Housing in Quebec is a bit special. When I say “special” I don’t mean weird or abnormal but it has codes. Coming from Europe, I first had a hard time understanding all the vocabulary of housing in Quebec. Once you know the codes, it gets much easier and you can start looking for a house.

Quebecers will often tell you about their “condo”. The first time I heard that, I was a bit puzzled. A condo is the abbreviation for “condominium”; a complex word simply meaning co-ownership (I don’t know why, but it always makes me think of some kind of a dragon ball z attack…everybody’s different…). Therefore a condo doesn’t represent a special type of architecture but a form of housing tenure.

Now you know what a condo is, I can easily introduce you to some more terms specific to housing in Quebec.

A bungalow is a single story house and a cottage is a multiple stories-house.

Housing in Quebec is expressed in halves. The ½ is the bathroom and the number before ½ represent the number of rooms. If you want to have a closed bedroom, you will probably need a 3 ½.

Even though Quebec has two taxes, when it comes to housing, you don’t have to add taxes! YES!!

A lots of houses have the heating and hydro included, you can even get a place with all the appliances included (the advert will say “semi-equipped” or “fully equipped”)…even a washer and drier; you will thank your landlord when it’s -35°C outside and you don’t have to desperately drag yourself to the laundry.

The sizes of the houses are expressed in square feet. (To know what you get in square meters, divide by 10 and subtract 1/100).

Leases usually last one year and tend to start July 1st (you remember, moving day…).

If you want to get assistance to find a house, you can always turn to relocation agencies as they know the market and will explain you everything about housing in Quebec.

Photo credits: Wikipedia