Canada鈥檚 largest pension funds 鈥� known colloquially as the 鈥楳aple 8鈥� 鈥� can be a useful proxy for the health of the wider real assets markets 鈥� such is their long history and scale in infrastructure and real estate. Through their public reporting of investment performance, they have shown a divergence in fortunes between the two asset classes.
The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) was . Its C$32bn (鈧�20.4bn) infrastructure portfolio generated a 17.8% one-year net return (13.8% over five years). Meanwhile, its C$26.6bn real estate portfolio barely made it into positive territory, posing 0.03% return.
Earlier in the year, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) and . For the former, infrastructure made 8.1% while real estate returned 0.5%. Ontario Teachers鈥� infrastructure portfolio generated 9.1% for all of 2024, while real estate came in negative at -0.7%. PSP Investments and Ontario Teachers both mentioned the negative impact of their exposure to the office market, which has undergone repricing in recent years, particularly in the US.
At the beginning of June, from a C$1.5bn Canadian office portfolio it co-owned with Oxford Properties, the real estate arm of fellow Maple 8 fund OMERS. At the time, Sophie van Oosterom, managing director and head of real estate at CPP Investments, said: 鈥淭he transaction is a continuation of our real estate strategy to secure strong business plan execution and redeploy capital into new opportunities, supporting the continued growth and performance optimisation of our global real estate portfolio.鈥�
Van Oosterom was at CPP Investments last September, having previously worked as global head of real estate at Schroders. She is one example of a number of changes taking place at the top of real estate teams within the Maple 8.
Just last week, it was Alberta Investment Management Corporation where he was head of real estate to join property investment firm . In the past two years, there have been two other major appointments within the real estate teams of the Maple 8, including .
Another was Rana Ghorayeb, who last year was at what was 鈥� until this week 鈥� known as Ivanho茅 Cambridge. Together with its parent, the C$473bn Caisse de d茅p么t et placement du Qu茅bec (CDPQ), Ivanho茅 Cambridge has changed their names to La Caisse.
As well as an example of rebranding, it is also part of an 鈥渋ntegration鈥� of the real estate business into La Caisse, marking a move away from the more independent model that Ivanho茅 Cambridge was able to operate under. A similar shift is happening at Ontario Teachers, which is also reintegrating its real estate arm, Cadillac Fairview.
The overriding theme for real estate at the Maple 8 is one of change.
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