Robin Kelley, Partner at Groupe Denux based in Victoria, is joining us in this episode. He is a second-generation investor in his family, and owns and manages apartments all across the country but with a focus on the Victoria, BC market.

A regular listener of the podcast, Robin takes us through how his family-owned company came to be. He talks about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on different markets, including both positive and negative trends happening in Victoria.

Topics covered include:

• Robin’s case for investing in Victoria versus Vancouver.
• What Groupe Denux looks for when choosing a market to invest in.
• Vacancy rates achieved when offering rent under market rate.
• Tightening margins in secondary real estate markets.
• The trend of people leaving city centres.
• An advantage of secondary markets that was previously a disadvantage.
• Changes that have happened in Victoria over time.
• Starting his career in Quebec before moving to the west coast.
• Delving into construction of new buildings.
• Friendly competition that exists within the family-owned Groupe Denux.
• The eclectic group of markets that Groupe Denux is involved with.
• Business that Robin is conducting in Calgary right now.
• Struggles that Alberta was experiencing even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The flex financing option for affordable housing offered by CMHC.

More about our guest…..

• Undergraduate Degree in Economics
• Graduate Degrees in Economics and Urban Planning
• Started my career at the Canada West Foundation, and then moved to Ottawa where I worked in Financial Sector Policy at the Department of Finance (we oversaw FINTRAC), had  a stint working in Canada – US relations at the Privy Council Office  under the Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister, along with a short stint at the Treasury Board.
• Started in Commercial Real Estate in 2006, when I joined the group.
• In addition to helping grow a family portfolio, was a lead on a few acquisitions in France including the construction of a BREEM Certified Tech Office Building, in Montpellier, France.
• We actively manage our portfolio and use only our own capital aside from our lenders.
• In recent years my focus has been on the construction and acquisition of multibay light industrial and multi family projects.
• I am a soccer fanatic with the injuries to prove it, love being pounded by the swells on the west coast while fishing, not obsessed about hunting but I do own guns including on from the turn of century (the last one via my Grandmother), and am an avid cyclist and a survivor of Mt.Ventoux.
• My wife forces me to live on a hobby farm rather than on the water or in an urban village.

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