RioCan Living

RioCan Living is the residential development brand of RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, one of Canada’s largest REITs. It was announced in March 2018 and described at the time as RioCan’s official and permanent entry into the residential market.

The brand exists because RioCan already owned the land. Its purpose is to turn selected existing retail shopping centres into mixed-use communities.

Both purpose-built rental and condominiums, positioned along Canada’s most prominent transit corridors.

At launch the pipeline was roughly 2,800 units across eight projects: approximately 2,100 purpose-built rental units and over 700 condominium units, with six projects in Toronto, one in Calgary and one in Ottawa.

Its inaugural rental project, eCentral at Yonge and Eglinton, is a 466-unit purpose-built rental building.

Verge is RioCan Living’s first solo condominium development, and it shows the model clearly. It comprises a 10-storey, 203-suite mid-rise and a 17-storey, 341-suite high-rise, each with its own distinct lobby and its own indoor and outdoor amenity.

Two separate buildings with separate lobbies on one site is worth understanding before you buy, because which building your suite sits in determines which amenity and which fee structure applies to you.

Two reasons, both stated. The first is a large shortage of new purpose-built rental buildings in Canadian urban centres, which is a durable demand story rather than a market-timing bet. The second is that RioCan holds well-located retail land on transit corridors that is worth considerably more built up than it is as a shopping centre.

For a buyer, the practical upside is location. These sites were chosen decades ago for retail, which means main roads, existing shops and, increasingly, transit.

Establish whether the building you are looking at is condominium or purpose-built rental, and what else on the site is rental. A REIT that retains rental buildings will be your neighbour and often your landlord next door indefinitely, which is not a problem but is worth knowing.

Ask what happens to the existing retail during and after construction, since the amenity that makes the location attractive may be closed for part of your occupancy.

Then the usual: deposit schedule, maintenance fee estimate and its basis, parking and locker, and the occupancy and registration timeline.

A REIT is an investment vehicle first. It answers to unitholders, reports publicly and holds property for income, which means its incentives are not identical to a family builder whose reputation is the business.

The practical differences are worth knowing. Financial disclosure is far better, because RioCan files audited statements and reports quarterly, so you can check the health of the parent. Decision-making is more institutional and less personal. And because a REIT retains rental buildings, it often stays on site as an owner rather than leaving after the last closing.

None of that makes it better or worse. It makes the questions different: read the disclosures rather than relying on the sales office.