(54) How Institutional Investors Really Look at Development Risk - Jeff Thomas - KingSett Capital

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In this episode, Jeff Thomas, Group Head of Development at KingSett Capital, explains how the Canadian private equity firm invests in Canadian commercial real estate through development, joint ventures, and lending. He describes transitioning from brokerage (co-founding and selling Ashler Urban to Cushman & Wakefield) to development, emphasizing that long-term relationships, trust, transparency, and early delivery of bad news are critical to managing risk across KingSett’s roughly 55 projects with a small internal team. Thomas discusses “premium risk-weighted returns” as achieving strong returns relative to managed, less volatile risk. He details Toronto’s 50 Wilson Heights affordable-housing project (about 750 units in phase one, half affordable) on a prepaid ground lease, involving over 50 initial agreements, CMHC financing, and geothermal sustainability, and notes construction is in early structural work. He says Toronto condos are “dead” due to a large gap between resale and new-launch pricing, with development charges and HST seen as key barriers. He advises smaller builders to get close to customers and highlights modular/precast delivery at West Square as a path to speed, standardization, and affordability, while wishing policymakers would truly prioritize housing.

00:00 Meet Jeff Thomas
00:56 From Brokerage to KingSett
03:17 Relationships and Trust
06:55 Picking Deals and Pricing Risk
10:06 Transparency Builds Trust
13:14 Risk-Weighted Returns Explained
15:30 Inside 50 Wilson Heights
20:52 Construction Progress Update
22:17 Lessons From 50 Agreements
24:51 Condo Market Reality Check
26:22 Costs Fees And Taxes
29:36 Midrise Developer Playbook
30:57 Know Your Customer First
33:27 Modular Project Deep Dive
35:04 Standardization Versus Red Tape
41:44 Partnering With KingSett
44:43 Trends To Be Optimistic
48:22 Magic Wand Policy Wish

#RealEstateDevelopment #PurposeBuiltRental #DevelopmentRisk #AffordableHousing #TorontoRealEstate 

For more information, please refer to RealEstateDevelopmentInsights.com

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