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Interest rate cuts: This was perhaps an easy one as there was already a market consensus that rates would start to come down in 2024. The Bank of Canada cut its policy interest rate by 175 bps (target of 3.25%), and the US cut its federal funds rate by 100 bps (target of 4.5%). [1 point]
Impact of higher rates: I predicted that things would get worse in 2024 before they started to get better (maybe toward the end of 2024 or perhaps in 2025). In some ways, I think I was right. But I'm not sure we've returned to a "risk-on" approach in commercial real estate, like I suggested. Toward the end of the year, my American friends were telling me that things were suddenly feeling a lot more optimistic and that more deals were being done. But I still feel like we've been kicking the can down the road here in Canada. The public markets certainly did very well, but I think the private markets are still hiding some underwater real estate investments. [0.5 point]
Balanced residential resale market: I thought that we would return to a more balanced resale market in 2024, certainly for the most-in demand cities and submarkets. Here in Toronto, it remains a buyer's market on the condominium side, but the freehold market in Central Toronto has shown signs of improvement over the last few months. Detached house values are up 4.6% year-over-year, despite listing supply also being up 29%. The resilience of core submarkets is what you would expect to see right now during this part of the cycle. (If you're interested in Toronto real estate, my friend Christopher Bibby has a great newsletter that he publishes periodically.) At the same time, I thought that the Bank of Canada would be more resistant to lowering rates compared to other central banks, and that this would be good for the Canadian dollar. I was wrong. [0 points]
Finding good real estate deals in 2024: I argued that this year would be a pivotal year for finding new opportunities. Maybe that was the case for some of you, but as I said above, I think that here in Canada we're still kicking the can down the road. So this one is hard to say. 2025 may end up being more pivotal for many real estate developers and investors. [0 points]
Declining hard costs: Like many of my other predictions, this is market specific. But this absolutely happened here in Toronto. For some trades and divisions, costs are down in the range of 25-30%. And I can tell you that over this past year I received many phone calls from construction executives that sounded something like this, "Hey, I'm about to lay off a bunch of people, so I just wanted to call and see if you might have any new projects starting up in the near future." [1 point]
Return to office: A year ago, I wrote that return to office seemed to have stalled out at around 50% utilization. But I argued that this wouldn't hold and that, of the people who work in offices, most would go back to spending > 50% of their week in it. Looking at the latest data for Toronto's CBD (from November 15, 2024), the average weekly utilization figure is now up to 73%. And the peak day figure (Wednesday) is now 84%. (Both of these are relative to pre-COVID.) This is up meaningfully compared to last year. I don't know at what point we reach an equilibrium, but for now, we seem to be still heading up and to the right. [1 point]
Augmented reality: 2023 was the year of AI. I argued that this year would be the year of augmented reality and that this would represent a further blurring of our offline and online worlds. This was, I think, coming from the fact that Apple Vision Pro was set to be released. But if this happened at all, it happened only incrementally and it certainly wasn't a mainstream phenomenon. Most people I talk to haven't even tried Apple Vision Pro, though I remain blown away by the technology. If you haven't yet tried it, do yourself a favor and book a demo at your local Apple Store. That said, I'm not going to give myself any points for this one. [0 points]
Autonomous vehicles: I was somewhat bearish on this a year ago. I said that it feels as if we're in the trough of disillusionment (within the hype cycle), even if I was optimistic long term. So this year was a pleasant surprise and I was thoroughly impressed by the progress that Waymo, in particular, made. As of June of this year, they had already logged over 22 million rider-only miles. They are the company to beat right now. [0 points]
Impact of automation: This was a weak prediction because it wasn't particularly precise. I said that our shift toward greater automation would feel more insidious than immediate (certainly in 2024). I guess this is true. Elon Musk unveiled dancing bartender robots this year, but they weren't exactly ready to take all of our jobs. Reluctantly, I'll give myself a half point. [0.5 point]
Growth of TikTok Shop: This is where I argued that we should be looking for the future of shopping. And the data certainly supports this. According to recent research from The New Consumer, over 60% of Gen Z's report using TikTok every day. And half of all monthly active users report having already made a purchase through the platform. For those that use it every day, this figure increases to 57%. I don't use TikTok very often -- if at all -- but I know it's extremely popular. I'm also not an expert on e-commerce, but I have a belief that TikTok (and the likes), augmented reality, and crypto are going to give birth to some interesting new ways of buying things. [1 point]
Return of crypto: When I wrote last year's post, the total crypto market capitalization was approximately $1.74 trillion. This was down from almost $3 trillion at the peak of the market in 2021. I argued that the "crypto winter" would end this year and that its total market cap would exceed its previous peak by the end of this year. Today, it's about $3.45 trillion. If only I bought more. But to be honest, this was a total guess. [1 point]
Total score: 6/11 (~55%). Not bad.
