New REIT position: GO Residential (TSX: GO.U)
Hi everybody,
Over the past months, one of the ideas that came to my mind was how to take advantage of the Zohran Mamdani narrative in New York. As a real estate investor, that intrigued me as much of his theme has been about finding ways to lower costs and impose socialist-like policies such as rent control. As a Canadian, the rhetoric of Zohran Mamdani isn’t much difference then what we have seen domestically with people like Olivia Chow becoming mayor in Toronto. There is a TSX-listed REIT that came out in July 2025 with the largest IPO ever for its type in Canada. It raised around ~$400 million dollars and went public at a time of numerous negatives, such as the New York City election, still elevated interest rates and a sector that hasn’t been in favor relative to commodities, tech, emerging markets, etc. That REIT is GO, a name that appears to be suffering from the Mamdani election in New York although his victory was widely expected by market participants due to strong polling.
US-focused, TSX-listed REITs are not a new thing. These issuers list in Canada because they have smaller scale and lower fees. If they get large enough they can shift to the US markets or as they have been, get acquired by American companies. We saw that last year in what was one of my top picks, Dream Residential which ended 2025 as the best performing REIT in Canada. The structure is very comparable to GO Residential in the sense it had low liquidity due to high insider ownership and smart institutional funds that participated in the IPO. Dream traded at a huge discount until it was acquired. Other US-focused TSX REITs currently include BSR REIT (HOM.U / HOM.UN), Flagship Communities (MHC.U / MHC.UN), Tricon Residential, although not a REIT, was a TSX-listed US-focused real estate company that got acquired by Blackstone at a large premium in 2024. If we go back further there Milestone Apartments and Pureplay Multifamily which also both got acquired by larger peers at premium prices. So as awkward as it may seem given the persistent discount these REITs have faced on public markets, American-listed real estate operators have chosen to list in Canada opportunistically at times.
In the case of GO Residential, my current thesis does not pertain to an M&A opportunity in the near-term as it has to others but rather a wide discount with a good
