Cathy Polan (supplied)
Cathy Polan, the new president of the Ontario Real Estate Association, confesses to being “nervous, anxious, and excited all at the same time” about her role.
As head of the organization, she joins a growing number of women in top leadership positions within the industry. “Over the last four years, three of OREA’s presidents have been women,” Polan notes.
“This is more than a moment—it’s a movement.”
The Belleville-based Realtor, who’s a sales rep with Royal Heritage Realty, was announced as OREA’s 2025 president following the association’s annual general meeting on March 27. She replaces outgoing president Rick Kedzior. Polan is now representing the province’s nearly 100,000 Realtors, with the aim of ensuring that they have the necessary resources, supports, and regulatory framework, with strong leadership at their back to help strengthen the real estate sector and advocate for greater housing supply and affordability.
Polan highlights OREA’s solid relationship with Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
“During such a pivotal time, it’s more important than ever that we work together to keep the dream of home ownership alive for the next generation,” she states, stressing that it will take the engagement of all levels of government to do so.
Tackling supply, affordability and CEO succession
No easy feat, of course. She admits that Ontario’s housing affordability crisis and supply issues won’t be resolved during her presidency.
“It’s not a quick fix.”
OREA is pushing for factory-built modular housing as a potential option to help relieve the province’s supply crunch. The future depends on innovative solutions, the organization asserts.
Polan faces a host of other challenges as well. “It’s been very busy.”
She feels fortunate that her husband, Bruce, also a Realtor, can fill in for her at the brokerage when necessary. “He’s my calm to the storm.”
At OREA, her undertakings include helping to find a new permanent CEO for the association (“hopefully in the next couple of months”), following Tim Hudak’s resignation last summer. Trying to ensure that housing issues don’t get sidelined now that the Ontario premier has no choice but to be laser-focused on the U.S. tariffs crisis is another pressing matter.
There’s also Toronto’s infamous condo glut. “We’re hoping it’s just a bump in the market,” observes Polan. Landlord/tenant reforms are needed as well.
Controversial issues and longstanding challenges
Other business on Polan’s radar includes the longstanding and outdated ‘auctioneer loophole,’ wherein auctioneers are permitted to sell real estate without a formal license.
And let’s not forget the Ontario Realtor Wellness Program (ORWP), the controversial mandatory health-benefit package for members introduced by OREA early last year that ruffled a lot of feathers. “The ORWP isn’t going away,” maintains Polan. “The program is working for the most part, but there are still some people not happy with it. We continue to work to improve it. We have data now which will help with that.”
It’s clear that being president of OREA is no cakewalk, and that Polan and the OREA board aren’t going to be able to make everyone happy.
“We know that,” she says.
With 16 years in the business behind her as well as an extensive background in organized real estate, which formerly included sitting on various key OREA committees and serving as president of the local real estate association, Polan is an industry veteran and seems prepared for the challenge.
Says her friend Lisa Comerford, chief public affairs officer for the Central Lakes Association of Realtors (Polan’s local association): “Cathy has shown time and again an incredible level of commitment to this industry and its advancement, whether it was a popular position or not.”
A viral TikTok moment and new strategic direction
That said, one place Polan has been spectacularly popular is TikTok, where she recently got a mind-boggling 6.5 million views.
How on earth, you ask?
It turns out that Polan—staunch OREA president and grandmother of six—is a Belieber.
She read the news that Justin Bieber is currently struggling with impostor syndrome. “I saw an article that said he felt unworthy” of his success, she explains. It nearly brought her to tears.
So she got up from a nap and posted a TikTok video of support, which she hoped would reach the singer, telling him that it’s human nature to have those feelings at times and that they don’t mean that he’s a fraud.
“You are worthy, Justin,” she said. “Not because of perfection but because of the beautiful, real person you are.”
Comments poured in from all over the world. And although Polan didn’t hear back from Bieber personally, she got a message from someone saying they were close to him and that he was grateful for her post. “I hope that’s true,” remarks Polan.
Not one to bypass an opportunity that fell into her lap, she’s now looking into leveraging some of those millions of TikTok responses into leads.
Fired up to make her own stamp on the industry, Polan met with member boards and asked for their views—“the good, the bad, and the ugly.” She and the OREA team will now start to form a strategic plan.
“If we don’t do anything, that was wasted time,” says Polan. “And I don’t like wasting anyone’s time.”
Susan Doran is a Toronto-based freelance writer who has been contributing to REM since its very first issue.