Two Churches Bought, One for About $50,000: A Quebec Entrepreneur Plans to Turn Them Into Homes

• Pierre-Alexandre Tanguay bought two churches in Quebec’s Chaudière-Appalaches region
• Saint-Philémon church is to become about 20 short-term rental units
• Sainte-Rose-de-Watford church sold for about $50,000 because of damage
• Heating the empty church costs about $1,000 a month

Quebec’s surplus churches are finding a new kind of buyer, Le Soleil reported in September 2026.

Pierre-Alexandre Tanguay, an entrepreneur from Saint-Prosper in the Beauce region who runs a financial services firm and works in construction, has bought two churches in Chaudière-Appalaches. He had already bought a converted church in Nantes, near Lac-Mégantic.

His new purchases are the church in Saint-Philémon, in Bellechasse, and the church in Sainte-Rose-de-Watford, in Les Etchemins. The Saint-Philémon church is to be turned into about 20 short-term rental units, and the municipality has already approved the plan. Plans for Sainte-Rose-de-Watford are less developed, but Tanguay sees it as housing for workers from nearby Sainte-Justine. That church sold for about $50,000, below its original asking price, because of structural damage. Heating alone costs about $1,000 a month before any conversion.

According to the paper, Tanguay said he was struck by the architecture, noting that reproducing such a building today would cost millions. He said the projects would aim to offer affordable homes with unusual character, but acknowledged that this kind of work requires deep pockets and patience.

The story captures the economics of rural church conversions: very low purchase prices, high repair and running costs, and value that depends on finding a use, whether rentals or worker housing, that local rules allow.

Where church buildings in Jamaica fall out of use, they can sit empty for years. The Quebec example suggests that, with the right owner and municipal support, a closed church can become housing or rental income rather than a ruin. Churches considering a sale should look for buyers with realistic plans and the means to carry them out.

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