Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the BoardWalk Real Estate Investment Trust second quarter 2025 earnings call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on July 30th, 2025. I would now like to turn the conference over to Eric Bowers, VP of Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Joelle, and welcome to the BoardWalk Crete 2025 Second Quarter Results Conference Call. With me here today are Sam Collius, Chief Executive Officer, James Ha, President, Greg Tinling, Chief Financial Officer, Samantha Collius-Gunn, Senior VP of Corporate Development and Governance, and Samantha Adams, Senior VP of Investments. We would like to acknowledge on behalf of BoardWalk the treaties and traditional territories across our operations and express gratitude and respect for the land we are gathered on today and we now know as Canada. We respect Indigenous peoples and communities as the original stewards of this land. We come with respect for this land that we are on today, for all the people who have and continue to reside here, and the rich diversity of First Nation, Inuit and Métis peoples. Before we get to our results, please note this call is being broadly distributed by way of webcast. If you have not already done so, please visit bwalk.com slash investors, where you will find a link to today's presentation, as well as PDF files of the trust financial statements, MD&A, and quarterly report. Starting on slide two, we would like to remind our listeners that certain statements in this call and presentation may be considered forward-looking statements. Although the expectations set forth in such statements are based on reasonable assumptions, BoardWalk's future operation and its actual performance may defer materially from those in any forward-looking statements. Additional information that could cause actual results to defer materially from these statements are detailed in BoardWalk's publicly filed documents. I would like to now turn the call over to Sam Collius. Thank you, Eric. Starting on slide four,

Affordable multifamily communities have always been an essential product and service. Together with our resident members, our associates, investors, partners, capital, environment, community, are all essential and interconnected with our Boardwalk family forever at our core, with our true north where love always lives. A key word in community is unity, as reflected in our diagrams. Together, we go far. Welcome, everyone, to our boardwalk, family forever, and to our Q2 2025 results. Next slide. Our culture, from our humble beginnings, our resident members remain at the top of our organization. Our leaders put our team first, and our team puts our resident members first. Guided by the golden rule, we have a peak-performing customer service culture that creates exceptional results as we can see on our next slide six. Our continued impressive performance with GAAP and non-GAAP measures increasing from the same quarter last year, same property rental revenues increased 6.2% and same property net operating income increased 9.8%. Our operating margin increased by 220 basis points as well as our funds from operation per unit increasing by 11.5%. I would like to now pass it over to Samantha Collius-Gunn.

Thank you so much, Sam. We are extremely grateful for our team's perseverance, performance, and continued commitment to our purpose, bringing our resident members home to love always. Continuing on to slide 7. our operational stability and the resilience of affordable housing. Rental market fundamentals in our core markets remain balanced. We are well positioned in some of the most affordable markets in Canada, as referenced in our appendix, slide 31. Affordability continues to drive positive population and leading economic growth in our core markets, Alberta and Saskatchewan, also reflected in our appendix. Quebec has delivered exceptional results, further evidencing the strong demand for affordable housing. Ontario remains stable. We are strategically in all the right places at the right time. Please refer to our appendix for more data on the resilience of the Alberta economy. Our self-regulation has us well positioned in a more competitive market as we strategically moderate our rental rates, within a resident-friendly renewal rate band, producing greater stability in occupancy and reputation. Paired with our strong financial foundation, minimum distribution policy resulting in maximum reinvestment and free cash flow, strategic repositioning, unparalleled customer service, and strong family values, we remain in a position to deliver solid performance. This is what sets us apart, bringing you home to where love always lives. Boardwalk strives to be the first choice in multifamily apartment communities to work, invest, and call home with our Boardwalk family forever. Moving on to slide eight, our strategic rebranding enhances our exceptional quality at an affordable price, keeping our occupancy high at just below 98%. Per Rentals.ca data, our average occupied rents of $15.59 for a two-bedroom apartment are attractive, especially relative to the Canadian average of $22.21. We would like to now pass the call on to Greg Tinling, who will provide us with an overview of our quarter results, strong balance sheet, fair value, and ESG. Greg?

