INTRODUCTION OF CO-CHAIRS

Michael Brooks, Chief Executive Officer, Real Property Association of Canada

OPENING REMARKS

Vlad Volodarski, Chief Executive Officer, Chartwell Retirement Residences
Pammi Bir, Managing Director, Global Equity Research, RBC Capital Markets

COVID-19 brought an unexpected major impact on every Canadian and aspect of our lives, our businesses, the markets, and our overall economy. With widespread retail, business and production shutdowns, steep drops in consumer spending, and accelerating levels of unemployment, the pandemic pushed our economy into a recession. This is over and above the impacts of the steep drop in oil prices and the pipeline protests closing down essential transportation networks. Here is an update on where are we now. Is it really a recession or something totally different? What kind of an economy will we be recovering into? Other questions addressed will include:

• What will be the timing between “back to work” and economic recovery?
  
• How to navigate the zigzag economy in the remainder of this year and 2021?
• How temporary is the softness or is there permanent damage? Who wins? Who loses? Which provinces will recover faster? What will the likely path be in Alberta?
• Government and central bank policies: Are we done? Implications for the recovery and the aftermath
• How do Canada’s surging provincial and national debt compare with other G7 countries?
• Is globalization possibly now dead? What are the implications of the pandemic? 
• COVID-19 and real estate: what to expect, near-term and beyond?
  

Eric Lascelles, Chief Economist, RBC Global Asset Management Inc.

HOW TURBULENT HAVE THE PAST TWELVE MONTHS BEEN FOR REITs? 

Since last September, Canadian REITs have experienced dramatic highs and lows in the capital markets. The opening presentation will provide an update on some of the key factors that have contributed to this trend and the results over the first half of 2020. Comparatives will be provided relative to other industry sectors, different property types, and the meltdown of the 1990s, the 2000 tech bubble and the 2008 financial crisis. The commentary will conclude with a few observations on where the market appears to be heading over the next twelve months.

Carolyn Blair, Managing Director, RBC Capital Markets Real Estate Group

THE BUYSIDE ROUNDTABLE:  WHAT’S YOUR INVESTMENT CRITERIA AND RISK MANAGEMENT CONCERNS? ARE THEY CHANGING FROM WEEK TO WEEK?

A wide-ranging discussion among portfolio and money managers on how their investment criteria and activities with REIT units and REOC shares changed since March, and what are the key expectations and risk management concerns heading into 2021.

• Are you running a “war-time” portfolio by being hypersensitive to avoiding trends, very careful about what you are owning by sector, and also within each sector?
• On what are you now focused, e.g. yields, total return, growth? Does anything matter more to investors than Risk Adjusted Returns?
• How much liquidity is enough?
• What risks are you most concerned about, e.g. accommodating health and safety concerns in your buildings, the decline in immigration and its impact on population growth, consumer spending and housing demand, remote home workplaces vs. office demand, the sharp climb in e-commerce vs. brick and mortar retail? 
• What other risk factors are more significantly to you today, e.g. development, geography, property types, business models, succession planning? 
• What is the right capital structure and appropriate level of debt for a Canadian REIT given the state of the economy and interest rates? 
• How do you evaluate REIT management platforms with respect to their governance, corporate culture, ESG reporting and impact investing? What value to you ascribe to these factors?
• What do you want from a Canadian REIT? How does this compare to what Canadian institutional and retail investors want? How does it compare with the upside potential of other industries?
• What are the reasons for the difference in returns among large caps (retail and diversified) vs small and mid-caps? Under what circumstances would you buy a small or mid-cap REIT?
• How important are real estate fundamentals vs sentiment, funds flows and special situations in your investment decisions?
• How important are demographics and urbanization trends in your investment decisions? 
• What do you expect will likely happen to unit values and funds flows over the next twelve months?  
  

Moderator:
Pammi Bir, Managing Director, Global Equity Research, RBC Capital Markets

Panel:
Tom Dicker, Vice President & Portfolio Manager, Dynamic Funds
Michael Missaghie, Portfolio Manager, Anson Advisors Inc. and President, Arch Corporation
Michele Robitaille, Managing Director, Canadian Equity, Guardian Capital LP
Joshua Varghese, Vice-President, Portfolio Management and Portfolio Manager, Signature Global Asset Management, CI Investments
 

For many REITs and REOCs, development has been one of their key growth strategies in the past ten years. But as a result of COVID-19, what does this look like for development going forward? 

• Will urban mixed-use, transit-oriented still be in vogue? Or are we going to focus on different models? 
• Will they have less retail and more of something else? 
• What will the future of development look like depending on which property class you're in, what city you are in and whether you're urban or more suburban? 
• Has urbanism peaked? Has a form of obsolescence been created e.g. parking needs, elevator, washroom and hallway congestion, tolerance for density, high-rise vs. low-rise buildings, open plan layouts? 
• Is it time to be looking at development because you can get great locations or are people hunkering down? This panel will examine these and other questions in greater detail. 
• How much development activity do REITs currently have underway? How are they overcoming current challenges? 
• Where are construction costs currently and heading at this time? How are they affecting pro formas?
  
• How significantly will the pandemic impact development plans and the pace and costs of construction? 
• Are REITs still making appropriate profit from development to compensate investors for level of risk? How are development returns being measured? What are best practices in reporting success? 
  

Moderator:
Derek Warren, Vice President, Portfolio Manager, Real Estate Equities, Lincluden Investment Management Limited

Panel:
Marlon Bray, Senior Director, Cost and Project Management, Altus Expert Services, Altus Group
Hugh Clark, Executive Vice President, Development, Allied Properties REIT
Christine Côté, Vice President, Development, SmartCentres REIT
Daniel Marinovic, Chief Development Officer, Dream Unlimited
Dean Wilkinson, REIT Analyst, CIBC World Markets