Top CRE Leaders Assess Canadian Market Conditions
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. Read on as Mark Goodman; Alex Akman, chief operating officer at Shindico; and, Wayne Byrd, share their views. And, watch for more comments in coming days and weeks.
You have said that U.S. tariffs are not affecting multi-family property sales. Do you see the tariffs affecting the multi-family development sector?
Mark Goodman: “Yes, I would argue, and I’ve heard that from developers, that that would have an impact. It depends. Some developers said, ‘We’re safe. We have fixed pricing.’ but yes, [in] the development game, I can see that having a material impact, well, because of the materials coming in [from the U.S.]”
Mark Goodman
What’s your outlook on foreign investment in the sector in which you specialize, the B.C. multi-family market, within the next six to 12 months?
“Well zero, because we have a [foreign-buyers] tax and it’s already hard enough to get a deal done. [If] tack on 20% for multi-family in B.C., it’s not going to happen. So, I don’t see any foreign investment until the tax code is changed. … So, we’re not really seeing any foreign buyers buying apartment buildings. Even before the foreign buyers tax, and I’ve been saying this until I’m blue in the face, there was very little foreign money coming in. And I know that goes against the narrative of … how foreign money was causing price escalation, which I disagree with. I think it’s a convenient bogeyman. But anyways, even before the foreign buyers tax, I did a survey for The Globe and Mail. Over the last 200 deals, there were only two foreign buyers, one from the United States and one from Austria, and everybody thinks Chinese, China, China, but that wasn’t the case. So, yes, there are Chinese people that have access, but they’re they’re Canadian, or they’re not considered foreign. So I believe, since I’m on the topic, that we do need to bring back foreign investment.
“It’s a very important part of the ecosystem, especially when financing apartment built condo development, they acted as a financier. And these buildings really did, the developers and the builders needed for money to help finance these deals, and they would build condos, and guess what, a large portion that would go into the rental pool, alleviating our rental crisis. I believe that we should really rethink our foreign ban, and we should increase foreign investment. I think it’s instrumental to a healthy Canadian economy and and creating a value proposition for people to invest here in B.C. and [elsewhere] in Canada, because otherwise we’re being taxed to death.”
What are potential investment barriers that people could be overlooking?
Alex Akman: “It’s not a secret but, obviously, immigration is a big part of what we have going on in the country. And for a place like Winnipeg, net interprovincial migration or or leaving is also a problem.
“So for a place like Winnipeg, if we’re not bringing in new immigrants, we could be losing people to other provinces in Canada, and actually having population shrinkage. That hasn’t been the case for the last number of years, but it is a trend that we’re watching and something that we’re cognizant of. From my perspective, we do, at the end of the day, need to circle back to affordability, and some of these markets might, might just be pricing themselves out. [Are] there that many people to rent an apartment for $3,000 a month? I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t know that the wages in these cities justify that. So again, it’s something that we’re looking at and watching, but I don’t know that it’s going to flush itself out for some time.”
Mark Goodman: “The typical barrier that I’ve seen has been financing, the rate and the loan amount, and I understand that CMHC has implemented new programs and flexibility and removed some of the restrictions, which is one of the reasons why we’re seeing more [development] activity right now. I think one of the big barriers, has always been financing, and it’s the savvy buyers stay up to date with the rules and regulations for lending and CMHC in particular. … But the other thing is, I believe there’s never been a better time, and I truly believe this, there’s never been a better time to buy multi family if you’re playing the long game, When you have such a dramatic drop in multi-family values over a relatively short period of time, it’s kind of like in the stock market, where they say, ‘buy the dip, buy the dip.’ Well, we’re in the middle of the dip. And, I believe that if you have a long term vision, now is a great time to take a position in multi-family.”