[URBAN NOTE] "How Brexit could fuel Toronto housing prices"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's carries Natalie Obiko Pearson's Bloomberg article noting the negative effective of Brexit on the Toronto real estate boom. Thanks a lot.

Realtors in Toronto and Vancouver are pitching Canadian cities as relatively safe property havens now that London, for years one of the world's leading targets of foreign capital, suddenly looks a lot riskier.

Blame it on Brexit.

“Brexit's good for us, not for them,” said Anita Springate-Renaud, owner of Engel & Volkers' brokerage in Toronto, who expects to field calls from clients seeking to redirect their investments. “We are a safe bet.”

If Springate-Renaud is right, there may be heightened demand from moneyed clients for homes and condos, as well as office towers in two of Canada's hottest real estate markets, which already have seen prices soar from an influx of foreign money. There's a record $443 billion (U.S.) in global capital allocated to commercial property that wealthy investors haven't deployed, according to figures from Cushman & Wakefield.

Within hours of the stunning Brexit outcome, Brian Kriter, an executive managing director of valuation and advisory at Cushman & Wakefield, was on a 6:30 a.m. call from his home in Toronto to discuss the potential ramifications of the referendum with colleagues in London and New York.