Company Name: Canadian Apartment Properties REIT (CAPREIT)
Contact Person: Jennifer Bateman
Email: j.bateman@capreit.net, Phone: 902-401-4619
Company Website: www.capreit.ca
2021 Vacancy Rate: 2%%, Number of Units: 46,900, Number of Employees: 857 Canadian Employees, 38 Nova Scotia Employees
Describe your Company:
Canadian Apartment Properties REIT (CAPREIT) is Canada’s largest publicly traded housing provider. We own, or have interests in, approximately 46,900 well-located, residential apartment suites and townhomes in Canada and the Netherlands.
Beginning in 1997 and driven by a remarkable history of community building, CAPREIT has never stopped growing. We are Canada’s largest publicly traded residential REIT, holding over $15B in total assets. Being the largest does not mean we do not hyper-focus on local. Local communities have always been where CAPREIT excels – the connections we make and the communities we build. And Halifax is no exception. We can bring our global expertise, processes and resources and execute them in local communities.
In our Nova Scotia portfolio, we have a local team of Operations personnel that customizes the experience for our Nova Scotia market of 3,408 units.
Mission Statement:
Canadian Apartment Properties REIT (CAPREIT) works hard to attract great residents by acquiring high-quality rentals in welcoming communities. Our residents are serviced by hard-working, knowledgeable employees who are as devoted to delivering an unparalleled level of service. As a result, we generate long-term, sustainable growth opportunities for our investors.
Customer service is in the DNA of all CAPREIT employees, from our executive team at our head office to our leasing teams in our communities. Our residents are part of the CAPREIT family, and we believe it is not only our dedicated staff, but our residents, who make our communities great places to call home.
Values:
We value our residents.
We offer best-in-class experiences to ensure that our residents love where they live. Whether it is through best-in-class technology, like our proprietary Resident Portal, thoughtful building renovations that centre on providing value to our residents, through personalized amenities development like community gardens, fitness centres and dog parks that meet the current needs of our residents, or finally through hiring the best in the industry at our communities to deliver exceptional service, CAPREIT keeps the health, safety and care of our residents’ top of mind. We invest in the causes our residents care about the most. In 2024, CAPREIT launched CAPGiving, a long-term philanthropic initiative that drives to invest in the causes and concerns of our team members and valued residents, particularly local and regional charities of choice.
We value our employees.
Growth of our people is paramount to our success. Through our professional mentorship program, our Operations Management Trainee program, or our ongoing training programs, we invest in them and their potential. We cultivate their leadership skills and develop their careers within the organization. Our employee engagement work has been recognized as an eight-time recipient of the Kincentric “Best Employer in Canada’ designation.
We value sustainability.
CAPREIT’s commitment to our responsible stewardship of the environment is another top priority. Whether it is through recognized programs like BOMA, GRESB or individual projects at buildings that retrofit infrastructure to reduce CO2 emissions, installation of electric vehicle (EV) chargers, we constantly look for ways to operationalize sustainability.
Highlight Building Types, Resident Demographics:
CAPREIT is Canada’s largest publicly traded provider of quality rental housing. CAPREIT currently owns or has interests in, and manages, approximately 46,900 residential apartment suites, townhomes across Canada and in the Netherlands.
In Nova Scotia, specifically, we have 30 communities, comprising of 3,408 rental suites in purpose-built rental towers or townhome complexes.
Our resident demographics range from community to community. We house a wide variety of families, students and newcomers. Overall, within the Nova Scotia portfolio, we have 33% who fall in the age range of 25-34, 12% 18-24, 22% 35-44, 9% 45-54, 8% 55-64 and 16% 65+.
The vast majority of our residents (51%) in Nova Scotia have resided with us for more than 5 years.
Notable Resident Programs and Services:
RESIDENT SERVICES
Since the inception of our Resident Portal in 2019, CAPREIT has continually upgraded and enhanced its online experience for prospective and current residents. Whether it’s providing residents access to service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through or sending important communication vital to their tenancy directly to their mobile device, we keep our residents the focus and we remain committed to consistently deliver exceptional service.
In 2024, CAPREIT took significant strides to enhance the resident experience by further expanding its capabilities. Recognizing the increasing importance of a digitized experience for prospective residents, we introduced a new digital leasing process to make leasing easier for our new residents. This allows prospective residents to seamlessly complete the leasing process online, offering virtual tours, online applications, and digital document signing. This approach improves the overall leasing experience but also streamlines the process for property teams, enhancing operational efficiency and reducing turnaround times – ultimately resulting in happier residents.
Combined with other enhancements like online rent payments, maintenance requests, and access to community updates, the resident portal continues to be a central hub for managing all aspects of life within our communities.
