Breaking into Real Estate Development?
Tips on breaking into Dev in Toronto Canada? Finishing up a Masters in Real Estate, previous background in Property and Asset Management, looking to join a team in an investment/financial role but with the option to still learn about the entire development process.
Seems like a tough market right now, but what sorts of developers should I target and what should my strategy be for landing a full-time role? I really like Dev and want to learn as much as I can.
Also wanted to ask, my financial modelling skills are solid, but I am considering taking further courses to really be solid - thinking BCre or ACRE.
Thanks,
Breaking into real estate development, especially in a competitive market like Toronto, requires a strategic approach. Based on the most helpful WSO content, here are some actionable tips:
1. Targeting Developers
2. Networking Strategy
3. Strengthening Your Financial Skills
4. Positioning Yourself
5. Market Awareness
6. Timing and Persistence
By targeting the right developers, leveraging your network, and continuously improving your skills, you can position yourself effectively for a role in real estate development in Toronto. Good luck!
Sources: Real Estate Opportunity For Civil Engineers, Breaking into commercial development, Starting in Real Estate Development, Breaking Into Commercial Real Estate
Bump
I dont know anything about the Toronto market, but you need to be networking as much as you possibly can. When I was doing my MSRE, I made coffee chats and networking events basically a part time job. Its a non-negotiable in this market. Spend a few hours researching on LinkedIn what firms are active in your market, compile a list in a spreadsheet, and just start firing off cold linkedIn messages to people for coffee chats. That was my strategy and it worked well.
Modeling is important, but thats honestly table stakes, especially in this day and age with Claude being able to do basically anything an fresh analyst can. Try to set yourself apart from other would-be analysts with your experience in PM and AM and how that can help with development. There are all sorts of ways i'm sure you can spin that, but at the end of the day, you will get hired likely due to how you present yourself in an interview, and if the firm thinks you are a cultural fit. At least thats my opinion on how things go.
Thanks for the tips. I’m in the process of coffee chats - they’re going well overall. Learning a lot from people and everyone is saying to stay in touch, but lead to nothing. Any tips?
Unfortunately been hearing this from a lot of people in your position. You are doing the right thing, just need to cast a wide net and eventually something will land. Some will say not to be explicit in asking for a job, but I almost disagree at this point. Obviously you need to handle the conversation and ask in a polite manner, but its somewhat obvious in that you are there as you want an opportunity, and maybe just state that. Follow up with people after a few months and see how things are going. Show a genuine interest in what they do.
When I did this, I had to start with an internship after graduating with an MSRE (1-year program) that I was able to convert to a full-time offer. That is probably your best bet to start with, and then grind your ass off making yourself as valuable as possible so they want to hire you full time.
Nothing about this market is easy, in terms of job opportunities or the RE itself, so you just need to keep grinding and if you have legit interest in it, you will eventually land something.
As someone who “broke in” a few years ago….don’t do it. The business model is broken.
In what sense?
In the sense that they're bitter they aren't already worth half a billion dollars and living on a private island as a 28 year old VP. Anything less than that is "broken"
Grinch is back.
C'mon, Ozy, that's a ham-fisted caricature that you're selling as an attempt to dispel the actual problems. 2 & 10-yr yields are surging, construction costs aren't going down, and still a lot of capital is sitting on the sidelines. After that little post-Covid blip, a lot of us heard survive to '25, some other expression through 26, and now we're looking at '28 as a return to normalcy period. Frankly, I'm amazed some people are still employed after I hear from LPs with a national focus that they're underwriting significantly fewer deals each passing year.
I'm not the original guy who wrote that the model is broken, so I'm not entirely sure his list of concerns, but there are actual problems aside from some guy fantasizing about your scenario.
Alright, Harding.
You are sort of proving my point. There is no "normal." There are conditions at a given time or in a given cycle, and those change. What was normal from 2012-2022 lasted an aberrantly long time, and as we're seeing, was a boom cycle based on the mirage of permanently low rates. There won't be a "return to normalcy" because there is no fundamental reason that conditions should go back to where they were. Some firms will adapt. Others will perish. I understand the personal desire to avoid being stuck at a firm which is going in reverse, but to claim that someone should avoid real estate because the model is "broken" is unbelievably stupid and unbelievably selfish and greedy. Yes, the system by which every dumbass project got off the ground because rates were low and equity was cheap is broken. Yes, the Sunbelt Syndicator model is gone. Yes, the system which let you model out compressing cap rates and growing rents and didn't even require you to think about opex, because some other mark would come along and take on a project you owned for 30 months and then called a day is gone.
That doesn't mean real estate as a whole is broken. It just means people and firms with no competitive advantage or skills are going to fall by the wayside. Which is just another way of saying that a lot of people without skills or knowledge came into the industry when making money was easy and didn't require those things. As I said, on a personal level, that sucks and I sympathize, but from a 30,000 ft view I have a hard time seeing why any of this is a problem.
But there is no evidence that there is an actual problem. The fact that rates aren't at zero isn't an issue in and of itself, and this is exactly the point I was trying to make. People want to go back to what was easy and what was proven, because there isn't any risk in that. Because for a large cohort of people, it was amazing to get paid a ton of money to do a job that entailed almost no value-add.
Individuals have actual problems. Those problems aren't new, they exist everywhere all the time. Someone else has cheaper capital, more knowledge, deeper relationships. Your niche evolves away from you and you don't see it happening until it's too late and you've been market corrected. None of that is specific to 2026.
I just find it kind of hard to sympathize with anyone who thinks "survive to '25" was a promise of some sort. It was always a pipe dream. It was always about going back to the idea that the natural resting point for the Fed was 0% or .25% or whatever. The people and firms who repeated that mantra were abdicating their responsibility to adapt to a new normal. I don't think those companies warrant our sympathy, at all. Someone with so little to add to a project that their only hope of making money is an interest rate reduction, is someone who deserves to go bust.
To be completely honest, I've realized that mortgage models shall be completed as a daily excercise to keep the high FInance skillset.
Just my EQ, cheers!
Some smaller shops sometimes combine asset management and development to stay lean. Seems like that would be a great setup for you, as your previous skillset managing assets would be desirable and allow you to contribute while you learn development.
Great point. Any examples of companies, and how would I know they combine them?
Vero dolorem quasi est in consequatur eum odio quibusdam. Corrupti eaque cupiditate odio enim. Vitae qui distinctio repellendus natus. Omnis sit consequatur eaque ipsa odio quis debitis. Ipsum rerum sunt dolores at. Incidunt dolores reprehenderit qui at impedit distinctio.
Ut est delectus provident id quisquam tempora et. Eligendi vero dolore saepe.
Vel sunt at laboriosam voluptatem error explicabo suscipit. Laudantium nihil aut cumque assumenda qui doloremque velit. Eos quo iure laudantium et officia. Deleniti distinctio iste quaerat tenetur. Eos sapiente iste veritatis fugiat. In reiciendis ipsum optio porro ad inventore.
Ex aut dolorem sit sunt. Aut hic et nulla debitis adipisci. Qui dolore quia ad aliquam laborum tempora nam.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...