Thank you, Samantha. Slide 9 shows our key operational metrics. Occupancy continues to remain high, along with increasing occupied rent. Although vacancy loss increased, the Trust was able to reduce incentives that helped contribute to the higher revenues reported for Q2 2025 compared to the same period a year ago. This is a reflection of our key strategic decisions made to maximize free cash flow and diversify our product offering, yielding significant financial performance. Slide 10 shows leasing spreads on new and renewed leases within our self-regulated, resident-friendly centric model, keeping retention and referrals high and our turnover and expenses low. Year over year, leasing spreads on new and renewed leases have decreased, reflecting a return to a more balanced supply and demand picture, with new supply entering select markets within the portfolio that resulted in increased competition and vacancy, particularly for product at the higher price point. For Alberta, our renewal spreads were 4.2% in June 2025. New lease spreads in Calgary are slightly negative as we prioritize occupancy in the more competitive, higher-priced markets within the city. Edmonton continues to see positive new lease spreads as our portfolio of high-quality, affordable housing continues to see high demand. Overall, our blended Alberta spreads in the month of June were 2.7% and on a portfolio basis, 3.4%. continue to prioritize maintaining occupancy and maximizing retention. This will continue to provide resident-friendly affordable housing options in our core markets while lowering our costs and steadying operational results, an outcome that benefits all our stakeholders. Slide 11 shows sequential quarterly rental revenue growth, including 1% growth in Q2 2025 compared to the previous quarter. The change over each quarter is a reflection of BoardWalk's strategy, striving toward balancing the optimum level of market rents, rental incentives, and occupancy rates in order to achieve its NOI optimization strategy. Moving to slide 12 for Q2 2025, same property net operating income increased by 9.8% compared to the same period in the prior year, with revenue growth of 6.2%. Alberta, the Trust's largest region, saw revenue growth of 6.2% due to higher in-place occupied rents combined with lower incentives. Total rental expenses decreased 0.6% for Q2 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, primarily attributable to lower utilities with the removal of the federal carbon tax as well as lower insurance premiums. On slide 13, administration costs increased $1.5 million and deferred unit-based compensation was relatively consistent when compared to Q1 2025. The increase in administration costs from the previous quarter was due to a higher profit share and bonus accrual to reflect outperformance year-to-date. Slide 14 illustrates BoardWalk's mortgage maturity schedule. Our mortgages are well staggered with approximately 96% of our mortgage balance carrying NHA insurance through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. This insurance remains in effect for the full amortization of the mortgage, and in addition to carrying the Government of Canada's backing, provides access to financing at rates lower than conventional mortgages with a current estimated 5-year and 10-year CMHC rate of 3.75% and 4.35% respectively. Though current interest rates are above the trust's maturing rates over the next few years, the trust's maturity curve remains staggered, reducing the renewal amount in any particular year. Lastly, the trust has an interest coverage of 3.05 in the current quarter. Slide 15 summarizes our 2025 mortgage program. To date, we have renewed or forward locked $244.1 million at an average rate of 3.85% and an average term of five years. Current underwriting criteria in our most recent submissions to CMHC and our lenders has remained in line with our historically conservative estimates. Please refer to slide 55 for additional details. Trust is well positioned with approximately $26 million in cash, an undrawn $246 million operating line, and subsequent committed funded financing of $53 million. This approximate $325 million in liquidity provides the trust with a flexible financial position. Slide 16 illustrates the trust's estimated fair value of its investment properties, excluding adjustments for IFRS 16, which totaled $8.4 billion as of June 30, 2025, compared to $8.2 billion as of December 31, 2024. The increase in overall fair value is the result of increases from rental rate growth as well as the acquisition of Elbow 5-8 in Calgary, Alberta, while being slightly offset by an upward adjustment for vacancy assumptions in Calgary to reflect a more balanced market. Current estimated fair value of approximately $243,000 per apartment door remains below replacement cost. In consultation with our external appraisers, the cap rates used in determining Q2 2025 fair value were unchanged from Q4 2024. As it does every quarter, the Trust will continue to review completed asset sales transactions and market reports to determine if adjustments to cap rates are necessary. Most recent published cap rate reports suggest that the cap rates being utilized by the Trust for calculating fair value are within their estimated ranges. Slide 17 highlights our ESG initiatives. Using a disciplined capital allocation approach, We are focused on reducing emissions through reduced utilities consumption and therefore reducing utilities costs while always promoting social and governance initiatives. We encourage our stakeholders to view our 2024 ESG report available on the Trust's website. I would like to now turn the call over to Samantha Adams to highlight our capital allocation and discuss our development pipeline.

