1580 Haro St., in Metro Vancouver has been acquired by InterRent and Crestpoint as part of a portfolio of apartment properties in the city. (Google Maps)
The two investors will be 50-50 partners in the acquisitions and InterRent will become the manager of the properties, which are spread across several Metro Vancouver municipalities.
The properties are being acquired from six different vendors. The acquisitions are scheduled to close on Jan. 28.
The properties are being financed via a combination of cash and new short-term debt of approximately $190.1 million.
“We are thrilled to enter the Vancouver market, with scale, through the acquisition of this institutional-quality portfolio that is extremely well-located,” said Mike McGahan, CEO of InterRent, in the announcement Monday morning. “The Vancouver rental market continues to exhibit strong, sustainable market fundamentals, with exposure to a growing tech sector.
“We look forward to enhancing these properties with our best-in-class management platform, customer service and community-focused approach. This is a market we have targeted for a long time.”
The InterRent, Crestpoint portfolio
Nine of the properties are concrete mid-rise apartments and the remaining six are wood-frame apartments.
The properties are in premium locations in the Metro Vancouver submarkets of the West End (six properties, comprising 265 units), Kitsilano/Point Grey (three properties, 111 units), Marpole (four properties, 178 units), and South Granville (two properties, 58 units).
The largest buildings are the 72-apartment 8675 French St. in Marpole, and the 61-apartment 1580 Haro St. in the West End. The smallest is the 14-unit, concrete-construction 4640 W. 10th Ave. in West Point Grey.
The properties are situated in core locations within prominent neighbourhoods offering high walkability scores, access to transit, major employment, recreational amenities, universities and downtown Vancouver.
Several of the properties were previously owned/managed by Hollyburn Properties, including both the French St. and Haro St. buildings. The private company, which was founded in Vancouver and now also has an office in Toronto, had reportedly placed a 10-property portfolio on the market last fall.
The new partnership
The partnership offers synergies for both companies. Crestpoint is already heavily invested in Metro Vancouver in the industrial, office and retail sectors, while InterRent has extensive multifamily knowledge and holdings across Canada.
“The multifamily space has been an area of interest for Crestpoint and to enter this sector for the first time through a well-diversified portfolio in one of the most sought-after cities in the world is a tremendous opportunity,” said Kevin Leon, president and founder of Crestpoint.
“There is a real benefit to combining forces with a highly reputable, experienced operator like InterRent and the addition of these assets should provide long-term benefits to Crestpoint’s growing portfolio while providing a springboard to accumulate numerous properties in the multifamily sector across Canada.”
The acquisition is the second major announcement for Crestpoint in the past week. Last week, it acquired the South Surrey Business Park in Metro Vancouver, as well as the Centre on Barton retail big-box property in Hamilton.
For its part, InterRent is also the second major Ottawa-based multifamily investor to enter the Vancouver market in recent weeks. Minto Apartment REIT has invested about $12 million into the Lonsdale Square development by a Darwin Properties affiliate, with an option to purchase upon stabilization.
About InterRent and Crestpoint
InterRent REIT is a growth-oriented real estate investment trust focused on the acquisition and ownership of multiresidential properties.
InterRent’s strategy is to expand its portfolio primarily within markets that have exhibited stable market vacancies, sufficient suites available to attain the critical mass necessary to implement an efficient portfolio management structure and offer opportunities for accretive acquisitions.
Crestpoint Real Estate Investments Ltd. is a commercial real estate investment manager with $5.3 billion of gross assets under management. Its headquarters is in Toronto.
Crestpoint is part of the Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group, a multi-boutique asset management company that provides investment management products and services to institutional and high-net-worth clients.
With offices across Canada and in Chicago, New York and London, Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group and its affiliates manage over $85 billion in assets.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
