Real Estate in for soft landing

The commercial and residential real estate markets are coming off their peaks, but expect a soft landing.

“We are clearly off our peak,” said David Dube, president and CEO of Concorde Group of Companies. “But that is healthy. Markets do not go up forever. This is a temporary adjustment.”

Dube, who chaired the third annual Saskatchewan Real Estate Forum held in Saskatoon Tuesday, said one of the benefits is developers are seeing a softening in areas such as construction pricing, on which they have been paying a premium for years.

And he said the industry expected a slowdown and is prepared for it.

“It will be a soft landing,” Dube said. “I expect it to last for some period of time, but the industry is as healthy as it’s ever been.

“There is a pretty firm base that has been built over the last eight years.”

Demand for retail in some sectors is still extremely high.

Bill Boyd, minister of the economy, said immigration, wage growth and low interest rates will help buttress a slower real estate market.

“I think the market will continue to be strong,” Boyd said. “I think you are seeing a pull back, certainly on the commercial side … office construction, that sort of thing. We have grown to a certain plateau and now it will level out for a little while.

“We are going to have to see a strong increase in the oil sector before we see much more in terms of the need in that area.”

The real estate forum attracted about 500 people from many sectors connected to real estate.

Dube said the event gave everyone a chance to see what is going on across the entire spectrum.

“It is really pulling all of the disparate interested parties in real estate together to interact and network together,” Dube said. “You are side by side with your competitors … learning more about what is going on in other regions of the industry, what upcoming trends are. It really benefits everyone.

Source – TheStarphoenix