By continuously investing in digital solutions, CAPREIT is committed to providing a modern, efficient, and user-friendly platform that meets the evolving needs of our residents and supports our property teams in delivering exceptional service.
In Nova Scotia:
92.2% of our residents use the Resident Portal.
Resident Portal Happiness Score is 82.6%.
The Resident Portal Recommend Score is 8.03/10.
Community Relation Programs and Initiatives:
Engaging our residents on social media is an important component of our customer experience. With a dedicated team focused on responding, listening, and engaging with our residents online, we ensure a prompt response to their questions – ranging from a prospective resident interested in a suite to an existing resident with feedback to provide. We closely follow our Google Reviews to ensure that we escalate any feedback and that our communities meet a company standard of service.
In 2024 alone, we had 220 four and five-star Google Reviews for our Nova Scotia properties.
Any resident that requests intervention to assist with an issue interacts with a CAPREIT WeCare team member, trained to provide customer service, and assists to facilitate solutions with appropriate operations management.
In 2024, our Customer Experience team handled 3,743 individual resident emails per year, with issues as diverse as rent assistance, noise etc.
In 2024, we sent over 4591 notices to our residents in our Nova Scotia properties.
As part of our commitment to corporate social responsibility, CAPREIT launched the CAPGiving Program in 2024, a key initiative aimed at bringing together employees, residents, and local communities in support of causes that reflect our company’s core values.
In conjunction with the CAPGiving Program, CAPREIT launched the Keys for Impact initiative as part of our ongoing efforts to give back to the communities in which we operate. This annual initiative is a reflection of our commitment to social responsibility. For every new resident who moves into one of our communities, CAPREIT donates $150 to local charities selected by our employees.
Our 2024 campaign raised an incredible $150,150 to support charitable organizations across Canada. In Alberta, CAPREIT employees selected Brown Bagging for Calgary’s Kids, an organization focused on reducing food waste and redistributing surplus food to those in need. https://bit.ly/4hsrnxu
Sustainability Practices Implemented:
CAPREIT’s commitment to our responsible stewardship of the environment is another top priority within our organization. It is important for us to be responsible guardians of our communities and that impacts the environment. Whether it is through recognized programs like BOMA, GRESB or individual projects at buildings that retrofit infrastructure to reduce CO2 emissions, installation of electric vehicle (EV) chargers, we constantly look for ways to operationalize sustainability at CAPREIT. We have two dedicated teams focused on further deepening ESG and sustainability and conservation to CAPREIT’s business practices.
In 2024, CAPREIT took a significant step towards reducing its environmental impact by securing a $70 million loan from the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) to finance deep energy retrofits and decarbonization upgrades at selected properties. As part of this initiative, four properties in Alberta—representing a total investment of over $3 million—are undergoing major sustainability upgrades. These funds are being used to install advanced energy conservation equipment, including more energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, enhanced insulation, and smart building technology to reduce energy consumption.
These efforts are expected to lead to an estimated 40% average reduction in greenhouse gas emissions annually across the retrofitted properties, marking a substantial contribution to CAPREIT’s sustainability goals. Beyond the immediate environmental benefits, these upgrades will also result in long-term savings for residents through reduced energy costs, further enhancing the overall living experience. By prioritizing these deep carbonization upgrades, CAPREIT continues to lead the way in integrating sustainable practices into our operations and is committed to making a positive, lasting impact on the environment, our residents, and the communities we serve.
Please watch CAPREIT’s Conservation & Sustainability Series for an overview of our ongoing ESG efforts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6I6w8AWQKH86aUUKuSXih_y5W3FIklPg
Notable Goals and Objectives Achieved:
With a workforce of 857 employees and 38 employees in Nova Scotia, supporting a large resident base of over 100,000 people across a large portfolio of residential rental apartments, townhouse communities, we have many ongoing objectives and achievements to report.
Some of our achievements include:
– Each year, CAPREIT invests over $30 million in energy efficiency measures, including launching a centralized building automation system (“BAS”) program to encompass all properties.
– We reduced greenhouse gas emissions in natural gas by up to 99% by: installing ultra-efficient electric heat pump technology on the primary domestic hot water production, installing new roof top heat recovery technology that captures energy from heated air exhausted outside of buildings and using it to preheat the fresh air entering buildings. A total of 282 Tons of CO₂ eliminated at one property alone.
– Achieved ~6.1% annual energy consumption reduction per suite since 2022.
– Consistently earned a GRESB GREEN STAR designation in our GRESB submission since 2021.
– We partner with 53 community social support providers to supply affordable housing to individuals under their care who suffer from developmental and mental health related disabilities.
Resident Satisfaction & Performance Metrics
The Nova Scotia Portfolio:
– Surpassed the national CAPREIT net promoter score (NPS) by 33%.
– Net promoter score (NPS) increased 15% year over year increase.
