We hosted our annual Real Estate Forum on Thursday, October 2nd at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia. Thanks to the tremendous support from our community and our sponsor, Deloitte, this was again a fully sold out event!

Our 2014 speakers’ panel consisted of:

Lucy Fletcher, Director, International Capital Group, Jones Lang LaSalle

Beau Jarvis, Senior Vice President, Developments, Wesgroup Properties

Maury Dubuque, Managing Director, Vancouver Brokerage, Colliers International Canada    

Jennifer Podmore Russell (Moderator), Director, Deloitte Real Estate  

These dynamic panelists offered us an engaging discussion about the Greater Vancouver’s residential and commercial real estate markets.

While guests were treated to an exquisite lunch prepared by the Hotel Georgia, our moderator, Jennifer Podmore Russell, opened the panel discussion with forecasts and statistics. She noted that there are roughly 25,000 new people arriving in the Greater Vancouver, which necessitates construction of about 17,500 new homes. With construction activity matching (or currently just falling short of) this level, she remarked, we continue to build for demand and to replace the existing housing stock. Beau Jarvis agreed that immigration and inflow of capital from Asia and from around the globe continue to drive demand for residential real estate. The panel then discussed how demand for amenities of urban living and access to transit/transportation are driving the development of mixed-use projects and the creation of urban centres.  

In terms of the investment market, the panel agreed that aggressive capital continues to chase commercial real estate properties: whether individuals or institutions, local or international buyers, pension funds, families, or REITs - everybody is buying real estate!

The panel then turned to detailed discussions on the office, retail and industrial markets. Workplace trends were discussed as part of the dialogue on office markets and future use of retail space was the focus of debate on retail markets. Beau Jarvis noted that in addition to on-line shopping and mega stores like Target, we will continue to see traditional “mom & pop” stores leasing space because they keep the “fabric of the neighbourhood”.

After Jennifer challenged the panelists to provide their forecast for 2015 we had a great Q&A session with questions on interest rates, cap rates, and questions like “What’s driving the Vancouver condo market?”

We hope all our guests in attendance had an amazing time at this year’s event and we look forward to seeing you in November and throughout the 2014/2015 season!