Today is another interview that Aaron and Adam recently conducted as part of their partnership with the Real Estate Forum. This time the expert is Ray Wong of Altus Group. He previously appeared on the podcast in June 2020 to discuss the state of the industry during the pandemic.
Though we’re still dealing with COVID-19, Ray is now able to analyze what the pandemic has brought thus far and share data about the largest real estate transactions of 2020. He outlines his expectations compared to what actually transpired, as well as what he expects to see happen in 2021.
Topics covered include:
- Year-over-year changes in 2020 versus 2019.
- The dire consequences of the pandemic discussed in its early days.
- The largest retail transaction in 2020 and what it can teach us.
- Seeing a combination of rental and condos on retail centres.
- The largest industrial transaction of the year, which happened in Alberta.
- The big drop off in office space deals last year.
- Seeing retail transactions as land transactions.
- Demand for grocery retail and the “retail is dead” narrative.
- Why valuations were hardly affected on multi-family units.
- More investors getting into industrial real estate.
- The value of the biggest real estate deal in Canada in 2020.
- What’s going to transpire in the office space going forward.
- Shopify’s office space holdings.
- Industrial rates in various cities across the country.
More about our guest…
Ray is the Vice President of Data Operations for Altus Group’s Data Solutions team. Overseeing 60+ researchers across Canada, Ray’s primary responsibility is to ensure data collection is all encompassing, reliable and accurate and that it adheres to the Altus Group data governance guidelines. Ray works closely with both internal and external clients to ensure the information meets their needs and that it is both accurate and timely. He also regularly presents on key market trends to clients and at industry events.
Prior to joining Altus Group, Ray was the Head of Research for CBRE Canada. He was responsible for the collection of market intelligence and publishing marketing market reports on a regular basis. Ray interacted with both internal and external clients in respect to presenting and discussing real estate information, trends and analysis. He initiated and introduced the CBRE Econometric Real Estate Forecasting model in Canada for office and industrial real estate.
Ray is regularly asked to comment on the real estate market in various print, radio and online news publications.
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