Cities / Montréal

Inner suburb · North, Montréal

Saint-Léonard

A compact borough with a long-established Italian community and low-rise apartment streets

  • Families with kids
  • Seniors
  • Newcomers

At a glance

A compact north-east borough of mostly low-rise apartments, with about two in three households renting and one in five residents 65 or older. It has one of the city's largest Italian communities. Home values are above the city median, and reported crime per resident is below it.

Median home value
$695K
2021 census, owner estimate · city $500K
Residents
85,000
estimate for mid-2025, up from 79,495 at the 2021 census
Households renting
65%
city 64%
Permits per year
505
2021–2025 average

What the numbers mean

  • Owners valued the median home at $695K in the 2021 census, 39% above the Montréal median of $500K. Prices have moved since, so treat it as a relative guide.
  • 65% of households rent, close to the 64% city-wide.
  • 19% of residents are under 15, versus 15% city-wide. Expect busy schools, parks and playgrounds.
  • Building activity is lighter than the city as a whole, at about 505 permits a year.

Who lives here

Share of residents by age, estimate for mid-2025, up from 79,495 at the 2021 census.

0-1419%
15-195%
20-245%
25-3411%
35-4413%
45-5414%
55-6412%
65+21%

Homes

Share of homes by type, estimate for mid-2025, up from 79,495 at the 2021 census.

Single-detached6%
Semi-detached3%
Row house0%
Duplex flat11%
Apartment under 5 storeys72%
Apartment 5+ storeys8%

Daily errands on foot1

Places within the borough or a 5-minute walk of its edge, compared with the typical borough in Montréal.

Supermarkets
23
city median 22
Cafés and bakeries
49
city median 50
Pharmacies and clinics
22
city median 22
Playgrounds and dog parks
72
city median 103

Upfront closing costs2

Quebec buyers pay a tiered transfer duty (the welcome tax) to the municipality, set by each city. Montréal's rate rises from 0.5% to 4%. Government fees at the median home price: This uses the 2021 census home-value estimate, and today's prices are higher, so the real bill will be larger.

Montréal transfer duties (welcome tax)
$9,250
on $695K

Typical apartment rent nearby3

Saint-Léonard sits in CMHC's Anjou/Saint-Léonard survey zone. October 2025 average rent of purpose-built rental apartments in that zone:

Studio
$690
−$315 vs metro average
1 bedroom
$844
−$287 vs metro average
2 bedroom
$1,119
−$227 vs metro average
3 bedroom or more
—
not reported

How it's changing

Building permits issued each year, a leading signal of new homes and renovations. Montréal counts every permit type, including renovations and demolitions.

*2026 is year to date.

Safety4

Reported incidents in the last 12 months (October 2025 to September 2026), per 1,000 residents, compared with the median of 19 Montréal boroughs.

Reported crime
6.9
per 1,000 · a little below the 8.3 median
Violent crime
0.6
per 1,000 · median 0.7
Property crime
6.3
per 1,000 · median 7.5
  • Reported crime runs about 17% below the median Montréal borough: 6.9 incidents per 1,000 residents a year, versus 8.3.
  • Montréal police don't publish assaults in their open data, so the violent figure here only covers robbery and offences causing death.
  • The most common reported crime is theft from vehicles, 41% of the total. 92% of incidents are property crime.
  • Crime has been roughly flat since 2020, at about 679 reported incidents a year.
  • So far in 2026 (January to September) there have been 393 incidents, 20% fewer than the same months of 2025.

What gets reported

Top crime types in the rate, same period.

Theft from vehicles41%
Vehicle theft32%
Break-in19%
Robbery8%

Other reported incidents

Counted by police but left out of the rate, same period.

Mischief and vandalism
146

Reported crime by year

*2026 is year to date.

Sources and notes

  1. Source: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), counted October 19, 2026. Counts places inside the borough or within 400 m (about a 5-minute walk) of its edge, in a straight line. Volunteers map OpenStreetMap, so some places may be missing and counts are a guide, not a census. Supermarkets are tagged shop=supermarket; cafés amenity=cafe and shop=bakery; pharmacies and clinics amenity=pharmacy and amenity=clinic; playgrounds and dog parks leisure=playground and leisure=dog_park. Medians are across the boroughs in this guide. ↩
  2. Source: Ville de Montréal, How property transfer duties are calculated. 2026 rules, applied to this community's median census home value. Brackets are Montréal's for 2026 and are adjusted every year. Legal fees, title insurance, inspection and adjustments are extra. ↩
  3. Source: CMHC Rental Market Survey, Housing Market Information Portal. These are zone averages across all units in apartment buildings of three or more units, not a figure for Saint-Léonard alone, and they are not asking rents. Houses, basement suites and condos rented out by owners are not included. Zones are large, so neighbouring communities can share one figure. ↩
  4. Source: Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), Actes criminels open data (2020 to 2026). Rates use 2021 census population. Incidents are counted where they occur. Police services count crime differently, so compare with the local median rather than across cities. How we calculate this. ↩