Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. is aiming to raise US$15 billion for its fifth flagship real estate fund, less than its previous version, according to people familiar with the matter, as the global property market is roiled by rising borrowing costs.
Brookfield, one of the world’s largest owners of prime office properties, started raising money earlier this year for the new vehicle just months after closing its fourth fund at US$17 billion. A spokesperson for the Toronto-based asset manager declined to comment.
The firm is seeing attractive value entry points, Brookfield Asset President Connor Teskey told shareholders last month, adding that investors “believe that this could be a tremendous vintage for us, and therefore, there is lots of interest.” Only a small percentage of the equity in the firm’s current flagship real estate funds is invested in office properties.
Office landlords around the world are being squeezed by higher interest costs, falling property prices and low occupancy rates as employees continue working from home. Fee-bearing capital in Brookfield Asset’s real estate business dipped to US$98 billion in March from US$103 billion at the end of last year.
Brookfield focuses on top-quality office real estate, which will produce better returns over the long run, Chief Executive Officer Bruce Flatt told investors last month.
“We have always focused on owning premier real estate in the best locations, which is why 95 per cent of our office portfolio is either trophy or Class A office space that continues to vastly outperform the broader market,” he said in a letter to shareholders of Brookfield Corp., Brookfield Asset’s parent company. The group also invests in other property asset classes, including hotels, malls, logistics and housing.
Brookfield has defaulted on mortgages covering more than a dozen office buildings, mostly in Los Angeles and around Washington, DC. Recently it handed a receiver control of EY Plaza, a 41-floor tower in Los Angeles, where the downtown office vacancy rate has reached 30 per cent.
Flatt told investors the problems are isolated to those assets and aren’t material to the firm’s sprawling real estate business, which includes New York’s Manhattan West and London’s Canary Wharf. Brookfield has “always prided ourselves on being an extremely responsible borrower, and our reputation in the capital markets sets us apart,” he said.
Brookfield has more than US$825 billion in assets under management, with US$270 billion in real estate holdings under management as of March.
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.
