Selling · Sainte-Foy · September 15, 2026
What the certificate of location records in Sainte-Foy, what it costs and how long it takes in 2026, and why it is ordered the day you decide to sell.
The certificate of location in Sainte-Foy is the land surveyor's report describing the property as it stands: boundaries, buildings, servitudes, encroachments and compliance. The seller supplies it at their expense if it is outdated or inaccurate (standard clause of the brokerage forms); notaries and lenders in practice require one no more than about ten years old with no change since. Count on $1,200 to $2,500 and 4 to 8 weeks in 2026: order it the day you decide to sell. Sainte-Foy and Sillery occupy the plateau west of the Haute-Ville, from chemin Sainte-Foy and chemin Saint-Louis to the cliffs above the river.
It is the land surveyor's report describing the property as it stands today: lot boundaries, position of the buildings, servitudes, encroachments and compliance with by-laws. In a sale, the standard clause of the brokerage forms (clause 10.1) has the seller supply, at their expense, a certificate that reflects the current state of the premises; if it is outdated or inaccurate, the new one is on them. The law gives it no expiry date: the test is accuracy, but notaries and lenders in practice require a certificate no more than about ten years old with no change since (pool, shed, extension, fence, cadastral renovation). The full detail is on our certificate of location page.
Sainte-Foy and Sillery occupy the plateau west of the Haute-Ville, from chemin Sainte-Foy and chemin Saint-Louis to the cliffs above the river. The certificate there records the 1950s to 1980s bungalows and cottages extended with a garage, in-ground pool and shed, whose setbacks the surveyor checks against the City of Québec's harmonized planning by-law, and the streets of semi-detached houses with their party walls. On the Sillery plateau and along chemin Saint-Louis, the large old properties have historic servitudes, century-old hedges that no longer follow the lot line and, on the edge of the cliffs, the landslide constraint zones entered on the certificate. The towers and condos of boulevard Laurier and the university campus have one certificate per private portion that refers to the declaration. Cadastral renovation, completed in the city, renumbered the lots: an earlier certificate is treated as outdated by most notaries. See real estate broker in Sainte-Foy.
A certificate of location stops being "current" as soon as something is added to the lot. Yet in Quebec City, which Sainte-Foy is part of, of the 300 houses sold on Centris between September 16, 2025 and September 16, 2026, 27% had a pool and 22% a garage: together with the shed, the fence and the extension, these are the most frequent additions that make the original certificate obsolete. And 40% of these houses were built before 1980: if their last certificate dates from the previous purchase, it is often more than ten years old, the limit notaries and lenders apply in practice.
| Addition | Share of houses sold | Median price with | Median price without |
|---|---|---|---|
| A pool | 27% | $509,000 | $430,000 |
| A garage | 22% | $544,500 | $431,500 |
Source: Centris (Matrix), single-family sales closed between September 16, 2025 and September 16, 2026, up to 300 per city, aggregates only. The pool and the garage also raise the price; the detail is in our page on what a pool and a garage are worth in Quebec City. For the certificate, the consequence is simple: if one of these was added since the surveyor's last report, a new one is needed, and the seller pays for it.
On 500 sales in Quebec City in 12 months, the median time between listing and acceptance is 5 days (half of the sales close between 4 and 23 days). A sale that goes above the asking price closes in 4 days; a sale below asking in 25 days, and that is the case for 28% of transactions, with a median discount of $12,450 (3%). A certificate ordered after acceptance adds four to eight weeks to that calendar, and a lingering "subject to the certificate" condition gives the buyer a reason to renegotiate.
The other figure to know: in Quebec City, 15% of the listings that ended in 12 months were withdrawn, expired or cancelled without a sale (600 against 3,406 sold), and the withdrawn ones asked 3.4% more than the sold ones. The certificate is not the first cause, the price is; but an incomplete file stretches the delay, and the delay ends up costing the price. The detail is in how much people really negotiate in Quebec City and the houses that do not sell in Quebec City.
The median sale price of a house in Quebec City is $452,750. A new certificate costs $1,200 to $2,500 depending on the property, or 0.3% to 0.6% of the price. The median discount granted by sellers who accept below asking is $12,450, and a missing certificate is exactly the kind of argument a buyer uses to get it. Ordering the certificate before listing, when it is outdated or inaccurate, therefore costs less than discovering it at the offer: that is the rule the team applies on every sale mandate in Quebec City.
Count generally on $1,200 to $2,500 depending on the property and the region, and above all 4 to 8 weeks of delay. That is the number one reason we ask our sellers to order it the day they decide to sell, not at the promise to purchase: a certificate that arrives late delays the notary, and a certificate that reveals an encroachment at the last minute derails the sale. The shed on the neighbour's line or the pool too close to the boundary are discovered here, not after signing.
If it is less than about ten years old AND nothing has changed (no construction, extension, pool, fence, cadastral operation or new by-law), it generally passes with the notary and the lender. Otherwise, plan on a new certificate.
The seller, under the standard clause of the brokerage forms, if theirs is outdated or inaccurate. If their certificate reflects the current state of the premises and the buyer or their lender demands a new one anyway, it is on the buyer.
From 4 to 8 weeks in 2026 depending on the workload of the region's land surveyors. Order it as soon as you decide to sell.
The Loaa & Manseur team, led by Lotfi Manseur and Loaa Al Daow, is the number 1 team at RE/MAX Platine in 2024 and 2025, 6th RE/MAX team in Quebec, 15th in Canada and in the global top 50 of large residential teams according to the official RE/MAX ranking, computed on actual transactions. Its Google profile counts more than 220 reviews with a 4.9 rating. Its offices are at 55 avenue de l'Équinoxe in Brossard, one bridge from the island, and every broker's licence can be checked in the OACIQ public register. Three things to verify yourself before calling us, and to demand of any other broker.
Also available in French: version française de ce guide.
Published September 7, 2026 by the Loaa & Manseur team, the number 1 team at RE/MAX Platine in 2024 and 2025, 6th RE/MAX team in Quebec, 15th in Canada and in the global top 50 according to the official RE/MAX ranking. Tell us about your project.
Équipe no 1 de RE/MAX Platine en 2024 et en 2025, 6e au Québec, 15e au Canada et dans le top 50 mondial au classement officiel RE/MAX. Réponse en moins de 24 heures, sept jours sur sept.