From a predominantly Canadian portfolio to a global business in just 10 years, QuadReal has combined local expertise with a vertically integrated operating model to diversify its investments and build for the long-term.
From its inception, QuadReal’s ambition was to build on its Canadian foundation to create a globally balanced portfolio. Remco Daal, Chief Operating Officer, says “it was always the vision to get us closer to 50-50” when asked about the mix of international and domestic investments.
The opportunity was to take what QuadReal knew from the Canadian landscape and build on it. Ten years into QuadReal’s history, that ambition has shaped both where the company invests and how it operates.
What began with a predominantly Canadian portfolio has grown into one of the world’s top 15 real estate investors, with investments in 24 countries and 2,500 employees worldwide. With offices in Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London and Hong Kong, QuadReal combines experience built at home with the local knowledge and relationships that guide its global business.
The purpose behind that expansion was clear from the beginning: broaden the investment opportunity to support our high conviction strategy and bring QuadReal’s expertise to markets where it could create long-term value.
A wider world of opportunity
For Ramy Rayes, Executive Vice President, Investment Strategy & Risk at BCI and a QuadReal Board Member, expanding internationally addressed two priorities.
“While Canada is a very big country, it’s not a big investment universe,” he says. “Investing in real estate is about diversifying as well.” A concentrated portfolio, combined with strong competition for Canadian assets, made looking beyond the country’s borders an important step in pursuing returns.
QuadReal’s global ambitions were guided by the learnings and confidence in the approach it had established at home. “By taking the model of investment in Canada and exporting it to other parts of the world, taking that expertise and building on local knowledge, it opens up huge opportunities to create performance and critically diversification,” says Alastair Hughes, QuadReal Board Member.
That combination of an established operating model and local understanding would become central to the company’s international growth.
Global reach, local understanding
QuadReal’s approach is grounded in having teams on the ground, building relationships and understanding what works in each local market. That local presence shapes both investment decisions and the day-to-day operation of properties, helping ensure they meet the needs of the people who use them.
“We came into these markets the way most international capital does, carefully with a small team on the ground working with partners and learning how each local market works,” says Kristian Branum-Burns, Managing Director, Residential Europe.
Over time, that presence became more direct. “We’ve moved from investing with a partner to directly operating, building teams on the ground, taking on operations, and taking responsibility for the residents’ experience ourselves.”
In September 2025, QuadReal announced the full acquisition of Realstar’s UK and Ireland residential operating platform, along with the UNCLE brand in the UK and Europe. In June 2026, it announced the platform’s integration as QuadReal Residential Properties in the UK, bringing ownership, operations, asset management and resident experience together under one brand.
For residents, that means QuadReal’s role extends beyond the investment itself to the experience of living in its communities. For the business, it brings responsibility for investment decisions and everyday operations closer together.
Belinda Hill, Senior Vice President, Legal – Europe, has seen that evolution firsthand. She recalls a business that included passive fund investments before developing a directly owned and managed strategy across North America and the UK. “That’s a really exciting story to be a part of,” she says.
Building across markets and disciplines
QuadReal’s international expansion has also broadened the ways it puts its expertise to work.
In the US, QuadReal manages its industrial, residential and alternative asset class portfolios, and operates Article Student Living, a fully integrated student housing platform.
That expansion also extends to self storage in the UK. In March 2026, QuadReal announced the acquisition of a 27-asset UK self storage portfolio spanning 1.2 million square feet, alongside a new joint venture with Clear Sky capital.
The growth of the debt business reflects a similar approach: build experience in established markets, then apply it where new opportunities emerge.
“We’ve built a successful debt platform in North America, and we’re now taking that same approach to the UK and Ireland,” says Prashant Raj, President, Global Debt. “We’re backed by patient capital and an agile team, and we can move across the debt capital stack in both private and public markets.”
QuadReal’s global real estate debt platform has grown from $6B at launch in 2021 to $15.4 billion today, with $3.5 billion allocated to Europe and £275 million deployed across five UK loans since October 2025.
That portfolio is managed by investment teams in Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, and London. The geographic reach is supported by people working in the markets themselves, connecting a global investment perspective with local experience.
Making integration count
For Jay Kwan, Co-President, International Equity, the distinction lies in how those capabilities fit together.
“What makes us unique isn’t that we’re vertically integrated in any given market,” he says. “It’s our scale and global reach combined with our full integration that sets us apart.”
Owning interests in operating companies across several markets is different from bringing those businesses fully into the organization. As Kwan explains, “that full integration in-house creates common alignment and common control.”
The significance goes beyond organizational structure. As QuadReal grows, integration helps connect the people making investment decisions with those responsible for managing assets and operating properties. It gives the organization a shared basis for putting its long-term approach into practice across markets.
Canadian roots, a global future
Through that growth, QuadReal’s Canadian identity has remained an important reference point.
“Our Canadian roots are incredibly important,” says Dennis Lopez, Chief Executive Officer. He points to integrity and values as part of the organization’s foundation, shaping both how it has developed and where it goes next.
R. Scott Hutcheson, QuadReal Board Chair, says building a global business means investing in people on the ground while carrying Canadian values into every market. “We have boots on the ground. We train our people, we put them in the field, and we grow out platforms so that we build global businesses with a value system that relates back to Canada.”
For Daniel Garant, Executive Vice President & Global Head, Capital Markets at BCI and a QuadReal Board Member, the next chapter builds on that foundation. “The first decade has been about building the platform. The next decade is about realizing its full potential.”
That is the opportunity ahead: bringing global reach, local understanding, and a shared operating approach together, while carrying forward the values on which QuadReal was built.
Explore how QuadReal has approached its global investing strategy.
