsaingeon to unpack what appraisers are seeing before the headlines: how developers now chase opportunities across the province, why 2024 felt frozen, and what shifted in 2025 to bring buyers and sellers closer together. Louis also shares the real story behind PDG’s roots coming out of Desjardins, how the firm grew through acquisitions and mergers, and why a merger has to be “1 + 1 = 3” or it is not worth doing. They dig into PDG’s full-service model from valuation and property management to tax appeals, litigation support, and expropriation tied to major projects like the REM and the Blue Line extension. Louis closes with what PDG is building for 2026, including a refreshed brand and a bigger push to share market insights, plus why comparing cap rates is often harder than people think.
Topics & Timestamps
🗺️ The market is not local anymore: developers go wherever opportunity is (00:00:00)
🧬 HPDG’s “DNA”: staying close to clients from market study to asset management (00:01:13)
🏦 Origin story: Desjardins, the 90s crash, and how HPDG was formed (00:02:06)
📈 Growth strategy: the 2018 merger and expansion through acquisitions (00:04:02)
🏢 How property management started: from crisis cycles to condo management (00:06:25)
🧾 Beyond financing valuations: tax appeal work and investor support A to Z (00:08:18)
⚖️ Litigation support and expropriation: REM and Blue Line context (00:09:35)
🧠 Expropriation valuation is different and the law has changed (00:10:58)
🚀 Entrepreneurship is not linear: expanding services across Quebec (00:11:41)
🤝 Merger mantra: “1 + 1 has to equal 3”, and why they ended a merger (00:12:55)
📊 What changed in 2025: market rebound and buyer-seller gap narrowing (00:16:40)
🏙️ Where deals are happening: multi, office, industrial shifting behavior (00:17:30)
🏗️ Office market reality: towers, notable deals, and transactions not announced yet (00:18:38)
🔄 2026 plans: rebrand + sharing more market insights and data (00:20:59)
🍎🍎 Cap rates “apples to apples” problem and confidentiality constraints (00:23:26)
🌐 Best way to contact HPDG: website and LinkedIn (00:24:17)
🔗 Connect with Louis Bergeron
💼 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/louis-bergeron/
🏢 Avison Young: https://www.hpdg.ca/
👤 Follow Axel Monsaingeon
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/axel-monsaingeon-42577b28/
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/axelmonsaingeon
🌐 Explore more resources
📊 Market guides, data, and advertising opportunities: https://www.e5pace.com/