Land for sale in Laval, Quebec

About Laval

The area

Laval is an administrative region and a single city. It covers Île Jésus and about a hundred smaller islands between the Rivière des Mille Îles to the north and the Rivière des Prairies to the south, just north of Montréal. The city had about 438,400 people in 2021 on about 246 km² of land, making it Quebec's third-largest municipality. Most of it is suburban, but about 30% of the territory, some 7,000 ha, is in the protected agricultural zone, in four sectors: Sainte-Dorothée, Sainte-Dorothée Sud, Sainte-Rose and the east end.

History

People lived on Île Jésus about 4,000 years ago. Under French seigneurial rule, settlement began at the island's east end, and farming shaped it for more than two centuries, earning it the name "Montréal's garden"; the long, narrow lots running back from the rivers date from that time. The island was mostly rural in 1900. On 6 August 1965 the province merged its 14 municipalities into the City of Laval.

Services and access

Hôpital de la Cité-de-la-Santé, run by Santé Québec Laval, is the city's acute-care hospital and has an emergency department. Autoroutes 13, 15 and 440 cross the island, with the main industrial and commercial hubs along them. The Montréal Métro reaches Laval at Concorde, Cartier and Montmorency, and commuter trains stop at several stations. Scheduled flights use Montréal-Trudeau, Canada's third-largest airport. Food processing counted about 145 plants in 2023.

Land and climate

Laval had about 124 farms in 2023. Ornamental horticulture brought in about half of farm sales and vegetables most of the rest; many farms sell from roadside stands. About half the agricultural zone is cultivated; most of the remainder is fallow fields, woodlots and wetlands. The rivers give the city close to 200 km of shoreline, a third of it city-owned. More than 80% of the small islands are undeveloped because they are small or flood in spring. A provincial dam at Grand-Moulin on the Rivière des Mille Îles is run for flood control.

Before you buy

The City of Laval issues building permits and sets zoning through its Code de l'urbanisme (bylaw CDU-1), and also holds MRC powers, including watercourse management. In the agricultural zone, a house or other non-farm use usually needs a decision or declaration from the Commission de protection du territoire agricole du Québec (CPTAQ) before the city can issue a permit. Flood zones cover about 2% of the city, and those along the Rivière des Mille Îles are nearly twice as large as those along the Rivière des Prairies; parts of the city flooded in 2017 and 2019. Limits are set by flood elevations, not map lines, so a surveyor's report is normally needed to place a building; the province's flood-zone map is another check.

Sources

• Statistics Canada, 2021 Census population and dwelling counts (table 98-10-0002)
• Ville de Laval, Fascicule 2: Une île et ses contextes
• Ville de Laval, Plan régional des milieux humides et hydriques 2022-2032
• Ville de Laval, Projet de loi 86 brief
• Ville de Laval, bylaw L-11870 schedule C (permit fees)
• Laval économique, PDZA 2024-2030 summary
• MAPAQ, Profil régional de l'industrie bioalimentaire 2023
• Santé Québec Laval, find a location
• Santé Québec Laval, Cité-de-la-Santé floor plan
• Transport Canada, Quebec region
• CPTAQ, building a house in the agricultural zone
• Gouvernement du Québec, flood-zone maps in force

Written by AcreScout from the sources listed; facts checked October 1, 2026. Rules change: confirm anything that matters with the municipality.