On Thursday, June 5 real estate industry leaders gathered in Metro Convention Centre to discuss one of the hottest topics in Toronto today, housing market in time of uncertainty. This year’s Landand Development Conference featured high-level speakers: Jim Ritchie, the President and CEO of Tridel, the largest builder of condominiums in the Greater Toronto Area, Brian Salpeter, Executive VP of Cadillac Fairview, managing $40 billion in real estate, Daniel Tisch, President and CEO of Ontario Chamber of Commerce, among other notable speakers. The rooms were buzzing, with panelists trying to brainstorm on how tariffs, market conditions, and geopolitical uncertainty are shaping Canada's development landscape, and what is the future direction of land development.
While affordability remained one of the key topics at the conference, a new subject was overtaking the room on where the supply and demand is headed in the unprecedented stagnant condo market and uncertainty caused by tariffs. It’s been two years now that condo units are not selling, rents not covering mortgage costs and condo supply continues to come to the market. While most panelists agreed it will not be for the next 5-10years till condo market may come back and become lucrative for institutional investors again, now is the time for resetting expectations in all asset classes as times are different. A positive signal was sent by Tridel, Hazelview Investments and other developers that they still continue to build and have no doubts about an eventual market recovery. “Some of the best investment deals are off cycle” Christina Iacoucci, Managing Partner, Head of Canada in BentallGreenOak.
What many panelists highlighted was a need to cut the cost of construction to bring it down below CAD500/ sq. ft. While developers expressed intent to start using innovative technologies in construction, that alone won’t be enough and they call out to the local government to help them lower this cost by reducing HST and reviewing complex building regulations with a view to simplify them.
Afshin Parsa, one of the conference participants, shared that this year’s conference brought unprecedented opportunities for networking at the top level. Event gathered a variety of participants from senior leaders, building owners, developers to investors. This slower market cycle, allowed companies to slow down and focus on building connections, think together on how to optimize construction process and save costs. Afshin is in charge of sales in WVIP, a company that offers an automated parking solutions, which helps save construction costs by installing multi-level parking compliant with green standards, and this conference is highly relevant for company’s business.
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