Another Successful Event – 2015 CCPAA the 7th Annual Conference

Written by Yolanda Wong
On September 26th 2015, 185 guests attended our 7th Annual Conference at Sheraton Parkway Toronto North Hotel & Suites. This year we discussed “Property Asset Investment in Canada”.

Due to the significate stock market fluctuation and the low interest rate among the Canadian history, many investors have switched their portfolios from stock to property for a better future return on their investment. This made the Property Asset Investment a very hot topic.

After the opening address from Don Wang, the director of CCPAA Professional Development Committee, we started off our Conference by Ms. Christy Chen (PhD, CFA, FRM, Sr. Economist & VP of Economic Research) from Bank of Montreal to discuss the economy outlook. She also examined some of the internal and external factors that might impact the trend of the interest rate.

Then we were pleased to have Mr. Grant S. Uba (AACI, M.I.M.A., and Senior Director) from Altus Group to discuss the appraisal process of property valuation. He provided us an excellent summary on the key rules of the appraisal report and its process we need to focus on. Following by Mr. Uba, Mr. James McKeon, partner of Dickinson & Wright LLP, discussed the importance of due diligence process before the closure of a deal to ensure that a smart decision was made. Lastly, Mr. Frank Zhang (MBA, CPA, and Manager of Commercial Services) from TD Bank discussed the bank evaluation in support for commercial property purchases. Frank has prepared a simple case study to illustrate the process which allows our attendance to gain better understanding of their evaluation criteria.

After a delicious lunch buffet, we had a special sponsor presentation from Mr. David Jiang, No. 1 CIBC mortgage advisor, to walk us through the mortgage procedure at CIBC. He also explained what CIBC can offer the foreign investors the support in the purchase of Canada’s property.

In the afternoon section of the Conference, we had Ms. Janet Lee, partner of Metcalfe, Blalney & Burns LLP, to discuss the major legal structures for property asset investment in Canada. Ms. Lee illustrated a case she was recently involved, which made her presentation more interesting and helped the audiences to easily understand the complex legal structure in commercial property purchases. Following by Ms. Lee, we had two tax experts from Grant Thornton. Tax manager Ms. Vicky Liu discussed the income tax implications on property acquisition, disposal and operation at both personal and corporate level; and senior manager Ms. Christina Zurowski talked about the HST Implications on the property purchases and the types of rebate available for principle residence.

At the end, we had Mr. Solmon M. Rothbart, the founding partner of Solmon Rothbart Goodman LLP, to give us an overview on the legal and regulatory issues for property management operation. Mr. Rothbard has a great sense of humor, his presentation is not only informative but also interesting.

This year’s Conference was another great success. We have received many positive feedbacks from our participants and speakers. We would like to thank our sponsors, speakers and volunteers for the contributions. We are looking forward to meeting you all again in 2016.

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