As a part of the REF Club series, Ray Wong is back on the podcast today. He is the Vice President of Data Operations at Altus Group. In this episode, his focus will be on market trends and top deals thus far in 2021.
Ray starts by sharing some data on the five biggest Canadian markets, comparing stats from this year to 2020 and 2019. He explains the reasons why he expects commercial real estate to recover in 2021 and talks about what can be learned from the large number of land transactions happening.
Topics covered include:
- An initial market overview of the top five markets in Canada.
- The increase in the number of smaller deals, especially in Montreal.
- The volume of money still currently sittinging on the sidelines, waiting to be invested.
- How Alberta is faring with its unique market issues.
- Potentially seeing upside in rents in upcoming lease renewals.
- Foreign investment ramping up again this year.
- A major apartment deal in Quebec.
- Other notable transactions that have happened recently.
- The slight decrease in retail transactions in the Greater Toronto Area.
- Reasons why Ray is bullish on 2021.
- Discussions that are being had with clients about office space.
- Factors that could derail the recovery of the Canadian economy.
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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