Ross McCredie, CEO and chairman of Sutton Group, left, and Michael Liebowitz, president and CEO of Douglas Elliman Inc., at the signing ceremony in Aspen, Colo.Douglas Elliman
High-net-worth Canadians will soon have a new option to consider for their real estate needs with the arrival of U.S.-based luxury brokerage Douglas Elliman Inc.
Real estate is seeing a slowdown in sales and prices in many key Canadian markets, but industry insiders say the high end of the market has been more resilient, potentially offering the new venture a path to grow.
“Quality real estate and good locations continue to outperform,” said Ross McCredie, a long-time real estate entrepreneur who made the deal with Douglas Elliman to license its brand for a new brokerage he will operate in the Canadian market.
Mr. McCredie said that most of the high-net-worth clients his new brokerage will seek to target in its initial markets of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal (and the nearby recreational markets such as Whistler, Muskoka and Mont-Tremblant) are in their 60s or 70s, and tend not to be moved by short-term market wobbles. “Time is more important than price.”
This is not Mr. McCredie’s first time bringing in an outside luxury real estate brand: In 2004, he licensed the Sotheby’s International brand in Canada. Today, there are 900 realtors across the country under the Sotheby’s banner. Mr. McCredie sold Sotheby’s International Realty Canada in 2012 and then bought another Canadian brokerage, Sutton Group Inc., in 2023.
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Douglas Elliman may not be a well-known brand in Canada, but it’s among the largest brokerages in the U.S. and a top performer in luxury real estate markets such as New York City, Aspen, Colo., and Miami.
“Canada is the No. 1 buyer of U.S. real estate in all the key markets we’re in. It’s such a natural for us,” said Michael S. Liebowitz, president and CEO of Douglas Elliman, who, since taking over the company in 2024, has moved into international markets with licensing deals for new brokerages in France, Monaco and St. Barts. “We’d like to do another 10 of these deals before the new year,” he said.
Mr. Liebowitz also isn’t too worried about the reception of a U.S. brand in Canada at a time of continued trade and economic tensions.
“That’s a short-term thing,” he said. “Americans and Canadians do love each other; every family does go through a little fighting with each other.”
Mr. McCredie doesn’t plan to grow as big as his old brokerage, saying 400 to 600 agents ought to be enough. He also expects the tough times in the market will help his realtor recruitment drive.
“Agents don’t move in really strong markets,” said Mr. McCredie, who, despite owning companies in this space for almost 25 years, is not himself a licensed realtor. “When markets slow down, agents will look around. And they start to look at companies that will perform in any market.”
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It’s a view echoed by other long-time realtors in the luxury space.
“There’s two reasons agents move: they either see an opportunity at another company that will help their business, or maybe it will be an opportunity because they are in a slump,” said Jimmy Molloy, who has been a sales representative at Toronto’s luxury brokerage Chestnut Park Real Estate for 34 years.
He said he has never been tempted to jump to a new brand. While the market as a whole is in a slump with volumes for the Toronto-area barely above 62,000 sales in the last year (numbers reminiscent of the recession years in the 1990s) he has seen his business hold steady and even grow in some areas.
The bottom line for new Douglas Elliman recruits might be that they could keep more of their commission. Mr. McCredie is looking at a desk fee model instead of a more traditional commission split, meaning successful agents might be able to hang onto more of the money a sale makes.
“I will be talking to my colleagues and gauging their interest, their opinions,” said Dianne Usher, managing broker and senior director of talent growth for Ontario at Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, which may be a natural recruitment target for Mr. McCredie.
“There’s always room for high-service, relationship-based brokerage. Not all our clientele are luxury listings. Part of our mantra is we don’t believe luxury is a price point. We focus on the experience,” she said.
Both Sutton Group and the new brokerage, Douglas Elliman Canada, will have access to Douglas Elliman’s U.S. referral network. That gives the new company a valuable connection to wealthy individuals with multiple homes, or with the desire to find new homes in new locations. However, all the luxury brokerages with international referral programs remain hampered by Canada’s foreign buyer ban.
“Hopefully it’ll end in January, 2027, I wish it would end tomorrow,” Mr. Molloy said of the ban.