{"id":2497,"date":"2026-01-29T12:35:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T12:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bridgemer.com\/?p=2497"},"modified":"2026-11-05T08:14:06","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T08:14:06","slug":"u-s-political-pressures-drive-family-offices-to-look-elsewhere-for-real-estate-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bridgemer.com\/en\/u-s-political-pressures-drive-family-offices-to-look-elsewhere-for-real-estate-opportunities\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. political pressures drive family offices to look elsewhere for real estate opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Investors are attracted to data centres, manufacturing and underserved housing markets in Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

Last March 1 might well be remembered as a watershed moment for Canadian identity. Toronto-born comic Mike Myers closed off an episode of\u00a0Saturday Night Live<\/em>\u00a0by mouthing hockey great Gordie Howe\u2019s injunction \u201cElbows up!\u201d while wearing a \u201cCanada is not for sale\u201d T-shirt.<\/p>\n

For viewers north of the 49th parallel, it was an unmistakable call to push back against trade tariffs and the \u201c51st state\u201d rhetoric coming from President Donald Trump. And it inspired for many not only a feeling that our long-standing\u00a0buddy\u00a0relationship with the U.S. had hit a rough patch, but also that the U.S. itself was headed in a new direction.<\/p>\n

Today, similar sentiments may be informing\u00a0<\/span>family offices\u2019 decisions about where to invest.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Canadian Family Offices\u00a0<\/em>report \u201cThe Multi-Family Office Landscape in Canada 2025,\u201d based on a survey of about 80 multi-family offices and published late last year, found that 44 per cent of respondents expected to decrease allocations to U.S. assets over the following 12 months.<\/p>\n

That means looking further afield for opportunities. More than 40 per cent of respondents said they expect clients\u2019 exposure to non-U.S. developed markets to increase over the next 12 months.<\/p>\n

By now, the so-called Sell America trade has shown up in global capital flows out of U.S. stocks,\u00a0bonds\u00a0and currency. But it may also be\u00a0<\/span>taking root in real estate\u2014a core asset for many family offices\u2014as they look beyond the familiar U.S. market for global allocations.<\/p>\n

As with equities, one of the key areas of focus is Europe.<\/p>\n

A report from the non-profit Urban Land Institute notes that enthusiasm for European real estate investment has been \u201ctempered by economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions \u2013 from Ukraine and the Middle East to shifting US trade policy.\u201d But it also highlights areas with particularly strong fundamentals and long-term potential, such as the cities of London, Paris, Amsterdam, Milan,\u00a0Madrid\u00a0and Barcelona, as well as major cities in Germany.<\/p>\n

The sectors worthy of attention reflect technological and manufacturing developments\u2014data centres,\u00a0<\/span>storage\u00a0facilities\u00a0and new energy\u00a0infrastructure in particular.<\/p>\n

Demographic trends are also affecting the market. Europe\u2019s aging population makes healthcare, retirement, assisted living and co-living facilities increasingly attractive, while the growth of the digital nomad lifestyle and, for many young people, a delayed entry into the workplace are creating more demand for student housing, serviced apartments, education-related real estate and affordable housing.<\/p>\n

Arthur Salzer is the founder\u00a0and\u00a0CEO of Northland Wealth, which\u00a0operates\u00a0from Oakville, Ont.,\u00a0and Calgary. Northland serves about 50 families across Canada with ties to Europe, the Middle East, the\u00a0Caribbean\u00a0and the U.S.<\/p>\n

Salzer says that while institutional investors continue to emphasize the U.S. public markets (\u201cdespite the headline politics\u201d), European secondary private equity and real estate present big opportunities, especially in the areas of data centres and\u00a0logistics.<\/p>\n

Since European workers\u00a0generally returned\u00a0to offices sooner than North Americans, office real estate is doing much better there, he says. Northland is also investing in\u00a0logistics\u00a0in northern Italy and in some European data-centre construction, which has been yielding threefold returns in recent years.<\/p>\n

