Robin Kelley, Partner at Groupe Denux based in Victoria, is joining us in this episode. He is a second-generation investor in his family, and owns and manages apartments all across the country but with a focus on the Victoria, BC market.
A regular listener of the podcast, Robin takes us through how his family-owned company came to be. He talks about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on different markets, including both positive and negative trends happening in Victoria.
Topics covered include:
- Robin’s case for investing in Victoria versus Vancouver.
- What Groupe Denux looks for when choosing a market to invest in.
- Vacancy rates achieved when offering rent under market rate.
- Tightening margins in secondary real estate markets.
- The trend of people leaving city centres.
- An advantage of secondary markets that was previously a disadvantage.
- Changes that have happened in Victoria over time.
- Starting his career in Quebec before moving to the west coast.
- Delving into construction of new buildings.
- Friendly competition that exists within the family-owned Groupe Denux.
- The eclectic group of markets that Groupe Denux is involved with.
- Business that Robin is conducting in Calgary right now.
- Struggles that Alberta was experiencing even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The flex financing option for affordable housing offered by CMHC.
More about our guest…..
- Undergraduate Degree in Economics
- Graduate Degrees in Economics and Urban Planning
- Started my career at the Canada West Foundation, and then moved to Ottawa where I worked in Financial Sector Policy at the Department of Finance (we oversaw FINTRAC), had a stint working in Canada – US relations at the Privy Council Office under the Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister, along with a short stint at the Treasury Board.
- Started in Commercial Real Estate in 2006, when I joined the group.
- In addition to helping grow a family portfolio, was a lead on a few acquisitions in France including the construction of a BREEM Certified Tech Office Building, in Montpellier, France.
- We actively manage our portfolio and use only our own capital aside from our lenders.
- In recent years my focus has been on the construction and acquisition of multibay light industrial and multi family projects.
- I am a soccer fanatic with the injuries to prove it, love being pounded by the swells on the west coast while fishing, not obsessed about hunting but I do own guns including on from the turn of century (the last one via my Grandmother), and am an avid cyclist and a survivor of Mt.Ventoux.
- My wife forces me to live on a hobby farm rather than on the water or in an urban village.
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