The Canadian Real Estate Investor

We switch things up in this episode and Fred Cassano from PwC interviews Dan on the Emerging trends Report produced annually by PWC and ULI TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

GET TICKETS TO CANADA'S #1 MULTIPLEX EVENT: https://realist.ca/community/events/unpacking-multiplexes-toronto Most Canadians think their home is an investment. And honestly, the data says they are not crazy. Homeowners are dramatically wealthier than renters. In Canada, StatCan showed homeowner net worth rising from about $324,000 in 1999 to about $685,000 in 2019, while renter net worth went from about $15,000 to $24,000. CMHC research says homeowners are roughly seven times wealthier than renters, and their homes represent about half of their net wealth. So yes, homeownership has created an enormous amount of household wealth. But Robert Kiyosaki also had a point when he said your house is not an asset if it takes money out of your pocket every month. Because a primary residence can make you rich on paper while making you cash-flow poor in real life. That is the episode today. Is your home actually an investment, or is it a liability with good branding? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

GET TICKETS TO CANADA'S #1 MULTIPLEX EVENT: https://realist.ca/community/events/unpacking-multiplexes-toronto On the Canadian Real Estate Investor podcast, Daniel welcomes Hooman from Alliance REIT ( https://www.alliancereit.com/) to discuss his path from Bay Street lawyer to multiplex developer and operator, and how Alliance built an evergreen, non-exchange-listed REIT focused on Toronto’s missing-middle housing. They cover shifting CMHC underwriting and how first-time developers can struggle to secure MLI Select financing, plus potential partnerships where Alliance’s experience and conservative underwriting could help. Hooman explains REIT liquidity, RRSP/TFSA eligibility, and the complexity of capital planning for redemptions, and shares operational realities: flat post-development appraisals on recent projects, rising turnover due to incentives in new purpose-built rentals, cheaper condo rentals, and more renters buying homes. He details cost-control tactics, tenant retention, and neighbor relations strategies, and outlines why authentic, vibrant neighborhoods and “would I live here?” location tests matter again. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are joined by friend of the show Ben Singer, of SR Law, Ben, maintains a general commercial real estate practice, including acquisitions, dispositions, financing as well as an emphasis on condominium and sub-division development. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part 2 picks up at 2008. Canada dodges the financial crisis, decides it's bulletproof, and spends a decade building brakes (four Flaherty tightenings, foreign buyer taxes, two stress tests) all pointed at demand, while barely touching supply. Then free money in 2020, the February 2022 peak, and the fastest hiking cycle in Bank of Canada history. The payoff to the 1981 cliffhanger: CMHC's MLI Select in 2022 finally makes purpose built rental pencil again after 41 years, and rental is now about 58% of new construction. Meanwhile 2024 quietly undoes Flaherty with 30 year amortizations and a $1.5M insured cap, and population growth slams into reverse. Where we are now: benchmark around $666K, down 3.3% year over year, roughly 21% off peak, policy rate 2.25%, and building at half the 500,000 starts target. Five takeaways, one thesis. Nothing here was weather. Somebody signed something. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Canada has never had a housing market, it has a housing policy, and the market is what happens downstream. Part 1 traces 100 years of deliberate decisions: 50% down mortgages that detonated in the Depression, CMHC inventing leverage in 1954, the 1972 tax exemption that made your house the best shelter you can own, and the two supply engines we switched off (MURB in '81, social housing in '93) while turning every demand dial to eleven, ending at zero down and 40-year amortizations in 2006. Also: 21% rates, Toronto's 1989 crash and 13-year recovery, and the map moving from Montreal to Toronto to Vancouver. Part 2 coming. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Josh Findlay of BLD Financial joins us again to share all things commercial mortgages. How he started, the journey, and the main differences between small investments and big ones; plus some CMHC updates. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we sit down with Toronto architect and developer Noam Hazan , the guy calling the "missing middle" the most alive part of Canadian real estate. After designing for global firms like Foster + Partners and Richard Meier, Noam now helps regular people turn single lots into fourplexes, sixplexes, and garden suites. We get into his own project, the numbers behind MLI Select and the HST rebate, the rise of the "citizen developer," and how to actually make these deals pencil. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Four years after the 2022 peak, the first real signs of a floor are showing up, national sales are up 7% from the March low, inventory is tightening, and single-family completions in Ontario just hit their lowest level since 1990. But economists have been burned by three false starts already, and nobody wants to say the b-word out loud. Meanwhile, over 13,000 Canadians filed for insolvency in June, up 11.5% year over year and running near 2009 levels. So which is it? Dan and Nick dig into whether this is a real bottom or a supply collapse dressed up as a recovery... and what it means if you're deciding whether to buy today. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are joined by Nichola & Matthew from M3 Development Management to discuss all things development mamagement a Calgary-founded firm with offices in Calgary, Canmore, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria, joins us to talk about the part of a deal nobody covers: what it actually costs to build. They work on the owner's side, no equity in the project, running feasibility, cost planning and project delivery on everything from Senakw in Vancouver to the BMO Centre expansion in Calgary. We get into Edmonton's constantly shifting infill rules, whether an eight-plex still pencils, how the same building prices out across five markets, and where construction costs sit today versus 2023. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A complete breakdown of the Altus Group 2026 Canadian Cost Guide: $573 billion in active projects across 6,652 sites, with the real-world context investors and developers need. With presale prices down 13% from peak and a record 7,243 condo units cancelled in 2025, the feasibility math is under serious pressure. The episode also covers the $343 billion public infrastructure pipeline competing for the same labour and materials, a construction workforce that needs 85,000 additional workers by 2032, and tariff volatility that the cost guide explicitly doesn't account for. City-by-city comparisons across Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, and more. