Weekly "Focus" and Go East, Go West

As is well documented, Canada has a housing affordability problem. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (the CMHC), Canada needs to double annual housing starts through 2035 to try and bring housing prices back in line. This is highly unlikely, meaning the affordability issue likely persists for the foreseeable future. House prices vary significantly across the country and Toronto currently ranks behind Vancouver as the 2^nd most expensive city with an average house price of approx. $1.1 million (ii). If one moved east or west, average housing prices are much more affordable – for example, Halifax at $600,000, Edmonton at $470,000 (ii).

 

One solution to the shortage of housing is the development of multi-family properties (i.e. apartments). There are number of publicly traded multi-family REITS and the sector received a boost last month when there was a takeover bid for InterRent REIT (now up 34% in 2025) (i). Interestingly, the takeover bid was launched by the Executive Chairman of the company in partnership with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.

 

	Return in 2025	Dividend Yield
Boardwalk REIT* (BEI.UN)	+7.3%	2.4%
Canadian Apartment Properties REIT* (CAR.UN)	+2.4%	3.6%
Killam Apartment REIT* (KMP.UN)	+14.1%	3.7%
Minto Apartment REIT* (MI.UN)	+9.2%	3.6%

Source: FactSet, Values as of June 19, 2025

 

This week’s "Focus" from our economics team is attached.

 

Have a great weekend,

 

Brad

Senior Portfolio Manager and Senior Investment Advisor