Saint-Léonard at a Glance

Safety and reported crime

Police recorded 717 located criminal acts in Saint-Léonard over the most recent full year of data, down from 845 the year before — a change of -15.1%. The trend is falling, and the borough ranks 7 among the boroughs when sorted from the lowest crime rate upward.

Measured against the housing stock, the rate is 20.6, compared with 24.1 across all boroughs, which puts Saint-Léonard below the city average. The single largest category is thefts from vehicles, accounting for 32.2% of all acts, so much of what gets reported happens on the street rather than inside homes.

Break-ins specifically numbered 106, a rate of 3.0 against 5.8 city-wide: below the city average, and stable year over year. One caveat on any of these counts: 15.2% of criminal acts published by the service carry no location and cannot be assigned to a borough.

Housing stock and building age

The assessment roll lists 34,842 dwellings in Saint-Léonard. The median construction year is 1972, which places the typical building squarely in the post-war expansion rather than the pre-war duplex belt closer to the centre. Pre-war construction is rare here: only 1.6% of dwellings date from before the post-war period.

Condominium tenure accounts for 8.8% of dwellings, a modest share. Buyers looking at Saint-Léonard will mostly be weighing low-rise rental buildings, duplexes and single-family houses rather than condo towers, and inspections tend to turn on the systems typical of that era of construction — roofing, windows, electrical panels and drainage.

Parks and outdoor life

The City's park inventory counts 33 parks and large parks in Saint-Léonard, covering 6.4% of the borough's land against 10.1% across all boroughs. That inventory includes municipal parks and large parks only; schoolyards, institutional grounds and private green space are not in it. The largest is Parc Delorme.

Relative to the number of dwellings, Saint-Léonard has 24,913.0 square metres of park, while the city-wide figure is 46,596.0 — park space per household is below the city average, so green space is close at hand but not expansive.

For families, the equipment matters more than the acreage. The borough counts 29 children's playgrounds, 44 outdoor sports facilities and 2 outdoor recreation facilities, within a broader inventory of 133 outdoor recreational, sports and cultural facilities.

Rents in the region

Rent figures published by CMHC cover the Montréal census metropolitan area as a whole, not Saint-Léonard on its own, so treat them as a regional benchmark rather than a quote for any given street. For the 2025 survey, bachelor units averaged $1,005 and smaller units $1,131.

Family-sized units averaged $1,346, and the largest units $1,625. Because the borough's stock leans toward low-rise rental buildings and houses rather than condominiums, asking rents for larger units are the ones worth watching here.

Practical notes for newcomers

With break-ins below the city average at 3.0 and thefts from vehicles the dominant category, the most useful precautions in Saint-Léonard are the ordinary ones: nothing visible left in a parked car, a locked garage or driveway gate, and lighting at the back of the lot. Insurers will ask about locks, alarms and claims history on the address regardless of the borough's rate.

Buyers should budget for the age of the stock. A median construction year of 1972 means many properties are approaching or past the point where roofs, windows and plumbing stacks need replacing, and a building inspection report is the place to price that. Lenders generally want a pre-approval in hand before an offer, and the municipal and school taxes on a single-family property should be added to the monthly carrying cost rather than treated as an afterthought.

If you are renting, compare the asking price against the regional averages above and ask for the rent registry entry from the previous lease; the condominium share of 8.8% means most rentals here are in buildings owned and managed as rental stock.