Allied-Westbank Acquisition Tops Q1 Deal List
The acquisition by Allied Properties REIT and Vancouver-based Westbank Corp of 19 Duncan St (above) for $47M was the GTA's most notable high-density transaction of the first quarter, as overall dollar volume dropped sharply by 37% versus the same period in 2014 owing to an absence of big deals, according to new numbers from RealNet Canada. There were 484 transactions above $1M recorded in the GTA in Q1—$2.7B total.
Last year’s first quarter had a number of major office and retail deals, namely the sale of Bayview Village Shopping Centre ($505.5M) and the Hudson’s Bay flagship and Simpson’s Tower downtown ($673.5M). This year, office and retail transactions combined only represented $759M of the overall market in Q1, declines of 75% and 61%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2014. Residential land, though, saw the second-highest Q1 investment level in the last 10 years, contributing $687M to overall GTA investment volume last quarter.