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you bought a Canadian condo near the peak of the market, you may now be underwater, or losing money every month just to keep it. In this episode, Daniel and Nick tackle one of the hardest decisions facing Canadian homeowners and real estate investors: should you hold on, rent the property out, or sell at a loss? They examine real examples from the GTA, pre-construction deals, power-of-sale transactions and struggling flips before laying out a practical framework for making the decision without letting fear, ego or sunk costs take over. You’ll learn: • The difference between a forced seller and a scared seller • Why your monthly “bleed rate” matters more than the paper loss • How to calculate the true cost of continuing to hold • Alternatives to selling, including refinancing, renting and adding units • The legal risks of walking away from a pre-construction purchase • Why Canadian mortgages generally don’t allow you to simply walk away • How taxes and capital losses may affect the decision • Warning signs that negative cash flow is damaging your personal finances • The one question every underwater investor should ask: “Would I buy this property today?” Selling at a loss doesn’t automatically mean you failed. Sometimes protecting your credit, liquidity and ability to invest again is the smartest move you can make. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nick & Dan are joined by Jacob Cohen , President of Daniels Corp. for a field report from inside a GTA development company. Why an activity slowdown worries developers more than falling prices, which input broke first: land, construction costs, rates, or sales velocity, and what still makes sense to build when almost nothing pencils. With starts near zero since 2023, the completions that should land in 2027–2029 aren't coming. Jake walks through the math, the industry's sudden rush into purpose-built rental after 30 years of ignoring it, whether the investor-driven condo model is paused or finished, and what he'd tell an investor weighing pre-construction today. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brandon Sage of Landlord Property Management joins us to discuss everything you need to know about owning and managing property and tenants. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Real estate searches in Canada just hit a five-year high, and Nick and Dan answer the nine questions Canadians are Googling most. Fixed vs. variable in 2026, what to do if you can't afford your renewal, where prices are headed, the best cash-flow cities, whether to incorporate your rentals, the new Airbnb rules by province, and how to save six figures on the principal residence exemption. Plus two rapid-fire bonuses: rent vs. buy, and the new 30-year amortization. No filler... just the answers. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Multiplex starts just passed tower starts in Toronto for the first time. Condos have stalled, and the big builders aren't structured to build on tight low-rise sites, while most GCs can't properly analyze them. That gap is the whole opportunity. We are joined by the founders of Reside Properties Ryan & Mattison, a Toronto developer with an unusual stack: years as a general contractor, time as MPAC counsel working with planners on highest-and-best-use, and a legal background in development. They build it, they know how the city values the land, and they know where the traps are. Zero vacancy across the portfolio. We get into the product thesis; custom-home-quality condo alternatives with dedicated entrances, separate utilities, and real millwork, and why that holds up when the market turns. Then we spend the bulk of the episode on the five ways these deals blow up: The contractor who wins on price and makes it back in extras Timeline slippage: financing, utility connections, trades, inspections Fantasy rents that kill your refinance Building the wrong units for the micro-market One zoning misstep that turns $30K in DCs into $200K Plus how Reside partners with landowners, and why the hard part has permanently shifted from approvals to execution. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.25 per cent again. Does that make fixed or variable the better mortgage choice in 2026, and could the next move still be a rate hike? Daniel and Nick break down the fixed-versus-variable decision, the July 2026 Monetary Policy Report, inflation, growth, housing weakness, Government of Canada bond yields, and why CMHC MLI Select financing responds to more than the overnight rate. We also explain what investors should stress-test before buying, how lender spreads affect multi-unit debt, and why a rate forecast cannot rescue weak NOI or a bad purchase price. Sources include the Bank of Canada July rate decision, July 2026 MPR, official Government of Canada benchmark-yield data, and CMHC MLI Select materials. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nick and Daniel debate cash flow vs. appreciation in Canada's flat 2026 market, prices 21% off peak, near-zero population growth, a $400B renewal wall, and falling rents. They start in opposite corners but land on the same truth: there is no "Canadian market" anymore. Ontario and BC are falling while seven provinces hit record highs, so the winning strategy depends entirely on which "Canada" you're buying in. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The average first-time homebuyer in Ontario is now 40 years old, according to Teranet's Q1 2026 Market Insights report. At the same time, first-time buyers became the most active buyer segment in Ontario, while multi-property owners fell from first place to third. In this episode, we use Ontario as the case study, then widen the lens nationally. Bank of Canada data shows first-time buyers have generally accounted for about half of mortgaged home purchases in Canada since 2014. CMHC's 2026 Mortgage Consumer Survey shows first-time buyers are renting longer before buying, relying on co-signers, and still getting help from family gifts. CREA's latest national resale data shows a market thawing, but not booming. This is not just an Ontario affordability story. It is a national buyer-quality story. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most small landlord disasters don't come from bad properties — they come from good properties run like a hobby. This is the unsexy episode that saves five-doors-or-fewer landlords more money than any reno or refi. We break down the systems that actually matter: bookkeeping that tracks real cash flow, the insurance gaps that get claims quietly denied, and tenant screening that keeps you legal and paid. Then we go province by province on deposits, tribunals, dispute timelines, and 2026 rent-control numbers across Ontario, BC, Alberta, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada, closing with when to stop self-managing and the five biggest mistakes we see on repeat. TORONTO MULTIPLEX EVENT Try it NordVPN risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Use our code "realestate" to get 4 extras months from a 2 years plan Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) | BMO Global Asset Management LISTEN AD FREE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.