It’s rare that a company files for an IPO in Canada these days, let alone an American company. And yet…
Driving the news: GO Residential, a U.S. real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns luxury rental units in NYC, plans to file an IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). With a targeted value of ~US$2.2 billion, it would be one of the biggest real estate IPOs in Canadian history.
- U.S. REITs have gone public in Canada in the past, both because it's easier to gain investor interest in a less competitive market and because Canadian retail investors are, historically, big fans of yield stocks (which REITs commonly are).
Big picture: In the first half of 2025, no IPOs were filed on the TSX and just eight launched across Canada’s smaller stock exchanges. The last company to file a corporate IPO on the TSX was Montréal clothier Groupe Dynamite in November 2024.
- To find the one before that, you have to go back all the way to March 2023.
Why it matters: There’s no silver bullet for reviving IPO activity in Canada, but perhaps GO Residential could start a trend. After struggling during the pandemic, returns for REITs picked up last year when the Bank of Canada began cutting rates. So far this year, the iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index, an ETF tracking REITs, is up nearly 9%.—QH