Alliance REIT provides individual investors access to Toronto real estate by developing and managing boutique, loft-style rental apartments in desirable downtown neighbourhoods. Alliance REIT creates communities and reinvests in Toronto neighbourhoods by strategically sourcing, developing, and managing well-located turn-of-century buildings into highly sought-after boutique residential rental apartments. Alliance REIT is an open-ended fund, RRSP, and TFSA eligible and available to eligible and accredited investors.
Tell us about yourself?
I am the Founder and CEO of Alliance REIT and have over 18 years of experience in developing and managing boutique, multi-family residential rental real estate in Toronto. As a Toronto native, I have a deep personal connection and passion for Toronto and its neighbourhoods. That passion has translated well into the growth and success of Alliance REIT. Previous to founding Alliance, I acted as a strategic advisor to boards of large publicly listed companies and REITS. I also held senior legal and management roles at Mackenzie Financial, BMO Global Asset Management, and BlackRock Canada. I have an LLB/MBA from Osgoode Hall Law and Schulich School of Business.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
I continually remind myself to be patient, be of service, and work hard. Market cycles come and go, but patience, service to others, and hard work are always rewarded.
What problem does your business solve?
We solve a few problems:
- We assist in solving the acute housing shortage in Toronto by creating beautiful loft-style apartments in otherwise empty turn-of-century buildings for our deserving residents.
- We create that missing middle housing that everyone speaks about.
- We invest in old Toronto neighbourhoods.
- We provide exposure to Toronto real estate to those who couldn’t otherwise afford it.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
The inspiration was twofold.
From a resident’s perspective, I had found that renting was very impersonal when renting from a large corporation which lacked the feeling of home. On the other hand, the quality of service often lacked when renting from a small mom-and-pop landlord. At Alliance, we provide that personal touch of providing a home to all of our residents, and meanwhile, we have the professional processes in place to make sure they are well taken care of in their homes.
From an investor perspective, I had found that it was impossible to invest in Toronto real estate unless you had a million to deploy. As a small investor, there was also no way to deploy my RSP and TFSA investment in Toronto’s real estate market. Alliance is both RSP and TFSA eligible and allows for investments of as little as $20,000, thereby allowing smaller investors exposure to the market they otherwise would not have.
What is your magic sauce?
We put our residents first! We create apartments that we would live in ourselves. We also go above and beyond to make sure our residents feel at home and well taken care of in their homes. Because of this practice, we have a waiting list for our units.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We have grown steadily since our inception in 2016 and have provided our investors with 12 per cent in value growth year over year since then. My expectation is that we continue our growth trajectory in the next five years and continue to provide our investors with superior returns relative to the markets. We want to live true to our tagline of “Boutique living, Superior returns”.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
We don’t advertise our investment and have only grown by word of mouth. At times, capital fundraising has been constrained. As a result, we were not able to take advantage of as many opportunities as we could have otherwise. As we continue to grow, we are able to attract more capital and take advantage of those opportunities.
How can people get involved?
We have grown through word of mouth by our investors who have introduced their contacts to Alliance REIT. We would love to hear from eligible and accredited investors who would like to invest in loft-style multifamily real estate in Toronto and participate in our growth. They can reach us through our website at www.AllianceREIT.com and by emailing us at info@AllianceREIT.com.