I like this score because it means I'm not being too consensus. What fun would that be? That said, I do think some of my predictions were a little obvious. I don't want to be just extrapolating existing data forward; I want to be thinking critically. I also try not to stray too far into topics that I'm not well versed on, like shopping on TikTok. But it's a fine line given my strong interest in tech and crypto. I'll see what I can do to tighten things up and be a little more non-consensus with my predictions this year.
Stay tuned.
I have a copy of Monocle's Guide to Hotels, Inns and Hideaways sitting on my desk and I love flipping through it. There's something magical about a great hotel. Part of that magic is intrinsic -- it's just a good hotel. And part of it is the fact that we're probably all a bit more open to new experiences when we travel. Our mindset changes.
On the first of January, I wrote (briefly) about two recent experiences where I was no longer required to interact with a person in order to check into a hotel. It was all done electronically. Some of you followed up and asked: "Do you think this is a good thing? Don't you miss the human connection?"
My response was that I think it is inevitable. There is a long history of technology/automation replacing human jobs. We used to have elevator operators. Now we don't. We used to have people shoveling coal into furnaces. Now we don't. And I think that's okay. We created different jobs. The same is likely to happen with Uber/Lyft drivers.
At the same time, our need for human connections isn't going away. One of the best features of a great hotel is the bar. Whether it's sitting at the bar and talking with the bartender or meeting someone new, those moments of interaction will always remain precious.
And it's one of the reasons why, I think, platforms such as Airbnb haven't meant the demise of hotels. Part of it has to do with the service offerings and consistency of a good hotel. But part of it also has to do with our desire to be around other humans. In the words of Monocle: "There's something about a hotel bar that captures our collective imagination."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydPqKhgh9Mg
I just finished watching this Bloomberg video on Shenzhen, called "Inside China's High-Tech Dystopia." The video obviously has a particular point of view, but there are parts of it that I wasn't overly fussed about, such as the push toward increased factory automation. Jobs evolve. We used to have elevator operators. Now we don't. Presumably those people found other empoyment.
What stood out to me was Shenzhen's solution to jaywalking. They use cameras, facial recognization software, and a "wall of shame" to fine and then discourage people from illegally crossing a street ever again. One guy in the video explains how he once had the fine automatically withdrawn from his WeChat account. No authorization required. And it happened within seconds following the infraction.
That feels unsettling. (If you only want to watch the jaywalking part, skip ahead to 5:35 in the video.)
Interest rate cuts: This was perhaps an easy one as there was already a market consensus that rates would start to come down in 2024. The Bank of Canada cut its policy interest rate by 175 bps (target of 3.25%), and the US cut its federal funds rate by 100 bps (target of 4.5%). [1 point]
Impact of higher rates: I predicted that things would get worse in 2024 before they started to get better (maybe toward the end of 2024 or perhaps in 2025). In some ways, I think I was right. But I'm not sure we've returned to a "risk-on" approach in commercial real estate, like I suggested. Toward the end of the year, my American friends were telling me that things were suddenly feeling a lot more optimistic and that more deals were being done. But I still feel like we've been kicking the can down the road here in Canada. The public markets certainly did very well, but I think the private markets are still hiding some underwater real estate investments. [0.5 point]
Balanced residential resale market: I thought that we would return to a more balanced resale market in 2024, certainly for the most-in demand cities and submarkets. Here in Toronto, it remains a buyer's market on the condominium side, but the freehold market in Central Toronto has shown signs of improvement over the last few months. Detached house values are up 4.6% year-over-year, despite listing supply also being up 29%. The resilience of core submarkets is what you would expect to see right now during this part of the cycle. (If you're interested in Toronto real estate, my friend Christopher Bibby has a great newsletter that he publishes periodically.) At the same time, I thought that the Bank of Canada would be more resistant to lowering rates compared to other central banks, and that this would be good for the Canadian dollar. I was wrong. [0 points]
Finding good real estate deals in 2024: I argued that this year would be a pivotal year for finding new opportunities. Maybe that was the case for some of you, but as I said above, I think that here in Canada we're still kicking the can down the road. So this one is hard to say. 2025 may end up being more pivotal for many real estate developers and investors. [0 points]
Declining hard costs: Like many of my other predictions, this is market specific. But this absolutely happened here in Toronto. For some trades and divisions, costs are down in the range of 25-30%. And I can tell you that over this past year I received many phone calls from construction executives that sounded something like this, "Hey, I'm about to lay off a bunch of people, so I just wanted to call and see if you might have any new projects starting up in the near future." [1 point]
Return to office: A year ago, I wrote that return to office seemed to have stalled out at around 50% utilization. But I argued that this wouldn't hold and that, of the people who work in offices, most would go back to spending > 50% of their week in it. Looking at the latest data for Toronto's CBD (from November 15, 2024), the average weekly utilization figure is now up to 73%. And the peak day figure (Wednesday) is now 84%. (Both of these are relative to pre-COVID.) This is up meaningfully compared to last year. I don't know at what point we reach an equilibrium, but for now, we seem to be still heading up and to the right. [1 point]
