Real estate experts worry new flood zone could impact market

Following the new Montreal flood zone map being made public, a non-profit group, the Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers (QPAREB) — which represents more than 15,000 real estate brokers and agencies — is ringing the alarm.

According to its brief, the new zone maps will make 77,000 previously unaffected properties decline in value. It’s a 55,000 increase compared to the previous flood mapping.

“We know now that a lot of the lenders, insurers, that they backing off on the subject that there’s a lot of person who’s gonna be affected if they want, like right now, put the property to sell,” said Nathalie Bégin, the Chair of the QPAREB’s Brokerage Practice Committee.

According to QPAREB, it is believed that the estimated total value of properties in flood-prone areas under the new mapping is around $18.4 billion.

Bégin says homeowners in these zones could have serious difficulty selling their homes in the future. She hopes the Quebec government considers the recommendations made by the association.

“Owners for now, buyers for now, they don’t have all the information,” she said. “[And] we think it’s very important to have a complaint that explains to the person what’s going to happen in the future for them.”

To accompany the information campaign, three other recommendations were proposed: urging the QC government not to abandon homeowners in flood-prone zones, proposing financial institutions and insurance providers be required to publicly disclose their policies regarding flood zones, and recommending the creation of a resilience certificate for people who have put in the funding to protect their homes, despite being on the map. 

There are four categories of flood risk in the new regulations: low, moderate, high, and very high and each risk corresponds to a colour on the map.

“There’s a lot of houses that shouldn’t, even if they are near the water, they shouldn’t be on the map,” Bégin says.

Bégin said many complaints from homeowners put on the map have been frequent, with some saying zero consultations on water damages were made.

Bégin says calls are coming in from homeowners looking to sell their homes daily with many wondering what happens next.

“There’s a lot of people who needs to sell in the next five years, that’s why it’s urgent to make, to implant and change things now to help those people.”