– Service request delivery surveys over the past year show an 82.6% Happiness score for the Nova Scotia portfolio.
– Achieved an 8.03/10 ‘recommend’ score in service request execution.
– Received over 15,000 responses for resident satisfaction surveys, a 43% increase from previous years, with over 1000 respondents from our Nova Scotia portfolio to ensure we customize our experiences.
Demonstrated Commitment and Involvement in IPOANS:
CAPREIT is a proud contributor and member of IPOANS. Jennifer Bateman serves as a Director on IPOANS’ Board of Directors. We are honoured to work with IPOANS to support the important work and educational value that it delivers to its membership.
Collateral Documents: https://rhpns.ca/wp-content/uploads/formidable/112/CAPREIT-Q4-2024-Annual-Report.pdf
Photo of the Nominee and Property:
Company Logo:
Company Name: Killam Apartment REIT
Contact Person: Amanda Gour
Email: agour@killamreit.com, Phone: 902-455-1647
Company Website: https://killamreit.com/
2021 Vacancy Rate: 1.18%%, Number of Units: 18,569, Number of Employees: 703 (261 in NS)
Describe your Company:
Headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Killam Apartment REIT is one of Canada’s largest rental housing providers, owning, operating, and developing a $5.4 billion portfolio of multi-family apartments and manufactured home communities across Atlantic Canada, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.
Killam has grown considerably since it was founded 25 years ago and now has more than 700 employees who are committed to providing quality rental housing to residents. Killam continues to expand through strategic acquisitions and new developments, positioning itself as a leader in the Canadian rental housing market. Killam is a public company that trades on the TSX under KMP.UN.
Mission Statement:
Killam’s mission is to have caring staff deliver clean, safe, quality housing to residents who are proud to call our properties home. We fulfill this mission through our unwavering commitment to our core values, which serve as the foundation of every decision we make.
Values:
Killam has five Core Values that are an active part of our everyday work, and our staff embody these values in everything they do (Build Community, Do the Right Thing, Creative Solutions, Curb Appeal and Strong Customer Relationships).
Examples of our values at work include:
• Recognizing the affordability challenges facing Canadians, in 2024 Killam provided $3.6 million in affordability assistance and donated more than $400,000 to support non-profit organizations in our communities.
• Killam continues to invest in energy-efficiency initiatives, augmenting our sustainability programs and reducing operating expenses. In 2024, we invested $6.8 million in energy-efficiency projects.
• Killam takes pride in offering residents well-maintained properties, responding to service requests in a timely manner and providing an attractive housing value proposition. In 2024, our independent Resident Satisfaction Survey showed that 84% of our residents were satisfied with Killam as a property manager across our entire portfolio. (86% satisfaction in Nova Scotia)
• Of the $73.1 million total capital invested in our apartments in 2024, approximately 50% was invested in building improvements. These investments included large projects such as exterior cladding and brick work, balcony refurbishments, and roof upgrades, as well as projects such as plumbing improvements, fire safety, and window upgrades.
• Killam was named one of Atlantic Canada’s and Nova Scotia’s Top Employers in 2024, as well as one of Canada’s Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek. We were also recognized as an Employer of Diversity by Atlantic Business Magazine and as an Inclusive Workplace by Best Companies Group.
Highlight Building Types, Resident Demographics:
Killam has a diverse mix of building types and residents and is proud to provide a “Home for All”.
In addition to having a number of well-maintained, well-located older properties, Killam owns and operates one of Canada’s newest apartment portfolios. We have completed 18 new development projects since 2010 and have three projects currently under construction in Waterloo (The Carrick and Wissler) and Halifax (Eventide).
With 18,569 apartment units and 5,975 land lease rental lots, our residents are everything from young professionals, to seniors, empty nesters, families, and students. Nearly 13% of our residents are under 25, 61% are 25-55, and approximately 26% are over 55. The diversity of our tenant base helps contribute to stable occupancy.
On top of our residential portfolio, Killam has 974,509 square feet of commercial property, including the Royalty Crossing Shopping Centre in Charlottetown, as well as the vibrant and historic Brewery Market in downtown Halifax.
Notable Resident Programs and Services:
Killam Resident Assistance Program
Since 2009, Killam has helped hundreds of residents through our resident assistance program. The program is designed to support residents experiencing difficult circumstances, whether due to health issues or unemployment, by providing them with some much-needed relief.
Property Managers can submit a rent relief request through Killam’s Charity and Community Giving Committee where the application is reviewed. Typically, qualifying residents receive anywhere between one and six months of rent relief.
Community Events and Celebrations
Fostering a strong sense of community at our properties is a key priority. In 2024, Killam hosted numerous events for residents, such as summer barbecues, ice cream truck visits, community garden days, and holiday celebrations, creating opportunities for residents to connect.
