To celebrate 25 years of serving Canada’s real estate community, REM asked a small group of real estate leaders this question:

“Who had the biggest impact – good or bad – on Canadian real estate in the last 25 years?

This is not a popularity contest or a marketing exercise. We want to know who you think had the biggest impact on the industry in the last 25 years – even if it was, in your opinion, a negative impact. Your choices could include Realtors, company executives, association executive officers, regulators, service company executives….even politicians! Who has had the most impact during the last 25 years in making the industry what it is today?”

REM took those consensus picks and added our own and the results will be revealed on REM online every day until the end of June.  Take a look and see if you agree with these choices, and then let us know who we missed. Add your comments below or drop an email to [email protected].

The Immigrant

“The Canadian immigrant continues to have the greatest impact on our industry,” says Andy Puthon, president of Coldwell Banker Canada. “Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world. Our progressive immigration policy attracts new Canadians who embrace home ownership and have driven development, construction employment and demand in residential, recreational, investment and commercial real estate. The demand has created liquidity and sustained a generally robust market, benefitting all and making Canada one of the most open and diverse societies in the world.”

Puthon says that Canada is expected to welcome a near record number of immigrants this year. “From less than 162,000 at the start of 1989, we’re now expecting a net migration of close to 263,000 people this year. It’s a number that has only been surpassed twice, and then just by a small margin, in the last 25 years. Just like us, they all need housing.”