Thank you, Greg. The first half of 2025 has been very active for capital allocation. as we remain focused on our four strategic pillars, value-add rebranding, dispositions, acquisitions and development, and NCIB. Slide 18 illustrates how we invest our free cash flow into our value-add and rebranding initiatives designed to drive market share, and our target for 2025 is to complete the rebranding of 14 communities. Our rebranding initiatives began in 2017, and by the end of this year, 74% of our communities will be renovated. This provides our residents with exceptional value as the common area renovations and value-add amenities require minimal per suite rental increases. Over the past 12 months, BoardWalk has announced $491 million of real estate transactions as shown on slide 19. During this time, we have announced or completed $197 million in dispositions of some of our non-core assets, with a vintage age of 1989 at an exit cap of about 5.1%. The use of some of the net proceeds from the dispositions, combined with the strength of our balance sheet, has provided us with the opportunity to announce a total of $294 million in acquisitions, which are a mix of townhomes, mid-rise, and high-rise buildings. With an average year of construction of 2021 at an average stabilized cap rate of 5.3%, these communities located in our target growth markets represent excellent value and prudent upcycling of our equity. Slide 20 summarizes our most recent disposition announcements of four non-core properties, Imperial Tower, Insignia Tower, Les Departements de Verdier and Place du Parc. The dispositions are located in Edmonton and Quebec City, where interest from private buyers has been strong, and we have been able to capitalize on that demand. These successful dispositions, at or above our fair value, have provided us with additional equity required to transact on our new communities, North Prairie Townhomes and the Arch. Slide 21 details our off-market townhomes acquisition. Purchased directly from the developer, this three-property portfolio provided us with a unique opportunity to buy purpose-built rental townhomes in the strong growth markets of Saskatoon and Regina. These townhomes offer larger unit sizes, attached garages, which are very important to our resident members, as well as easy access to nearby amenities. The three properties are located near our existing communities, which provide operational efficiencies. With a low 26% loan-to-value financing at 2.35% and a going-in cap rate of 5.2%, these townhomes will generate strong cash flow and lower capital requirements in the near-to-medium term. Slide 22 introduces our most recently announced acquisition in Calgary. While located in the Beltline Submarket, the Arch represents the opportunity to acquire a beautiful concrete high-rise at below replacement cost. The Arch offers larger suite sizes and minimal exposure to studios and small one bedrooms, which differentiates our acquisition from the newer developments in the area. The Arch currently has some vacancy, but with the strength of our team, and our strong platform, we intend to improve the performance of the property while adding scale to our portfolio in the Beltline area. Once stabilized, we also have the opportunity to deploy our value-add amenity and common area renovation strategy as the building was constructed in 2015. Slide 23 illustrates the ongoing disconnect between our unit price, the value of our portfolio, and the prudent use of our stock buyback strategy. The use of our NCIB is a key component of our capital allocation, and earlier in the year, BoardWalk invested $30 million in unit buybacks at an average price of $63.16, representing a cap rate of over 6%, which exceeded other opportunities that were available at that time. Slide 24 provides an update on BoardWalk's development pipeline, which has been designed to support the Trust's long-term growth strategy. We anticipate the Aspire will be welcoming our first resident members in Building 1 in December, and occupancy for the balance of the buildings is expected to be in early 2026. While we continue to work through building permits and concept drawings for both the Marin and Martin Loop, we are not actively moving the project forward in the short term as we wait for greater construction cost certainty and improved overall market conditions for new developments. As mentioned in the prior quarter, we've completed the rezoning for Island Highway and are currently marketing the property for sale. I would now like to turn the call over to James Ha to discuss our track record of creating value and our updated 2025 guidance.

