Canada is home to some of the largest pension plans in the world, including the C$278.9 billion ($213.7 billion) Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, the C$248 billion ($190.1 billion) Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and the C$171.4 billion ($131.4 billion) Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. The biggest obstacle facing pension plans such as these is they have outgrown their domestic real estate market. Although Canada’s real estate market, in cities such as Vancouver and Toronto, is still full of opportunity, it is relatively small compared with markets in other countries, forcing Canada’s largest investors to look elsewhere.

Large pension funds look south of the border

“The investor groups that are going overseas or to the United States tend to be very large institutional players. They’re so large now that they’re having trouble finding enough domestic deal flow of sufficient magnitude to meet their investment needs,” says Pete