Ville-Marie, downtown

Schools

Downtown, the school depends a lot on the address. In the east of the borough, the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal has five elementary schools and the Pierre-Dupuy high school. In the west, the elementary school project for the Peter-McGill district is on hold, with no restart date. The arts school FACE keeps its high school section on University Street.

It is also the district for higher education: UQAM in the Latin Quarter, Concordia and McGill in the west, and the Cégep du Vieux Montréal. The Centre de services scolaire de Montréal and the English Montreal School Board each have a tool to find the school for an address: check before you make a promise to purchase.

Parks, recreation and culture

Mount Royal Park is at your door, with its chalet, its lookouts and Beaver Lake. On the other side, the Old Port is open every day, and Jean-Drapeau Park, on the islands, has its aquatic complex and its beach: you get there by metro.

The borough has 141 parks and green spaces, 22 museums, and more than 80 cultural venues in the Quartier des spectacles. In the west, the Sanaaq centre brings together a library and a 255-seat performance hall. In the east, the Frontenac library is a short walk from the metro, and four indoor pools offer free public swimming.

Getting around

You can live here without a car. The borough has 16 metro stations, according to the City, on the Green, Orange and Yellow lines. Two REM stations are in service, Gare Centrale and McGill, toward Deux-Montagnes, Anse-à-l’Orme and Brossard. Gare Centrale and the Lucien-L’Allier station handle commuter trains, and the RÉSO underground network connects the metro to downtown buildings.

Sainte-Catherine Street West is being rebuilt in sections: the one from De Bleury Street to Peel Street is finished, and the work has been moving west since 2025. If you are looking at an address on that street or close to it, check the City’s roadwork map before you buy.

Before you buy here

Here, you mostly buy a condo, so you are also buying a building and its syndicate. Ask early for the syndicate’s certificate on the state of the co-ownership: it gives the contingency fund, the common expenses, the budget and the insurance. Since August 2025, every syndicate must also have a maintenance log and a contingency fund study, but the regulation gives it time. Ask whether they already exist.

Do not count on renting to tourists. Year-round, it is allowed only on one stretch of Sainte-Catherine Street, under conditions. Elsewhere, you can rent only your principal residence, in summer, with a permit, and the declaration of co-ownership or the syndicate must allow it.

In Old Montréal and on the slope of Mount Royal, two heritage sites, you need an authorization before changing the appearance of a building, on top of the work permit. And in a condo, an interior renovation that touches the walls requires a permit and the syndicate’s agreement.

The area in a few facts

The Ville-Marie borough brings together downtown and its neighbourhoods: Old Montréal, the Old Port, the Latin Quarter, the International District, the Village, Sainte-Marie, the Quartier des spectacles and Shaughnessy Village, among others. Its population grew by close to 18% between 2016 and 2021.

This is condo country: in the 2021 census, 46% of homes were condominiums, and more than half were in a building of five storeys or more. Sainte-Marie is the exception, with 82% of its homes in a duplex or a small building. In Old Montréal, close to one household in two owns its home.

Old Montréal has been a heritage site since 1964: 557 buildings and remains built between the 17th and 20th centuries, in the grey stone you see everywhere.

RÉSO, the underground pedestrian network, has some 32 km of walkways. The CHUM opened in 2017, and 63% of the borough’s residents speak both French and English.

The neighbourhood at a glance

Ville-Marie is building fast: 15% of its homes were built from 2016 to 2021, compared with 4% in Montréal, and more than one in three since 2001. Along with the Plateau, it is the youngest borough in Montréal, with a median age of 34, and more than one household in two is a person living alone.

Large homes are scarce (barely more than one in ten has three bedrooms or more), and so are children: 7% of residents are under 15. Close to one household in five is a student household. In the Montagne neighbourhood, eight homes in ten are in towers, and only one household in five owns.

Source: 2021 census, borough of Ville-Marie.

A few properties I have sold here

Frequently asked questions

Your project in Ville-Marie

From Old Montréal to the Quartier Latin and Sainte-Marie, people mostly buy condos. Before a promise to purchase, we go through the co-ownership documents together: the contingency fund, the minutes, the fees and the work ahead.

On my blog (in French)

• Acheter une maison à Montréal en 2026 : 7 choses à savoir avant de commencer
• Acheter cet automne : comment bâtir un dossier de financement solide en 2026

Useful links

• Borough of Ville-Marie, City of Montréal (in French)
• Permits and certificates in Ville-Marie (in French)
• Rules for divided co-ownerships, Government of Québec (in French)
• Tourist accommodation in Ville-Marie (in French)
• City of Montréal roadwork map
• Find a school, Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (in French)

Facts from the City of Montréal, the Government of Québec, the Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec, the STM, the REM, exo, the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal and the 2021 census.