Rose on Big Story Trends of 2013
We caught up with Avison Young CEO Mark Rose, fresh off the plane from a client event in New York City, and asked him about the big, noteworthy trends that came out of commercial real estate in 2013. One of the biggies, according to Mark, was Canada's stability and the US' relative weakness driven by government in-fighting, higher taxes, Obamacare, and debt ceilings. "Retail is changing rapidly as Amazon [which has especially been the talk of late in this market] and online companies force logistical and supply-chain management change," he says. (And as they build robot drones.) Higher debt costs—which will change underwriting in 2014—is another one, as was the "significant" total of $9B in Canadian investment into US real estate in 2013. "That should continue," Mark says.