Let's check in on office utilization (in Toronto). The last time we talked about this was in April. At that time, the average weekly utilization figure was 63%. The peak day -- Wednesday -- was 73%. And the low day -- Friday -- was 40%. Today, well as of September 15, these numbers are now 69%, 79%, and 39%, respectively (see above chart). So we continue to climb. The only slight downward trend is Fridays. People don't like coming into the office on Fridays. Still, the average is up 6% over the span of about 6 months. This makes you continue to wonder: When does this level off? I also don't know what this index looked like before 2020. Are we back, or not yet?

As some of you may have gleaned from this recent RENX article, I have moved on from my development position at Slate Asset Management to focus exclusively on Globizen. After 8 very productive and exciting years at the company, it was time.

I joined Slate in 2016 to help start the development group. Here is the post that I wrote back then. And it all came about because of a coffee meeting at Starbucks at the corner of Yonge & King.

At the time, Lucas Manuel was looking to hire someone, and so our mutual friend, Kieran Boyd, connected us with the expectation that I would make some industry introductions. But at the end of our meeting, Lucas was quick to say, "actually, I think you should come join Slate."

And obviously, that's what I did.

Fast forward to today, and Slate has grown into a global investment and asset management company with $13 billion of assets under management across Canada, the US, and Europe. And within this platform is a supremely talented development group with an awesome portfolio of sites and projects.

Thankfully though, this is not a goodbye. Myself and the Globizen team will still be working very closely with Slate on a handful of development projects, including One Delisle and Corktown. And the intent is that we will continue to work on new projects together in the future.

I learned a lot during my time at Slate, and I have so much respect for Blair and Brady Welch and the rest of the partners. They have built an incredible global company and assembled some of the most creative, entrepreneurial, and smartest people I have ever worked with.

Thank you for everything over the last 8 years.

So what's the plan for Globizen? This will be the topic of a follow-up post.

Knight Frank just published the 2024 edition of its annual wealth report and, it turns out, that 2023 was a reasonably good year for rich people. Below are some of the charts that I found interesting as I flipped through the report.

The first is their Prime International Residential Index, which tracks the pricing of the most desirable and expensive properties in the following 100 locations. Generally, they define this as the top 5% of each market.

Moving on, this is how much square meterage that US$1 million will buy you in select city and second-home locations.

These are the cities that saw the greatest cross-border investment flows into commercial real estate.

This is their prime property price forecast for 2024.

This is what it looks like for prime rents.

And finally, this is how much net wealth you need in order to join "the 1% club" in select countries/territories.

To download a full copy of Knight Frank's 2024 Wealth Report, click here.