Goodbye 2024
What a year!
As we're reaching end of the year, I'm reviewing economic charts and data of this past year.
If you have been following me for a while, you know I love to study economic data and connecting the dots to see where things may be moving toward.
It's something I enjoy doing, something I believe all investors should do for their own portfolio, and something I hold as responsibility of what Managing Partners need to do if they work with with passive investors.
In the new year, I will be doing a review of my economic and market predictions of 2024.
In addition, I will also present my predictions for 2025.
It's one of the higher attendance zoom calls, you might want to keep an eye out when it's open up for registration.
As I reflect on 2024, lots of things happened this year I didn’t expect at the beginning of the year.
At the beginning of 2024, I expected a good year for our real estate projects.
If you have done development or have invested in development projects, you know how things don’t ever go completely to plan.
Half way through the year, we’ve hit delays due to factors out of our control:
City of Edmonton experienced a rush of permits applications due to changes to the city zoning bylaw which allows more density (units) to be developed on a single family lot.
CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) changed their financing insurance policy not once but twice this year in the middle of our development cycle.
Developers who are developing in areas that were relying on energy efficiency to help qualify for the government insurance were affected in a big way.
We were fortunate not to be impacted much by their policy change in the 1st round. The 2nd round of changes affected us to some degree.
In the Fall, City of Edmonton decided to change the garbage collection requirement without consulting infill developers. Impacting garages and designs for most small scale infill projects.
It’s frustrating and It’s the nature of the game.
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Even though there were plenty of challenges and frustrations, 2024 was a great year for our team.
Here are some good news from this year:
We added an 18-unit townhouse complex to our portfolio. It was a great acquisition as we have since increased ~400k of value in less than 6 months, with additional increase in value in Spring 2025.
We exited on a land development project combining 3 side-by-side inner city infill lots (called land assembly) to another developer which plan on building a townhouse development.
We wish the developer success in that project.
We’re also wrapping up on an 8-unit infill project in the first 2 months of 2025.
Looking ahead, we have a strong pipeline worth around 15M of real estate projects in development.
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I hope you had a good 2024.
With 2025 around the corner, I urge you to study the market trends that’s driving our economy and markets.
I expect 2025 will bring on fireworks with Trump back in power.
It will be both good AND bad.
Bad for people who aren’t comfortable in navigating the increase market volatility.
Good for people who can jump in when needed.
I will share my thoughts on the market soon.
It’s a market like no other.
It’s one of the toughest markets I’ve seen to predict.
In the mean time, celebrate the last day of the year.
You worked hard this year, take some time off to reflect and celebrate.
If you like my work, I invite you to share it with others.
Happy New Year!
Eric Chang
Toronto, Ontario
December 31, 2024
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