Thank you, Samantha, and thank you to our entire BoardWalk team for your service and commitment to our resident members, which continues to deliver consistent and strong performance that our team is sharing today. 25 provides an update to our outlook as we build off our base of exceptional affordability, product quality, and self-moderated rental rates. Each of these are key inputs into the strength of our platform and ability to compete and outperform in a more balanced housing market. We continue to see that the demand for affordable housing remains resilient and our outlook for the year has further improved. 2025, our team, platform, and portfolio continues to maintain high occupancy and strong blended leasing spreads. Expense optimization has been a priority, as demonstrated in our first two quarters. As we look forward to the second half of the year, we are anticipating a continued solid revenue profile with discipline on our operating expenses, including lower than anticipated growth in property tax, insurance, and the exclusion of carbon tax. These lower expenses will help to ensure that our high-quality, affordable housing remains the best value for our resident members. Our 2025 outlook has improved with same-property NOI growth guidance adjusted to 8% to 10%, while also increasing our FFO per unit outlook to $4.48 to $4.63. This guidance is forward-looking in nature and we look forward to regularly updating and refining our outlook as the year progresses. On slide 26, we have confirmed the payment dates of our next three regular monthly distributions equating to $1.62 per trust unit on an annualized basis and represents a 12.5% increase from our distribution a year ago. Since 2021, our distribution has increased at an annual, average growth rate of over 12%, while still retaining an industry high proportion of our cash flow to reinvest and compound growth. Our formula and operating model has extended our FFO per unit track record, and we are well positioned in 2025 to more than double our FFO in just eight years. On slide 27, this growth, along with our approach to maximum cash flow retention, has improved our leverage metrics to provide BoardWalk with one of the strongest and most flexible balance sheets, trailing debt to EBITDA in the single digits. Our disciplined and solid financial foundation provides us with flexibility to take advantage of opportunities that may arise. Lastly, slides 28 and 29 highlight the exceptional value that our trust units represent. Our current trading price equates to just $200,000 per apartment door and over a 6% cap rate on a forward basis. Both metrics are exceptional when considering our product quality, locations, spread to financing costs, and cash flow growth as shared in our outlook. Recent private market transactions continue to be supportive of our estimated net asset value of $243,000 per apartment or $97 per trust unit. In closing, our team continues to be focused on delivering the best quality and value in housing to our resident members. Our unique operating platform continues to demonstrate our ability to create value for all our stakeholders as we continue to deliver leading organic and FFO per unit growth that is growing our free cash flow for reinvestment. We also continue to be active in the private market in sourcing additional capital from non-core asset sales that we can upcycle toward accretive opportunities including buyback or unique acquisitions where we can implement our platform to deliver strong yields and returns. Thank you again to our resident members, our team, our partners, and all our stakeholders for trusting BoardWalk to provide the best quality homes and communities and are looking forward to continuing our track record of growth. We would now be happy to take questions from the line. Joelle?

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star, followed by the one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. Your first question comes from Jonathan Kelcher with TD Cowan. Your line is now open.

Thanks. Good morning. I guess the first question... Just on the blended rent growth change for the overall portfolio, it did inflect positively in June. I know Quebec will weigh on that a lot in July. Should we expect a sort of continuation of that, and how should we think about it for the balance of the year?

Hey, Jonathan, it's James. On the renewal front, our team continues to be very active in proactively renewing our leases as As we've discussed in the past, our team is negotiating with and renewing our residents two, three months in advance. And so as we look out from this point, we're already doing renewals into August, September, October. And we're seeing a continuation of the same trends. Keep in mind, renewals represent about 75% of our deal flow. Retention is key and critical in our revenue formula. And our team is doing a great job with that. As we've talked about in the past, Our retention ranges are quite sustainable in between the 3% to 7% range. Our Calgary market is seeing generally the lower end of that range, whereas in Edmonton, our most affordable market is seeing the mid to upper part of that range.

Okay. And just on, I guess, a continuation of that, the sequential revenue growth did slow to 1%. this quarter. Is that a level that you guys think you can maintain?

We do.

Again, if you look at the components, as long as we can maintain our high occupancy, which we're confident we can, and when you blend those leasing spreads that we were just talking about, and thank you for pointing out Quebec, July is a busy month in Quebec. And as we've talked about in the past, we do have one of the higher guideline increases this year reflecting the higher operating costs that community providers have had over the past many years. And so a lot of that is going to hit for July, which will certainly help our third quarter and quarters going forward.

