CRE Executives Contemplate What’s Next

Connect is holding its Summer 2025 Leadership Series in which top executives from Canadian commercial real estate firms provide insights on the state of the market. Today, Mark Fieder, head of Avison Young’s Canadian business, and Jonathan Turnbull, head of Canada for Harrison Street, offer their views on asset-class performance.

Which asset classes do you expect to shine, and why?

Mark Fieder: “Industrial, multi-res and retail continue to be in demand, both on the occupier and on the investor side, and they’re going hand in hand. Things are really aligned for better performance. … Office has been in the doldrums because of the weak return to office, the amount of vacancy that has accumulated over the last number of years. But what we’re seeing right now is a resurgence of office, and we’re seeing a lot more activity on the demand side, meaning from tenants, that’s that’s now getting the attention of investors. … And, student housing as well. And, self-storage is also growing because we had a big increase in population, and even though the next coming years will not be the same at the same pace, and it’s still a lot of of demand on the on the that’s supported by demographics. So, self-storage, food anchored retail, necessity, retail and and multi residential in in all its form as well [will stand out.]”

Jonathan Turnbull: “We expect the alternative asset classes to outperform the more traditional sectors over the coming years. Global capital markets volatility remains high as well as event/shock risks, which is likely to create ongoing uncertainty in the Canadian economy. Harrison Street is bullish on Canada’s long-term economic prospects relative to other global economies; however, uncertainty is likely to continue to apply pressure on large pools of capital jumping into the traditional GDP sectors such as office, industrial and
retail. The demographic-driven sectors such as student housing, senior housing, self-storage, medical-office, life sciences and data centres are less correlated to the economy than traditional real estate. As such, we believe, and we think, that the market expects that those sectors will continue to perform well regardless of market volatility. I expect operating fundamentals in alternative sectors to be strong over the coming years due to
the unique supply-demand imbalance in Canada, which provides operational pricing leverage and occupancy support.