AMERICAN INVESTMENT FIRMS POUR BILLIONS INTO CANADIAN REAL ESTATE MARKET
The American real estate titan Hines Interests LP recently announced it is looking to invest $2 billion in Canadian real estate, focusing on apartment rental developments.
Hines currently has $3.7 billion in assets under management in Canada. The nearly 70-year-old, privately held company has operated in the country for over two decades and has a mix of commercial and residential projects in its Canadian portfolio.
As housing prices in Canada have increased dramatically for several years, affordable units have become increasingly limited. Many prospective buyers have been priced out of homeownership and forced to remain in the rental market. Canada’s record-breaking immigration growth has fed even more into this dire situation of low supply and high demand.
To help solve that issue, Hines is committed to boosting the housing supply. The company targets major Canadian cities, like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary, to develop rental buildings. However, Hines is not the only one leading a trend of major American investment firms making significant real estate investments in Canada.
Blackstone, too, has made its intentions in the Canadian housing market clear. The opening of its Downtown Toronto office in September 2023 cemented its commitment to investing in Canadian real estate.
As the world’s largest private equity investor, with more than $1 trillion in assets under management, Blackstone has over $20 billion in Canadian holdings, most of which are in the industrial, logistical, and multifamily real estate sectors. Like Hines, the investment giant has also focused on Canada’s most well-populated cities: Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
Last year, Nadeem Meghji, the Global Co-Head of Blackstone Real Estate, emphasized that the firm strongly believes in Canadian real estate, especially rental housing. For Blackstone, Canada represents their third-largest investment market, behind the United States and the United Kingdom.
Additionally, Meghji commented on the importance of finding housing solutions in Canada and announced an additional $1 billion in holdings in 2023 with expectations of more expansions nationwide.
You may ask, “What can investors learn from this?” These tremendous financial investments from Hines and Blackstone into the rental market make it clear that some of the world’s largest investment firms are predicting strong returns in Canadian real estate. This is because rental housing is in high demand and will continue to grow in the long run.
It’s worth noting that these investments are focused on the housing market in growing cities like Toronto especially. Therefore, individual real estate investors can look at the decisions of large and successful companies like Hines and Blackstone as a good indicator of where they should invest and have confidence in the long-term growth of their own Canadian property investments.
Story by: GTA-Homes