Okay. And then just switching gears, Samantha, you just announced a Calgary acquisition. That is a market with some near-term supply challenges. Could maybe Give us a little bit more detail on the thought process behind that and whether you expect to see further portfolio, I guess, portfolio improvement through more acquisition and disposition activity this year.

Yeah. Hey, Jonathan. Yeah, happy to answer that. No, the Arch is, from our perspective, a unique opportunity to buy a really beautiful concrete high-rise in the Beltline sub-market of Calgary. We recognize that there is significant new supply coming in this node, but most of those units on average are 20% smaller than the unit sizes in the ARCH. So the ARCH for us, yes, we're mindful of supply, but the larger unit sizes, very low exposure to studios and one bedrooms, we really believe that over the longer term, this property will perform very, very well. So that was the rationale behind the ARCH. And sorry, your subsequent question was what can we expect going forward in terms of transactions? We remain very active. The entire team is very, very active and we hope to complete a few more transactions throughout the balance of the year. I'll just add to that.

A balance between buying and selling?

Yes. Yes. We're very focused on disposition because it's a a wonderful opportunity for us to unlock equity and then upcycle that equity into new acquisitions.

I'll just add, it's James Jonathan. Adding to Samantha's comment, slide 22, you know, the two key stats there, the 982 square foot average and the $2.30 a foot.

Huge opportunity for us to bring in our platform and really optimize that community. Okay. Thanks. I'll turn it back.

Your next question comes from Fred Blondeau with Green Street. Your line is now open.

Thank you and good morning. Just one question for me, for James maybe. Looking at your same property NOI guidance for 2025, what are your views on revenue versus expenses for the second half of the year? Do you feel like revenue growth could actually accelerate from here, or it's more like what we've seen so far this year. I call it 7% revenue growth with limited expense growth from here. Thank you.

Hey, Fred. Good morning. Thanks for the question. I'm actually going to invite Greg to start.

Hi, Fred. It's Greg. For the expense side of things, total rental expenses, we're expecting... same door to be negative 2% to around a half a percent higher than 2024. Yeah.

So when you put that together with our same-store NOI guidance, you can see, you know, we're seeing, we're expecting very similar trends to what we have for revenue. We're running quite a sustainable phase here. Again, and for our Our team members that are on the line, we all know this. We have to maintain this high occupancy. We have to continue to be flexible with our residents and continue to strive for sustainable, moderated adjustments, which we continue to get, and that's going to continue to deliver the solid results that we're reporting today.

That's great. Thank you to both of you.

Thanks, Fred. Your next question comes from Brad Sturgis with Raymond James. Your line is now open.

Hey there. Just to circle back to the transaction commentary, is it fair to say if you are to execute more transactions, you would continue to be tying acquisitions to dispositions, meaning you'd probably be more net neutral from an investment point of view?

Yes, I think that's fair to say.

Yeah. And just on the disposition side, just curious on the insignia tower disposition, it looks like it's a little bit of a newer tower. Just curious to get maybe a little bit more thought process behind the decision to sell that specific asset.

Yeah, no, that is a good question because it is one of our newer assets. I don't know if you recall, we sold Access as part of a portfolio sale in January and And Insignia is essentially around the corner. So it was, from our perspective, operationally speaking, less efficient to own just Insignia. And it was also part of the portfolio sale with Imperial Power.

And the purchaser was very excited to acquire both.

Okay. And the last question, just going back to the Arch acquisition, just for one follow-up. There's a small gap, it looks like, between where you suggest in-place NOIs and stabilized. Is that purely a mark-to-market function, or is there a little bit of savings around op costs as you integrate the asset onto the platform?

It's actually more to do with the current occupancy of the Arch. It's currently about 92% occupied. So, again, I think, as I mentioned in my earlier comments, with the strength of our team and our platform, we're very confident that we'll be able to improve that occupancy over the next, you know, call it 12 months. Got you. Okay. Thank you. Yep. You're welcome.

Your next question comes from Kyle Stanley with Desjardins. Your line is now open.

