Land for sale in Lanaudière, Quebec

About Lanaudière

The area

Lanaudière is the administrative region just northeast of Montréal, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence. It covers about 12,300 km² of land and had about 528,600 people in 2021, in six MRCs: L'Assomption, Les Moulins, Montcalm, Joliette, D'Autray and Matawinie. Most people live in the south, in Terrebonne (about 119,900), Repentigny (about 86,100) and Mascouche (about 51,200) on the edge of Montréal, and in Joliette (about 21,400). The land climbs in three steps: the flat St. Lawrence plain, a rolling foothill band cut by the Ouareau and L'Assomption valleys, and the lake-dotted Laurentian plateau, with summits near Saint-Donat of about 850 m. Matawinie, the northern MRC, takes in three-quarters of the region but had only about 55,500 people; Rawdon, Saint-Donat and Saint-Michel-des-Saints are its main towns.

History

The Atikamekw have occupied the north for centuries, and their community of Manawan is there today. French seigneuries were granted along the St. Lawrence from the 1600s, and by 1850 almost all the lowlands were taken up. Logging then overtook the fur trade, and private hunting and fishing clubs began the cottage trade that still shapes the lake country. From the 1980s the south grew as part of Montréal's suburbs.

Services and access

The region's two hospitals with emergency departments are the Centre hospitalier De Lanaudière in Saint-Charles-Borromée, beside Joliette, and Hôpital Pierre-Le Gardeur in Terrebonne. Autoroutes 40 and 640 cross the south. Route 125 runs north to Saint-Donat and Route 131 to Saint-Michel-des-Saints; beyond them only the road to Manawan and forest roads reach the north. The nearest scheduled flights leave Montréal-Trudeau. Construction employs 12% of workers, well above the Quebec share, and manufacturing is led by plastics, rubber and food.

Land and climate

About 206,000 ha, some 17% of the region, is in the provincial agricultural zone, and three-quarters of that is farmed; poultry and eggs, grain, vegetables, dairy and pork lead among roughly 1,500 farms. Lakeshores in the foothills and southern plateau are largely private; public (Crown) land lies mostly on the plateau.

Before you buy

The local municipality sets zoning and issues building permits, and its bylaws must conform to the MRC's land use plan (schéma d'aménagement); in unorganized territories the MRC writes the rules. In the agricultural zone, a house, a subdivision or any non-farm use can need authorization from the Commission de protection du territoire agricole du Québec (CPTAQ); its Déméter map shows the zone, and it issues zoning attestations for single lots. For land near water, look the lot up on the province's flood-zone map; older maps are held by the municipality or MRC.

Sources

• Gouvernement du Québec, Portrait socioéconomique de Lanaudière
• Ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune, Portrait territorial Lanaudière (2007)
• Statistics Canada, 2021 Census population and dwelling counts (tables 98-10-0002, 98-10-0007)
• Santé Québec Lanaudière, hospitals
• MAPAQ, regional agrifood profile: Lanaudière (2023)
• Gouvernement du Québec, role of the MRC in land use planning
• CPTAQ
• Gouvernement du Québec, check whether a property is in a flood zone

Written by AcreScout from the sources listed; facts checked September 30, 2026. Rules change: confirm anything that matters with the municipality.