November 20, 2009—The Real Property Association of Canada (REALpac) and FPL Advisory Group recently announced the results of the Fourth Quarter 2009 REALpac/FPL Canadian Real Estate Sentiment Survey, a comprehensive measure of senior executives’ confidence in the Canadian commercial real estate industry.
The survey measures respondents’ outlook on current and future (1) overall real estate conditions, (2) access to capital markets, and (3) real estate asset pricing. The respondents represent the retail, office, industrial, hotel, multi-family, residential, and seniors residential asset classes, from a broad range of industry sectors.
Major findings include: the executives’ sentiment on real estate markets has risen over the past quarter, more than in the U.S.; more are seeing positive market trends, but any movement is expected to be slow; asset values are viewed as materially down today, but expectations are up, and respondents report stronger pricing than in the U.S.; debt capital availability is perceived as much improved since last quarter, although still much lower than in ’07; perspectives on equity capital availability are still above those for debt capital.
The REALpac Web site (.pdf file) offers the survey responses supplemented by excerpts from interviews with the respondents.
