Montreal city has today a lower population than it had 50 years ago (using current city limits). Abbreviated from Wikipedia: 1966 1,750,969 1976 1,664,527

Montreal city has today a lower population than it had 50 years ago (using current city limits). Abbreviated from Wikipedia: 1966 1,750,969 1976 1,664,527 −5.7% 1986 1,541,251 −0.9% 1996 1,550,369 −0.2% 2006 1,620,639 +2.3% 2014 1,731,245 +5.0% So I don't think you can attribute the affordability to rent controls at all. You can perhaps attribute it to the rent controls that all the metropolitan population growth has gone outside the city (where it has over the past 50 years doubled from 1.3 million to 2.6 million).