CANADA Law and Practice Contributed by: Rachel V Hutton, Michael L Dyck, Mario Paura and Miguel Manzano, Stikeman Elliott LLP
The Industrial, Retail and Residential Sectors The Canadian real estate market has not yet been significantly impacted by potentially dis - ruptive developments such as blockchain, DeFi and proptech. The industrial sector remained strong throughout the early days of the pandemic, and has since far exceeded its pre-pandemic buoyancy. The explosive growth of online commerce, plus even greater demand due to the exponential need for logistics and distribution centres as a result of the pandemic, has sustained and increased pressure on the industrial real estate market, as major online distributors vie for scarce urban space in which to house new fulfilment centres. The retail sector has seen something of a resur - gence, with a focus on larger regional shop - ping centres and properties with large anchor tenants doing well. Moreover, the development of unused areas of shopping centres (such as excess parking) for residential and mixed-use purposes is on an upward trend. The residential sector has shifted in focus as the demand for suburban and recreational property has enjoyed a strong boost, such that this sec - tor has generally returned to very strong levels. In particular, multi-residential and purpose-built rentals remain strong sectors for developers. Seniors Residences After several ups and downs in recent years, the seniors residence market is again very active, in particular in terms of new developments. In Quebec, we have seen multiple transactions after the downfall of a major player in this space. Mixed=use projects which combine condomini - um, rental and seniors residences with commer - cial units are on the rise as well.
Notable Transactions Some of the larger real estate transactions in Canada in recent years were: • Allied Properties REIT sale of Toronto-based data centre portfolio to KDDI Corporation for CAD1.35 billion; • TPG’s acquisition of a 75% interest in two Oxford Properties industrial business parks for CAD990 million; • the Ivanhoe Cambridge sale of a 49% inter - est in the Vaughan Mills shopping centre to LaSalle Management; and • the sale of a consortium represented by Grey - stone TD to Cadillac-Fairview of a 50% inter - est in Carrefour Laval for CAD552.2 million. 1.3 Proposals for Reform Legislative reform at the provincial and federal levels is driven by motivations to create afford - able housing and increase transparency of own - ership of real estate in Canada. While Ontario and Quebec impose transfer taxes on unregistered (or “beneficial” ) transfers of land, other jurisdictions, such as British Columbia, are considering taxing beneficial transfers, while a third group, including Alberta, do not tax either transfers of title or beneficial interest transfers. Onerous transparency and disclosure require - ments are on the rise, with notable legislative implementation in British Columbia and Ontario. Taxation Both British Columbia and Ontario have already instituted foreign-buyer taxes in respect of cer - tain residential properties (limited to certain geographic areas in British Columbia), and in Ontario, the City of Toronto imposed a similar additional tax at the municipal level effective as of 1 January 2025. In British Columbia and in the Cities of Toronto and Ottawa, annual taxes are
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