Amid less-than-ideal business conditions in Toronto, one real estate marketing agency is looking further afield for opportunities to expand its footprint and diversify its services — places like Dubai, Florida, and Grand Cayman.
The company, Pivot Real Estate Group, leases and sells units in high-, mid-, and low-rise buildings from major Toronto developers and is among the largest pre-construction brokerages in the GTA. They’ve been around for over 30 years, have more than 50,000 sold units under their belt, and have a broker network of over 40,000 agents.
But they too have felt the energy seeping out of the GTA’s real estate markets, and in order to adapt and expand business, they’re turning to foreign markets where real estate remains alive and well. Pivot Principal Elliot Taube tells STOREYS this foreign expansion is in addition to its continued operations in the GTA.
“We still do exactly what we always did. We’re still working for top developers all throughout the city, whether it’s fulfilling the last sales in their condos, helping purchasers through closing, or launching low-rise projects, but we’ve been looking at other opportunities to expand the business,” he says. “We’ve seen the market slow down considerably in the GTA, but there are markets throughout the world that are still very active and very buoyant.”
Taube explains they saw an opportunity to position Pivot as Canada’s gateway to certain international markets Canadians already have an interest in.
“We did a lot of research and saw that Canadians make up a considerable percentage of people buying in [Dubai, Florida, and Grand Cayman],” he says. “We’ve always known that Canadian snowbirds have gravitated to Florida, Cayman is a place that has great tax advantages, and people with wealth continue to look for those types of opportunities. And then Dubai is really the global hotspot at the moment, and has been for years.”
The only challenge, Taube says, was finding the right developers and brands to partner with. “We wanted to make sure that the relationships that we create were the right relationships. People would respect the brands. They would be desirable.”
In Dubai, this entails setting up a flagship international market and collaborating with Damac — Dubai’s largest private developer. In Grand Cayman, Pivot is now the exclusive Canadian listing broker for the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Residences Grand Cayman, while in Florida, the company plans to expand their marketing footprint into Miami and broader Florida markets.
While condo sales continue to plummet in Toronto and buildings struggle to fill rental units, Pivot is, well, pivoting to ensure their business can continue to deliver the services it has for over three decades, by offering opportunities where, for the time being, the grass is greener than in the GTA.
Opening up operations in these markets allows Pivot to work with willing buyers and investors in regions less affected by the Canadian economy and Canadian politics. “There’s still people looking to invest and get out of the country and look for different opportunities,” says Taube. “So we thought, let’s go after those types of opportunities.”
“When we chose the name of the company, we never knew how appropriate it would become,” he says. “That Pivot continues to pivot, to find new opportunities, to keep growing, to thrive.”