Jeff Olin, co-founder of Toronto-based Vision Capital Corp.The Globe and Mail
Unlike many real estate investors, Jeff Olin’s style has little to do with the old adage of “location, location, location” and more to do with finding market inefficiencies using a long-short strategy.
On the long side, the co-founder of Toronto-based Vision Capital Corp. invests in sectors he believes have growth potential, which today include grocery-anchored shopping centres, data centres, seniors’ housing, and manufactured housing communities.
His firm is short equities he believes will underperform, which currently includes office space in the U.S. life sciences industry – a sector dealing with double-digit vacancy rates and funding shortages amid government cuts from the Trump administration.
Mr. Olin says his team finds inefficiencies by reviewing the long-term value and growth of private real estate, and comparing it to the value – based on the stock price – of its publicly listed counterparts.
“We seek to buy real estate cheaper in the stock market than one can in the property market,” says Mr. Olin, who’s also chief executive officer and portfolio manager at Vision Capital, which oversees about $900-million in publicly traded real estate assets, including equity and debt.
Vision Opportunity Fund LP Class AF, the firm’s flagship fund, has returned 1.9 per cent year to date and 4.8 per cent over the past 12 months. Its five-year annualized return is 5.8 per cent. The fund has returned 10.6 per cent annually since inception in July, 2008. Performance is based on total returns, net of fees, as of June 30.
The Globe spoke with Mr. Olin recently about what he’s been buying and selling:
Name three equities you’ve been buying.
Chartwell Retirement Residences CSH-UN-T, the largest owner and operator of seniors’ housing in Canada, is a REIT (real estate investment trust) we first purchased on Aug. 11, 2023, at $9.93 a unit. Seniors’ housing is benefiting from powerful demographic tailwinds, with Canada’s 80-plus population projected to grow at 4.8 per cent annually through 2042, requiring at least 20,000 new seniors housing suites annually over the next decade. There are fewer than 5,000 suites under construction across Canada right now, and, according to CBRE, new supply peaked in the prior business cycle at less than 10,000 units under construction.
The REIT recently reported that same-property adjusted net operating income was up 20 per cent for its second quarter compared with a year ago, which is extraordinary. It’s very well managed and has a nice distribution yield. Like other operators in the sector, the REIT got hit during the pandemic, with occupancy rates dropping into the low 80-per-cent range. A year ago, it told the market its occupancy rate would be at 95 per cent by the end of 2025, and it’s on track to achieve that.
Digital Core REIT Management Pte. Ltd., the Singapore-listed data centre REIT, is an equity we bought on June 16, 2023, for US$0.47 a unit. Digital Core owns some of the best data centres in the world, including in important markets such as Frankfurt, Osaka, Virginia and Toronto.
Its infrastructure supports trends such as rising power demand and increasing cloud and enterprise computing needs. McKinsey projects global capacity demand for the types of services Digital Core provides could almost triple by 2030. At the same time, power grid limitations, regulatory hurdles and extended development timelines are restricting new data centre deliveries in core data centre markets until at least 2028.
We see it as a unique opportunity to buy Class A data centre assets located in high-growth markets at a notable 24-per-cent discount to their underlying value. What’s more, the REIT has an attractive 7-per-cent distribution yield.
First Capital REIT FCR-UN-T is one of Vision’s largest holdings. We originally bought it on March 23, 2021, for $16.50 a unit. We view it as the highest-quality grocery-anchored, necessity-based retail shopping centre portfolio in the world.
That’s a big statement. Why so bold? It’s in the heart of six major Canadian centres: Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa. It has 22 million square feet of in-place assets and an additional 23 million square feet of future potential development on its shopping centers in these major markets. It might be one of the best-covered land plays in the world. [A covered land play is when the site produces income that covers the costs associated with owning the property until it’s developed].
First Capital is trading at a discount to its net asset value, and you get a 5-per-cent distribution yield while you wait. There’s a lot of demand for this asset class. We’ve seen mergers and acquisitions in this space, and this is just a very defensive investment that has predictable growth in cash flow.
Name a stock you sold recently and why.
InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust IIP-UN-T, which owns multi-family rental residential apartments in Canada, is a REIT we have invested in on several occasions over the past 15 years. We last bought it in March, 2025, at an average price of $10.61 a unit.
Then, on May 27, InterRent announced an agreement to be acquired by Carriage Hill Properties Acquisition Corp, a newly-formed entity owned by CLV Group and GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. The deal hasn’t closed yet, but unitholders are expected to receive $13.55 per unit in cash.
The stock traded above the takeover price due to speculation that a higher bid would emerge. We recently decided to sell around the takeover price and take our profit in advance of closing. It’s the 22nd takeover of a portfolio holding in the Vision Opportunity Funds since its inception in 2008.
This interview has been edited and condensed.