There are a few incredibly wealthy family offices buying up most of the apartment building and commercial space in Toronto and across Canada. I'm not sure but t

There are a few incredibly wealthy family offices buying up most of the apartment building and commercial space in Toronto and across Canada. I'm not sure but the two guys mentioned (Stephen Shiller and Danny Lavy) could be the group I was told are funded by very wealthy Israelis. There is also a German family office that owns about 5 billion (in 2010 money) in commercial space in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. These are just two that I know of for sure through people who own large amounts of commercial real estate in Toronto. In Toronto the goal is to accumulate enough of these store fronts that you can basically demolish a good part of the street block and build a Condo. Politicians are only concerned about tax revenue and not the character of a neighborhood, a Condo brings in far more property tax $$$ than a storefront. People don't understand how a Landlord would rather leave a space empty than keep it full because 5-50k a month lease (in Toronto) or whatever they are paying seems like a lot but the reality is you're talking about billionaires who are playing a long game and are acquiring land for development and not rental money which indecently is a pittance for them and not worth the effort.