The latest episode of the Livabl Launch podcast features an enlightening chat with Jeremiah Shamess, founder of Colliers Private Capital Investment Group.
Jeremiah specializes in the sale of buildings and development land and has a proven track record of maximizing the value of commercial real estate for his clients.
Join Matt and Jeremy as they discuss everything from current market conditions, the biggest land transactions of the year, and the power of downtown Toronto’s few remaining parking lots.
Here are some highlights from the episode:
On which locations are most attractive in today’s market:
“We are seeing a big appetite for what I like to call first tier suburban. Call it outside of the urban core, but not completely in secondary markets, not in the middle of nowhere. Close to transit – either GO stations, or within zones that are fairly close to a major bus transit or a GO or a subway stop. Those areas have become increasingly attractive, because you have the condo pricing at $1,300 per square foot and lower actually being an affordable product for the market today. And if it’s on transit, it’s quite attractive for the investor pool that is buying condos to then lease those condos out afterwards. So that has been quite attractive in the last little while.”
On market predictions for 2024:
“I suspect that 2024 will still be a fairly low year in terms of transactions. 2023 was a very, very low year in terms of number of transactions, we were lower than the 10-year moving average. So, it was 3.2 billion – our 10-year moving average is 4.4 billion. So, there was roughly 389 transactions depending on how you count, but a lot of smaller transactions happen sub $25 million, anything in the $25 to $50 million range really did not transact.”
“I think this year is going to be a low year in terms of volume. You still don’t have a number of developers in the market, you have a lot of buyers sitting on the sidelines. You have owners who have not completely capitulated in terms of what they believe value is. But it certainly has started to happen. I think there will likely be a change in 2025.”
On who is buying land right now:
“They’re typically made up of two different types of buyers. So, number one, you have the professional developers, you know, say like CentreCourt, or like Brad Lamb or Slate. These are the ones who have a system or a process in place in which they have a full-time acquisition analyst and full-time planners. They’re out there searching for opportunities to buy all the time.”
“The second type of buyer is more of the syndicated investor. I call it the speculator. There are a number of family offices, high net worth individuals who look at land as a source of wealth and return. And they’ve been right for the past 20 years. Or the past, 25, really. And those are the type of buyers who are taking opportunistic views on buying land that could be built in the future.”
For more information on the Livabl Launch podcast, or to listen to previous episodes, visit Livabl Launch on Podbean.
