Every owner asks it before selling. The answer does not come from the municipal assessment, the neighbour’s price or the broker who wants the listing: it comes from what the building earns. Here is how a buyer of income properties works out, step by step, what he is willing to pay for your Québec multiplex.
Start with the rents actually collected (not “potential” rents), then take out operating expenses: municipal and school taxes, insurance, heating if you pay it, maintenance, snow removal, janitor, and a vacancy reserve. What is left is net operating income. On a typical multiplex it is 55 to 70% of rents; a building where the owner heats and taxes have climbed drops to 50%.
Value is net income divided by the market capitalization rate. In 2026, 6 to 30-unit buildings around Montréal trade between 4.5 and 6% depending on the area, the age of the building and the state of the rents. The lower the rate, the higher the value. A well-kept building with rents at market and tenants who pay sells at a lower rate than one that needs catching up.
Buyers always cross-check with the price per unit of recent sales nearby. If the income method says $180,000 a door where everything sells at $140,000, either the rents are exceptional or the expenses are understated. The reverse happens too: very low rents pull the income value down, but a buyer who knows how to bring them to market will pay more than the formula says.
Roof, windows, brick, electrical, balconies: a serious buyer prices what must be done within five years and builds it into the offer. You do not have to do that work before selling. But you should know it is in the math — which is why two offers on the same building can differ by $100,000: one accounts for the roof, the other will discover it at inspection and cut the price then.
A 6-unit in Montréal-Nord: $84,000 in annual rents, $32,000 in expenses, $52,000 net. At 5.25%, the value is about $990,000, or $165,000 a door. With $60,000 of work ahead, a firm offer lands around $930,000.
A 12-unit in Longueuil: $168,000 in rents, $65,000 in expenses, $103,000 net. At 5%, the value is $2,060,000. Sold through a broker at 5% commission, the seller hands over $103,000 — a full year of net income. Sold direct, he keeps it.
The final value also depends on things no formula captures: the room to raise rents as tenants turn over, the chance to add a basement unit, how easily the building qualifies for CMHC financing. That is where a buyer-operator who will hold the building for twenty years can pay more than an investor chasing an immediate yield.
Our calculator gives you a range in 60 seconds from your rents and unit count. For a firm written offer we need two documents: the rent roll and last year’s expenses. You get it the same week, with no commission and no obligation.
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