Commitment to Safe and Healthy Buildings
To further ensure our properties uphold the highest operating and healthy living standards, Killam uses independent building certifications for assessments. In 2024, we successfully certified 32 additional properties through the Certified Rental Building Program (CRBP), including a partnership with the CRBP for its launch in New Brunswick. As a result, we exceeded our goal of certifying 50% of our apartment portfolio, confirming that Killam’s properties are well-managed and well-maintained.
Community Relation Programs and Initiatives:
As one of Canada’s largest rental housing providers, we acknowledge our responsibility to give back to the communities in which we operate. Killam’s experienced community giving committee manages allocations for employee-led giving, suite donations, scholarships, and tenant relief. Killam’s giving strategy is centered on charities and causes that support family and shelter, with each request being reviewed through this lens.
Recognizing the affordability challenges facing Canadians in 2024, Killam made contributions to addressing this crisis by providing $3.6 million in affordability assistance and donating $400,000 to support non-profit organizations in our communities.
Killam also has long-term affordability commitments in more than 900 of its apartment units. Realized through community and government partnerships, this represents approximately 5% of our apartment portfolio. In addition, 63.5% of Killam’s apartment portfolio meets or exceeds CMHC’s affordability threshold, with units renting for less than 30% of their region’s median before-tax household income.
Killam believes in supporting organizations that our employees value. This results in widespread support for community centers, food banks, minor sports, and charitable events. We also encourage employees to use their three paid volunteer days and donate their time, effort, and skill to a charitable cause that is important to them. Volunteering can be an individual effort, or employees can join group volunteer events organized across Killam’s regions. Killam holds an annual Community Giving campaign leading up to each holiday season, using friendly competition and photo sharing to encourage employee participation.
Sustainability Practices Implemented:
Killam integrates and prioritizes sustainable practices through all areas of our corporate strategy, including the acquisition, development, and operation of our properties. Killam recognizes the significance of ESG initiatives and the long-term value they provide.
Killam made progress towards its ESG targets in 2024, investing $6.8 million in energy-efficiency projects, which included the installation of PV solar panels at five additional buildings. Killam has now installed PV solar panels in a total of 26 buildings across its portfolio, with an expected annual energy production of 2,700 MWh.
Killam also exceeded its goal of certifying 50% of its apartment portfolio with green building health and operating certifications, achieving certification of 32 additional properties through the Certified Rental Building Program (“CRBP”) and partnering with CRBP for its launch in New Brunswick. These certifications provide tenants with confidence that by renting with Killam, they are choosing a housing provider committed to upholding rigorous standards in health and safety, tenant relations, and sustainability.
Notable Goals and Objectives Achieved:
In 2024, we broke ground on Eventide, a 55-unit building in Halifax, NS, and started construction on Wissler, a 128-unit building located in Waterloo, ON. We also made significant progress on our third active development, The Carrick, in Waterloo, ON.
Killam delivered 8.4% same property NOI [net operating income] growth, driven by our same property apartment portfolio which achieved 6.2% revenue growth and a 150 basis-point gross margin gain. Our 2024 FFO [funds from operations] per unit of $1.18 represents a 2.6% increase from the previous year.
We strengthened our balance sheet with the completion of $59.2 million in non-core asset sales, and reduced our debt as a percentage of total assets to 40.4%, the lowest in Killam’s history.
Other notable areas of success in 2024 include:
• Exceeded our geographic diversification target, generating 38.9% of 2024 NOI outside Atlantic Canada.
• Exceeded our sustainability targets, investing $6.8 million in energy-efficiency initiatives in 2024.
• Killam’s 2024 resident survey results showed an 84% overall satisfaction rating.
Demonstrated Commitment and Involvement in IPOANS:
Killam has been one of RHPNS’s longest standing members and key contributors since its inception in 2002.
From its annual membership and leading the Call to Action Fund contribution, to having one of its executive team being the long serving President and Board Chair, Killam’s involvement in RHPNS has deep roots.
Killam regularly has other senior management participate in various sub-committee work and government workshops, as well as being one of the key supporters (through enrolling 4-5 students/season) of RHPNS educational programming.
Killam is also actively involved in other industry associations including the national industry association, CFAA, where one of Killam’s Executive team sits on the board. We are also a founding member of the Canadian Rental Housing Providers for Affordable Housing (foraffordable.ca), which advocates for an all-hands-on-deck approach to affordable housing with governments, civil society and the private sector working together collaboratively, each doing their part.
Collateral Documents: https://rhpns.ca/wp-content/uploads/formidable/112/Q4-12-31-2024-MDA.pdf, https://rhpns.ca/wp-content/uploads/formidable/112/ESG-Report.pdf
Photo of the Nominee and Property:
Company Logo:
