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April 15, 2025
Full implementation of EU-Canada trade deal could lead to more investment from Europe
Foreign investment in Canadian real estate has followed overall trends in recent years, increasing from 2021 through 2023 but then slowing down more recently. Examples of recent foreign real estate investment include the 2022 purchase of Royal Bank Plaza by Spanish investor Ponte Gadea for $1.6 billion and the 2024 purchase of a two-office Vancouver portfolio by German institutional investor Deka Immobilien Investment GmbH for $280 million.
April 14, 2025
Fortune favours the well-capitalized
It is an inconvenient truth that recessionary times generally do more to broaden wealth gaps than narrow them. As Baron Rothchild, the 18th-century British nobleman and member of the Rothschild banking family who made a fortune buying land in the panic that followed the Battle of Waterloo, is credited with saying, "When there’s blood on the streets, buy real estate.” This is as true today as it was in 1815.
April 14, 2025
Tariff tensions may offer unexpected upside for retailers and their landlords
As recession fears persist and consumer spending softens, retail real estate owners may be bracing for challenging years ahead. A slowing GDP, elevated interest rates and consumer caution around discretionary spending typically spell bad news for retailers and, in turn, retail landlords, especially those reliant on turnover-based rents or rapid lease-ups.
March 27, 2025
Building bridges while keeping 'elbows up'
The trade relationship between Canada and the United States has become very rocky recently. With the threat of tariffs looming over the entire Canadian economy, the unfolding of the recent trade friction has been relentless, and the situation sometimes feels interminable.
March 14, 2025
Tariff-induced unemployment could create perfect storm for residential markets
The housing market has been a driving force behind personal wealth creation in Canada for several decades, even managing to avoid much of the losses associated with the global financial crisis, at least on a comparative basis.
March 13, 2025
Office sales dry up across the Greater Toronto Area
The office market across the Greater Toronto Area has seen a significant drop in transaction volumes compared to pre-pandemic years. While the drop in office utilization is likely a factor, tighter capital markets and growing uncertainty surrounding the stability of the Canadian economy are also contributing.
March 13, 2025
More collaborative approach needed to address what ails the office and residential sectors
Canada's various real estate markets are facing myriad crises. Office landlords are reckoning with the erosion of net operating incomes, condo developers are sitting on landbanks unable to get development financing, ringing alarm bells for future unemployment in the construction industry, and the country faces the lurking threat of a tariff war with its biggest trading partner.
March 10, 2025
Premium revenue performance fuels expansion of extended-stay properties
Performance metrics for extended stay hotels have outperformed other hotels in the same classes. Over the past eight years, revenue per available room, or RevPAR, for extended stay hotels has averaged 23% higher than upscale and upper midscale hotels that do not contain an extended stay brand.
March 2, 2025
North American office markets take different paths after emerging from under pandemic cloud
As we approach the fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 shutdown, it is worth assessing how North American office markets have since evolved. While Canada and the U.S. saw an appreciable increase in office availability following the pandemic, the relative increases have been worse in this country.
February 27, 2025
Commercial property may go from re-assessed to stressed
This article was updated on March 6 to clarify that the Municipal Property Assessment Corp. is reassessing whether to apply the updated property assessment values in 2026. The exact timing of the increase is not clear. MPAC has been contacted to provide a statement regarding the schedule.
February 21, 2025
Mood at Canada lodging conference remains optimistic despite looming economic uncertainty
The mood was relatively upbeat at the Hotel Capital Connection conference at the Hotel Capital Connection conference held near Toronto Airport this past week, despite the economic uncertainty swirling over the looming threats of tariffs on Canadian goods entering the U.S.
February 21, 2025
Canada braces for tariffs, but impact will not be evenly felt across provinces
The Canadian economy is bracing for considerable economic disruptions resulting from U.S. President Trump’s executive order to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian exports. While not everyone is convinced that all of the tariffs will come to fruition, the threat to Canada’s economy is real and significant.
February 18, 2025
Tariffs cast a pall over Toronto’s industrial market
Facing the emerging threat of tariffs, we may see a pullback in demand for available industrial space as manufacturers and distributors assess the situation.
February 14, 2025
Toronto's industrial markets may need to recalibrate after a turbulent couple of years
One of the main reasons real estate markets appear to be in a constant state of overcorrection is the lengthy reaction time to changes in demand and delivery. Unlike stocks or bonds, which reflect market sentiment almost instantly, real estate, being much more illiquid, adjusts slowly and must deal with considerable inertia.
January 29, 2025
In the ebb and flow of Toronto’s office sector, financial firms anchor down while tech tenants set sail
Comparing office utilization rates for specific North American cities shows that the occupier makeup of certain cities has had a material impact following COVID-19. Cities that rely heavily on tech and creative companies to fill offices, such as San Francisco, have lagged behind those that rely more heavily on financial firms, such as New York.
January 29, 2025
Real estate investors worry interest rates may stay 'higher for longer'
Real estate (and other) investors have focused on the seemingly unusual run-up in U.S. Treasury bond yields over the past few months. The benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield, for example, increased from 3.68% in September to nearly 4.8% at the beginning of January. What makes this especially unusual is that the increase in bond yields occurred during a period when the Federal Reserve cut its key policy rate twice.
January 24, 2025
Investors show strong appetite for hotels in Canada's largest cities
Hotel buyers were increasingly active in 2024, with sales of hotel properties in Canada’s six largest cities jumping 28% year over year.
January 14, 2025
Canada expected to lure more American visitors in 2025
Many hoteliers in Canada expect more U.S. visitors in 2025. The outlook is largely influenced by the historical relationship between the U.S. and Canadian dollar exchange rate and U.S. travel activity to Canada.
January 10, 2025
Why Toronto’s office supply keeps going up, despite a cooling market
The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) office market added a significant amount of new office space in 2024, despite a general decline in demand, and more is set deliver in the coming years.
January 8, 2025
Toronto's struggling office market may be finding a floor
Net absorption is an important performance metric for the office market, reflecting the net change in occupied space. As a market performance metric, it can serve as an equalizer across the 30 submarkets CoStar tracks across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), indicating if the overall demand trend is positive or negative.