Quebec real estate glossary · French to English
Courtier immobilier = Real estate broker. It is real estate broker. Quebec does not use "agent" as the licensed title, and the OACIQ English site uses broker throughout.
En bref, en français : « Courtier immobilier » se dit real estate broker. Le mot « agent » n'est pas le titre officiel au Québec, contrairement au reste du Canada.
The OACIQ, which issues and oversees licences in Quebec, uses real estate broker in its English materials, including its page on becoming a broker and on broker licences. That is the title on the licence.
Elsewhere in Canada and in the United States, "real estate agent" is the everyday word. In Quebec it is not the legal title, which is why searching for "real estate agent Quebec" and "real estate broker Quebec" can return quite different pages.
Why this matters when you verify someone
Any broker's licence in Quebec can be checked, free, in the OACIQ public register: validity, category, agency, and disciplinary history if there is one. If you are looking someone up in English, search under broker.
Related words
- Courtage immobilier: real estate brokerage, the activity itself.
- Agence: the agency the broker is attached to.
- Brokerage contract: the mandate signed with a seller or a buyer.
Say it in a sentence
The word on its own is rarely the problem. These are the sentences you will actually hear, and what they become in English.
| Vous entendrez | In English |
|---|---|
| Mon courtier immobilier s'occupe de la mise en marché. | My real estate broker handles the marketing. |
| Le permis est vérifiable au registre de l'OACIQ. | The licence can be checked in the OACIQ register. |
| Nous avons signé un contrat de courtage. | We signed a brokerage contract. |
The mistake we see most often
The mistake is skipping the licence check because the person was recommended. The OACIQ register is free and takes seconds, and it shows the category of the licence as well as its validity. A licence that covers residential brokerage does not automatically cover commercial, and a category mismatch is the kind of thing you want to know before signing a brokerage contract, not after.
Where this fits in a Quebec transaction
Buying or selling in Quebec means signing documents that exist in both languages, written under civil law rather than common law. A word-for-word translation is sometimes right and sometimes actively misleading. The full list is in our Quebec real estate glossary, French to English.
Related terms
Questions we get asked
Is a courtier immobilier an agent or a broker?
In Quebec the licensed title is real estate broker. The OACIQ uses broker in all of its English materials.
How do I check a broker's licence?
Through the OACIQ public register, free and in seconds. It shows whether the licence is valid, its category, the agency, and any disciplinary history.
Can a broker work in English?
Many do. Ask directly which language the broker works in for documents and negotiation, since the mandatory forms exist in both.
Published by the Loaa & Manseur team, number one team at RE/MAX Platine in 2024 and 2025. We work in French and in English. Tell us about your project.