Joint Venture
Understand joint ventures in Canadian real estate — what they are, how they work, and why they’re used in development.
July 29, 2025
What is a Joint Venture?
A joint venture in real estate is a partnership between two or more parties to develop, own, or operate a property or project, sharing risks, costs, and returns.
Why Joint Ventures Matter in Real Estate
In Canadian real estate, joint ventures allow entities to pool resources, access larger projects, and leverage complementary expertise.
Key features:
- Defined by contract
- Shared decision-making and profits
- Flexible structure (corporate, partnership, trust)
Joint ventures are common in large-scale development, commercial investment, and redevelopment projects.
Example of a Joint Venture in Action
The developer and pension fund formed a joint venture to build a mixed-use community on 50 acres of urban land.
Key Takeaways
- Partnership for real estate projects
- Shares risks, costs, and profits
- Used for large or complex deals
- Defined by detailed agreement
- Leverages strengths of partners
Average and median describe different aspects of the same month’s transactions. Both are affected by the mix of homes sold.
Category averages compare different homes and locations; the gaps are not estimates of the cost to upgrade an otherwise identical property.
The five categories shown account for 5,000 of the board’s 5,057 sales. The remaining 57 transactions were in other housing categories.
Monthly observations are not seasonally adjusted. Active listings count properties available at month-end; they are not construction inventory.
Average and median prices share one dollar axis. These unadjusted transaction measures do not control for changes in the homes sold.
TRREB’s 416/905 categories compare the apartments sold in each area. The difference does not isolate a location premium for equivalent units.
5680 Oak Street in Vancouver and its surrounding context. (MCMP Architects)
Ground-level renderings of the tower proposed for 5680 Oak Street in Vancouver. (MCMP Architects)