Augmented reality: 2023 was the year of AI. I argued that this year would be the year of augmented reality and that this would represent a further blurring of our offline and online worlds. This was, I think, coming from the fact that Apple Vision Pro was set to be released. But if this happened at all, it happened only incrementally and it certainly wasn't a mainstream phenomenon. Most people I talk to haven't even tried Apple Vision Pro, though I remain blown away by the technology. If you haven't yet tried it, do yourself a favor and book a demo at your local Apple Store. That said, I'm not going to give myself any points for this one. [0 points]
Autonomous vehicles: I was somewhat bearish on this a year ago. I said that it feels as if we're in the trough of disillusionment (within the hype cycle), even if I was optimistic long term. So this year was a pleasant surprise and I was thoroughly impressed by the progress that Waymo, in particular, made. As of June of this year, they had already logged over 22 million rider-only miles. They are the company to beat right now. [0 points]
Impact of automation: This was a weak prediction because it wasn't particularly precise. I said that our shift toward greater automation would feel more insidious than immediate (certainly in 2024). I guess this is true. Elon Musk unveiled dancing bartender robots this year, but they weren't exactly ready to take all of our jobs. Reluctantly, I'll give myself a half point. [0.5 point]
Growth of TikTok Shop: This is where I argued that we should be looking for the future of shopping. And the data certainly supports this. According to recent research from The New Consumer, over 60% of Gen Z's report using TikTok every day. And half of all monthly active users report having already made a purchase through the platform. For those that use it every day, this figure increases to 57%. I don't use TikTok very often -- if at all -- but I know it's extremely popular. I'm also not an expert on e-commerce, but I have a belief that TikTok (and the likes), augmented reality, and crypto are going to give birth to some interesting new ways of buying things. [1 point]
Return of crypto: When I wrote last year's post, the total crypto market capitalization was approximately $1.74 trillion. This was down from almost $3 trillion at the peak of the market in 2021. I argued that the "crypto winter" would end this year and that its total market cap would exceed its previous peak by the end of this year. Today, it's about $3.45 trillion. If only I bought more. But to be honest, this was a total guess. [1 point]
Total score: 6/11 (~55%). Not bad.
I like this score because it means I'm not being too consensus. What fun would that be? That said, I do think some of my predictions were a little obvious. I don't want to be just extrapolating existing data forward; I want to be thinking critically. I also try not to stray too far into topics that I'm not well versed on, like shopping on TikTok. But it's a fine line given my strong interest in tech and crypto. I'll see what I can do to tighten things up and be a little more non-consensus with my predictions this year.
Stay tuned.
I have a copy of Monocle's Guide to Hotels, Inns and Hideaways sitting on my desk and I love flipping through it. There's something magical about a great hotel. Part of that magic is intrinsic -- it's just a good hotel. And part of it is the fact that we're probably all a bit more open to new experiences when we travel. Our mindset changes.
On the first of January, I wrote (briefly) about two recent experiences where I was no longer required to interact with a person in order to check into a hotel. It was all done electronically. Some of you followed up and asked: "Do you think this is a good thing? Don't you miss the human connection?"
My response was that I think it is inevitable. There is a long history of technology/automation replacing human jobs. We used to have elevator operators. Now we don't. We used to have people shoveling coal into furnaces. Now we don't. And I think that's okay. We created different jobs. The same is likely to happen with Uber/Lyft drivers.
At the same time, our need for human connections isn't going away. One of the best features of a great hotel is the bar. Whether it's sitting at the bar and talking with the bartender or meeting someone new, those moments of interaction will always remain precious.
And it's one of the reasons why, I think, platforms such as Airbnb haven't meant the demise of hotels. Part of it has to do with the service offerings and consistency of a good hotel. But part of it also has to do with our desire to be around other humans. In the words of Monocle: "There's something about a hotel bar that captures our collective imagination."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydPqKhgh9Mg
I just finished watching this Bloomberg video on Shenzhen, called "Inside China's High-Tech Dystopia." The video obviously has a particular point of view, but there are parts of it that I wasn't overly fussed about, such as the push toward increased factory automation. Jobs evolve. We used to have elevator operators. Now we don't. Presumably those people found other empoyment.
What stood out to me was Shenzhen's solution to jaywalking. They use cameras, facial recognization software, and a "wall of shame" to fine and then discourage people from illegally crossing a street ever again. One guy in the video explains how he once had the fine automatically withdrawn from his WeChat account. No authorization required. And it happened within seconds following the infraction.
That feels unsettling. (If you only want to watch the jaywalking part, skip ahead to 5:35 in the video.)
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