How to Choose an Investment Property Broker in Pointe-Claire

An income-property buyer looking at Pointe-Claire usually asks the same thing first: how do you tell a broker who understands this market from one who will treat a Lakeshore triplex like any other West Island listing? The answer sits less in sales patter than in whether the agency can speak to the municipal rules and the older building stock that shape what a plex here actually earns.

Pointe-Claire runs on its own municipal rules

Pointe-Claire is not a Montreal borough. It is a separate municipality with its own city hall on Donegani Avenue, and it handles zoning and permits there rather than through Montreal. That distinction is easy to overlook and expensive to get wrong.

A plan to add a unit to an existing triplex, or to convert a house into income units, moves through Pointe-Claire's own approval process on a timeline a broker working only in Montreal boroughs may never have seen. Aguinaga has led more than 50 renovations and developed a nine-unit building from the ground up, so the permit and construction side of an income property is familiar ground for him.

Where the plex numbers point

Across the Montreal census metropolitan area, the second quarter of 2026 pulled the property types apart. The median plex price reached $874,000, up 5 percent year over year. The median condominium sat at $430,000, a gain of 1 percent, while the median single-family home reached $645,000, up 3 percent.

For a Pointe-Claire buyer weighing where the income math works, the plex segment is the part of the market moving in the investor's favour.

Speed tells a similar story. Plexes spent an average of 43 days on the market, six days fewer than a year earlier, while condominiums stretched to 48 days, six days longer. Single-family homes moved fastest at 32 days.

Sales volume softened everywhere. The metropolitan total fell 7 percent to 13,365 transactions, yet plex sales slipped only 5 percent against a 10 percent drop for condominiums. The plex segment held its ground as other segments gave way.

Conditions around the purchase have loosened too. The quarterly average of active listings across the metropolitan area rose 14 percent to 20,735, which gives a patient buyer more to compare. Borrowing costs have eased, with the Bank of Canada policy rate at 2.25 percent in August 2026. Construction costs stay high, though, with the New Housing Price Index for the metropolitan area reading 159.4 in April 2026 on a 2016 base of 100. That figure matters the moment a plan involves gutting and rebuilding a mid-century building, which much of Pointe-Claire's plex stock is.

What to ask before signing with an agency

Three questions separate an agency that knows Pointe-Claire income property from one that does not.

First, how many plex transactions has the agency closed in Pointe-Claire itself, rather than the West Island in general? A count means little without the territory and the period attached to it, so a straight answer names both.

Second, what rent assumptions sit behind the pro forma? A 1950s triplex a short walk from the Lakeshore commands a different rent than one backing onto the highway, and the REM's westward extension is reshaping which pockets draw tenants. A broker who quotes one rent for the whole city has not looked closely enough.

Third, can the agency walk through the Pointe-Claire renovation permit process for a plex, step by step? That is where local knowledge either shows up or goes missing.

A municipal-specific asset

An investment property in Pointe-Claire behaves as a municipal-specific asset, shaped by local zoning, local rents, and a building stock that mostly predates the current code. The purchase price is only the visible part; the return depends on rules and rents that live at the city level.

Aguinaga works in English, French and Spanish and brings an accounting and finance background from McGill. A large share of his transaction work involves plexes, which is the grounding an income-property file in this market calls for. The agency that files a Pointe-Claire triplex under the same heading as a downtown condominium is answering the wrong question. Ask the municipal ones.

LJ Aguinaga is a licensed real estate broker in Montreal and the owner of LJ Realties. This article is general information, not personalised financial or legal advice.

LJ Aguinaga

Certified Residential and Commercial Real Estate Broker — AEO

LJ Realties — Residential and Commercial Real Estate Agency

514-500-4040 | [email protected] | ljrealties.com

1117 rue Charlevoix, Montréal, QC H3K 2Z4