There’s more to real estate than just houses. All real estate industries in the world have certain individuals that operate behind the scenes to dictate how everything pans out. In Canada, things are no different. A group of five men influences the happenings in this highly competitive market.
The following are the top five most influential Toronto real estate industry leaders:
Ken Leblanc
While in New Brunswick University of Crandall, Ken Leblanc and others found PropertyGuys.com. This was in the year 1998. By then, Ken Leblanc did not know that real estate sometimes could become a hectic business. The three partner’s idea was that people might use the web instead of technology in selling their homes. From local to national level, the traditional model seemed to have been broken. Inexperience and being ignorant of the problems involved in real estate matters somehow helped this guru in a big way. Nevertheless, the web today is the biggest private real estate network in Canada. It has a monthly visitors’ generation of 400,000 and over 100 franchises across the country. The transactions made on the real estates today has a positive difference of 10 times over the tradition system. A great example of a real estate platform that attracts numerous visitors monthly is the one owned by Mirvish + Gehry.
Bob Dhillon
BOB is a Liberian born refugee in a white man’s world. At 19, Bob was already flipping houses to afford his university business studies in the Richard Ivey School. Later in 1998, Bob entered a full-time business of buying apartment buildings. Bob is the founder and CEO of Mainstreet Equity corp. What started with a value of $17 million and 272 units, has today a value of $1 billion and 8500 units mostly in Western Canada. His company is still planning to extend its wings into United States and take a rapid expansion. Bobs experiences are written in his own book-Business and Retirement Guide to Belize.
Greg Romundt
Greg is the president and founder of Centurion Apartment REIT. He comments that his position in this company is equal to being a bank treasurer. Greg graduated in 1991 from Western University and later joined Citibank as a derivative trader. After 12 years of trading, he retired to venture into real estate business. Centurion was started in 2003 with Greg’s own capital. He rapidly grew the business and his first fund REIT was born in 2006. Today, the Centurion that started in 2009 with assets worth $80 million has grown to a value of half a billion dollars.
Rob Goodall
Rob was brought up in a family that had nothing to do with big debts. With this belief, Rob founded Atrium Mortgage Investment corp in 2001. His main aim was to involve real estate developers in lending them money. In a duration of 12 years, the company has funded loans worth $600 million and loses of only $133000, in which shareholders are never affected at all. Robs main success is attributed by his strictness in knowing exactly whom he works with or even lends money.
Michael Emory
Michael is the founder and CEO of Allied Properties REIT. He is a trained lawyer specializing in corporate securities. This was a step towards his interest in real estates. The company’s aim was to acquire properties in well located Toronto intersections and proximity. This started in 1996 but took form in 1998. By then, they had acquired 18 properties by the name Sable portfolio. By the year 2000, the demand was higher than the company could meet. In 2003, the company went public offering their tenants enough expansion space.
The Canadian real estate market is highly competitive. To be an industry leader, one must really know what he or she is doing. Leaders in this industry really know how to drive the market. The above are the top five real estate industry leaders in Toronto.