With the surge in artificial intelligence (AI), Salzer predicts a building boom in data centres. \u201cThere\u2019s a race to get those built, but the challenge is you need power,\u201d he says. \u201cWe see wise governments approving nuclear reactors to power these data centres.\u201d<\/p>\n

Energy transition and data<\/h3>\n

Fred Cassano, a partner and national leader of the real estate team at PwC in Toronto, says data is the \u201cNo. 1 sector to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are increased allocations to developed countries in Europe and Japan. I\u2019ve also seen exposure to India and other developing countries,\u201d he says, adding that Poland and Romania are desirable locations, too.<\/p>\n

Manufacturing demand and energy transition are driving\u00a0investment, says Cassano, \u201chelping build AI and cryptocurrencies, the decarbonization of electrification and logistics-oriented real estate\u2014supply-chain warehouses, data centres.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other sectors of note include\u00a0<\/span>defence spending,\u00a0<\/span>healthcare, consumer staples and semiconductors, he says.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, investors are moving from low-risk, higher-yield investments to income-producing assets, such as hotels. With mandatory return-to-work programs, office space is in demand, along with undersupplied residential classes \u201csuch as students and seniors housing.\u201d For example, Cassano notes, the exodus from war-torn Ukraine has caused a housing boom in Poland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Europe, sustainability is still a big item for investors, and the focus has moved away from reporting to ROI and value creation,\u201d he notes. Investors in Europe are now asking how investing in energy conservation may extend the useful life of their assets. And climate resilience has more importance in Europe than in North America because of due diligence and insurance cost calculations.<\/p>\n

Diversifying and hedging bets\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cCanadians have always been investing abroad,\u201d says Daniel Shindleman<\/strong>, an expat Canadian now serving as managing director of Bridgemer<\/strong> in Switzerland, which advises on and brokers real estate transactions. He often acts as a conduit for Canadian families, finding real estate and sustainable real assets such as infrastructure and agriculture.<\/p>\n

Whereas a vacation home in the U.S. has been a common asset for decades, these days, \u201cthis process has accelerated and moved in some new directions,\u201d\u00a0Shindleman\u00a0says, \u201cfirst because of the realization that dependence on the U.S. creates some vulnerabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

And with a low Canadian dollar, diversification has become desirable\u2014 \u201cnot only asset diversification, but political risk and currency diversification.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second realization, says\u00a0Shindleman, is that \u201cthe welcome mat that used to be there just isn\u2019t there anymore.\u201d Canadians with a family connection to some other country than the U.S. have begun to hedge their bets by\u00a0establishing\u00a0a presence abroad to offer the family options in future.<\/p>\n

Besides\u00a0a second home,\u00a0this may include\u00a0second passports\u00a0or\u00a0educational opportunities\u00a0for family members.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t only mean that you own property,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt means you have relationships with property managers, lawyers and other locals you can work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from real estate for family use, Canadians are investing in other property,\u00a0agriculture\u00a0and infrastructure projects. \u201cBecause you can touch it, there\u2019s certainty of ownership,\u201d\u00a0Shindleman\u00a0says. Lacking existing connections to another country, Canadians are looking to places, like Switzerland, with strong currencies and stable societies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the trends that we see,\u201d says\u00a0Shindleman. \u201cIn a way, they\u2019re long-term trends, but they\u2019ve clearly been accelerated in recent years.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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Article originally published on Canadian Family Offices by Sarah B. Hood, 29.01.2026\nArticle available on: https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/bdf6a89x<\/a><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Canadian family offices are rethinking their reliance on the US market. In a recent feature, Daniel Shindleman explains why diversification now covers political and currency risk, and why stable, strong-currency markets such as Switzerland are moving up the shortlist for real estate and other real assets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_cacherocket_do_not_cache":false},"categories":[56,35,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_articles","category-news","category-news_interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2497"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bridgemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2935,"href":"https:\/\/bridgemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions\/2935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgemer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}