In what has been an exciting start to 2021, the Avenue Living Group has strategically grown our portfolio to over $2.8 billion in assets under management (AUM).
Some of our notable Q1 and Q2 highlights:
– Core Trust Acquired $275 million in assets within one week in Edmonton, which included 1,566 doors. The Edmonton market now accounts for 25 per cent of our multi-family portfolio;
– The portfolio acquisition of 874 apartments and townhomes in the Hermitage community in Edmonton, which further solidified Avenue Living’s place as one of Canada’s leading Real Estate Investment Trusts;
– The Uplands Manor acquisition, which helped us surpass 1,000 units in Calgary, further strengthens our presence in the market;
– Mini Mall Storage Properties experienced impressive growth and surpassed $300 million in AUM in the first half of this year; and
– Our Agricultural Land Trust added 2,914 acres to its growing portfolio, bringing the fund to over 48,000 acres under management.
Avenue Living’s investment strategy and platform is shining bright at the halfway point in 2021.
“I’m very proud of our year to date. We’re two quarters in and we have grown exponentially,” says Jason Jogia, Chief Investment Officer, Avenue Living. “Our growth enables us to continue to invest in our platform and our assets.
“We are seeing an influx of acquisition opportunities across all of our mandates,” he adds.
The industry is experiencing what we call “the changing of the guard” — many smaller owner-operators are reaching retirement age and would consider passing their properties on to their children, however those children are not always inclined to operate a residential property. This generational wealth transfer plays into the future of our organization.
“Avenue Living is taking advantage of this unique moment in time. We believe there is opportunity to consolidate the unconsolidated,” says Jason.
With passive landlords not keeping up with the demands of today’s residents through lack of capital and operational investment, we are seeing significant opportunities arise. Assets such as real estate and storage properties continue to offer attractive alternative investments. Our investment strategy is the way it is because we are an owner-operator.
“We’ve really honed our operating platforms to service our customers and have created sustainability in how we work every day. Residents today require more from landlords than just a roof over their heads. Our investments in technology, real estate and our people have sustainably differentiated us in the market. The results show in the success of our operational and financial KPIs which we monitor continuously. We are rooted in our disciplined approach, financial performance, and proper KPIs to assure success. We will continue to invest in real estate, capex, technology, and our people — training and making them better — while creating better processes and becoming more efficient. That’s the goal for the balance of the year,” Jason says.
Our four pillars are: investment in buying assets, investment in capex at the asset level, investment in operations to build a better operating platform, and investment in technology. Leaning on these will help ensure continued success as we navigate the latter half of the year.
Avenue Living has spent the better part of 16 years building our vertically integrated platform to allow our funds to grow at scale. With robust asset management and active property management, which includes incorporating market research models, each decision and investment is meticulously calculated.
“Our growth speaks to the resiliency, tenacity, and skill of our people. We’ve tested our system, and COVID-19 tested us in terms of our operating platform, technology and infrastructure, and the capacity of our people. We realized we were able to grow astronomically, even in unprecedented times.
“Buying roughly $400 million in real estate between storage and multi-family acquisitions in Q2 really confirmed our ability to execute major transactions without missing a beat. Over the course of the quarter, we saw value appreciation in our assets through better performance and market fundamentals,” Jason says, “Every cylinder is firing as it should.”
There is much to look forward to for Avenue Living as we navigate the third and fourth quarters of 2021 with an eye to our long-term future and outlook.
(This content was provided by Avenue Living Asset Management Ltd)
