Saguenay housing market
Market conditions in Saguenay
Why this flag
New homes: Seller's market
- In Saguenay, 15 newly completed homes were still unsold in Sep 2026, while 163 were sold or rented on completion over the previous 12 months. At that pace, the unsold stock would take about 1.1 months to clear.
- Under 3 months of inventory means new homes are selling faster than unsold stock builds up, which favours sellers.
- Statistics Canada doesn't publish a new housing price index for Saguenay, so this flag is based on supply alone.
Rentals: Balanced
- The vacancy rate for purpose-built rental apartments in Saguenay was 2.6% (October 2025 survey, CMHC).
- Between 2% and 4% is a broadly balanced rental market; around 3% is the commonly cited balance point.
The new-home flag covers newly built homeownership and condo units only, not resale homes; resale conditions need MLS® sales and listings data, which we don't use. No agency publishes official cut-offs, so these thresholds are ours. Flags update automatically with each data release. How flags are set
Why dates differ: Statistics Canada publishes metro population estimates once a year (latest: July 1, 2025), and CMHC's Rental Market Survey runs once a year in October (latest: October 2025 survey). Construction and new-home price figures are monthly, so their dates are more recent. Each figure shows its own reference period and is the latest published.
Key indicators
Housing starts (last 12 months)
1,253units
+19.3% vs prior 12 months
Sep 2026 · CMHC
Completions (last 12 months)
1,053units
+33.3% vs prior 12 months
Sep 2026 · CMHC
Homes under construction
947units
+6.0% vs 12 months earlier
Sep 2026 · CMHC
Dwelling units permitted (last 12 months)
1,574units
+14.6% vs prior 12 months
Sep 2026 · Statistics Canada
Rental vacancy rate
2.60%
+0.3 pts vs prior year
October 2025 survey · CMHC
Purpose-built apartments (6+ units); annual October survey.
Average rent, 2-bedroom
$986
+11.5% vs prior year
October 2025 survey · CMHC
Purpose-built rentals (row and apartment, 3+ units); annual October survey.
Paid rent, 2-bedroom apartment
$880
+6.0% vs 12 months earlier
Apr 1, 2026 · Statistics Canada
Experimental estimate of rent paid by all renter households.
Unsold new homes (unabsorbed inventory)
15units
+7.1% vs 12 months earlier
Sep 2026 · CMHC
Completed homeownership and condo units not yet sold or rented; excludes purpose-built rentals.
New homes absorbed (last 12 months)
163units
−7.4% vs prior 12 months
Sep 2026 · CMHC
Population
170,192persons
+0.6% vs one year earlier
July 1, 2025 · Statistics Canada
New homes completed per 100 added residents
111per 100
Sep 2026 · CMHC
Descriptive ratio of new supply to population growth; not a measure of need.
Calculated: completions (12m) / population growth (2025-01, 12m) × 100
Completions per 1,000 residents
6.2per 1,000
Sep 2026 · CMHC
Calculated: completions (12m) / population (2025) × 1,000
Starts per 1,000 residents
7.4per 1,000
Sep 2026 · CMHC
Calculated: starts (12m) / population (2025) × 1,000
Analysis
Saguenay housing market analysis
Construction and supply
Builders started 1,253 homes in Saguenay over the 12 months to Sep 2026, up 19.3% from the previous 12 months.
1,053 homes were completed over the same period (up 33.3%), and 947 were under construction at the latest count (up 6.0% year over year).
More homes are being started than finished, so the construction pipeline is growing and should keep completions up in the coming months.
Building permits, which come before construction starts, covered 1,574 dwelling units over 12 months, up 14.6%. Rising permits usually point to more starts ahead.
Of newly completed homes, 15 were still unsold or unrented at the latest count (up 7.1%), while 163 new homes were sold or rented on completion over the last 12 months (down 7.4%).
Population and housing need
Saguenay's population was estimated at 170,192 (July 1, 2025), growing 0.6% over the year.
That works out to 7.4 housing starts per 1,000 residents, and 6.2 completions per 1,000.
Roughly 945 residents were added in the latest year, about 0.9 new residents for every home completed. That is close to or below typical household size, so new supply is keeping pace with population growth.
Rental market
CMHC's Rental Market Survey put the purpose-built rental vacancy rate at 2.6% (October 2025 survey), up 0.3 percentage points from the previous survey. A rate below 3% is generally considered a tight market, where landlords have the upper hand.
The average two-bedroom rent across all purpose-built units was $986 a month, up 11.5% year over year.
Borrowing costs
Borrowers who took out a new uninsured mortgage in Aug 2026 paid an average of 4.58% on fixed terms of five years or more and 3.90% on variable rates, according to the Bank of Canada. The five-year-plus fixed average is up 0.3 percentage points from a year earlier.
Variable rates sit 0.68 points below long fixed terms, so borrowers are paying a premium for payment certainty.
The Bank of Canada's policy rate is 2.50% and the banks' prime rate is 4.70%. Variable-rate mortgages are priced off prime, so they move when the policy rate changes; fixed rates follow Government of Canada bond yields, with the 5-year yield at 3.53%.
Written from the latest official figures and refreshed whenever new data are released. It describes current conditions; it is not a forecast.
Housing Market Pulse: 78 / 100
Where Saguenay sits among the metros we track on construction momentum, completions per resident, rental tightness and rent growth (equal weights, percentile ranks). It describes current conditions only; it is not a price forecast.
Trends
2021-10 to 2026-09. Latest: 128 (Sep 2026).
2021-10 to 2026-09. Latest: 56 (Sep 2026).
2021-10 to 2026-09. Latest: 947 (Sep 2026).
2021-10 to 2026-09. Latest: 219 (Sep 2026).
2006 to 2025. Latest: 2.6 (October 2025 survey).
2006 to 2025. Latest: 986 (October 2025 survey).
Sources
Use and cite this data
Download the figures on this page, with reference dates and sources: CSV · JSON
Suggested citation:
Canada Housing Market Data, "Saguenay housing market indicators", based on CMHC and Statistics Canada data, updated 2026-11-14. https://canadahousingmarketdata.ca/housing/saguenay
Underlying data © the original publishers, reused under their open licences with attribution. Please credit both the original source and this site.