Thanks. Morning, everyone. And, you know, thanks for, obviously, the updated guidance. I'm just trying to think now as we start to look forward, you know, if we incorporate the current supply pipeline across your market with, you know, I guess what we believe is the current demand profile.

I'm just wondering what is your expectation with regard to kind of market rent growth over the next 12 to 24 months?

You know, Kyle, as we know, your supply that's being delivered, rental rates are much higher than where we are. You know, our average occupied rent across our portfolio in the $1,500 range New supply cannot match that. And so our most affordable product, which as everybody on this line has seen, we've invested heavily back into our communities. We offer some of the best value in the marketplace. The demand for affordable housing remains resilient. Where there is competition is at that upper end. And to Samantha's earlier point, where we do have product at that upper end, we're going to win. We're going to compete with our platform, our product offering, and the way we deliver housing.

And so that's effectively how we're thinking about maintaining that high occupancy and continuing to deliver sustainability. Okay. Okay. Thank you for that.

Maybe just a second one, just on ELBO 5.8. I'm just curious, how much income was generated from ELBO 5.8 during the quarter and then Maybe if you could just provide some commentary on how the lease-up is progressing, whether there's been any changes to your timeline for stabilization, achieving performance, just a general update on that asset.

Yeah, maybe we can come back to you offline on the exact NOI contribution for elbow 5A, Kyle. But lease-up's going well. We're about 55% leased here, which is on schedule for our 12-month lease-up timeframe. Rents are generally tracking with our Performa, but it's a wonderful example of where location matters, where our team is aggressively attracting residents. We're seeing a lot of transfers even from folks who are transferring from other communities that we have in the area into Elbow 5A, and so we're quite happy, quite pleased. We'll continue to keep everybody updated, but so far, so good.

Okay, thanks for that. I will turn it back.

Our next question comes from Jimmy Shan with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Thanks. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the Saskatoon and Regina market. The occupancy seems very strong in those markets and rent seems to be continuing to grow. What's driving those markets? What's your expectation of sustainability of the strength of those markets.

Jimmy, Sam, potash is a critical essential mineral that feeds our world and the massive investment of $7-8 billion for the expansion of that real critical mineral is a big factor of what's driving that economy and that the scale of that capital is very significant versus the GDP and the population base of Saskatchewan. So, Saskatchewan has what our world needs, and we just can't feed everybody without fertilizer. That's a big factor. The other big factor is Saskatchewan is the solution for affordable housing. It still remains at the bottom of the list on average asking rent as per rentals.ca. So, affordability is very high as well. And Saskatchewan's a beautiful, awesome place to live. And ask everybody who lives there. It's a great, great province. And we're really, really happy. Our team is so happy with the acquisitions, with the attached garages. Very, very unique product. And off-market. And we're just so excited to offer that affordable product large unit sizes with attached garages in that growing, ever-growing marketplace.

Okay, and then just kind of a big picture question, on the demand side, so population growth in Alberta is still strong relative to other provinces, but it has come down quite materially from a year ago. How do you answer that? What So what level of population growth do you feel you need to start to get worried about how that might actually put a dent on occupancy level?

You know, Jimmy, it's James.

I think, again, I'm going to come back to the affordability side. The demand for rents that are $1,500, $1,600, $1,700 continues to be really high. Where we do see competition is in our communities where rents are $2,300, $2,400, and $2,500. Again, we're happy to compete, and we will compete there. But if you look at the majority of our portfolio, we feel quite confident in the demand for affordable housing.

Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Jimmy.

Your next question comes from Dean Wilkinson with CIDC. Your line is now open.

Thanks. Hi, everyone. Maybe this is James. On the annualized $1.62 distribution, with increased capital recycling, do you run into the necessity to maybe bump that up more than would be expected, or how much room is in there to sort of move that around?

Actually, I'll take this one, Dean. It's Greg. You're right. Given the number of dispositions for 2025, there will be tax from capital gains and recapture that we will need to be distributed to our unit holders at the end of the year. So yes, there will be a special distribution that we'll be looking to do as we get closer to the end of the year. At this time, it's too early to say, but I would say as we get closer to the end of the year, we're going to determine the full impact and plan accordingly. Okay, great. Thanks.

And then maybe to one of the SAMs, the townhomes. I mean, I think that's a really interesting acquisition, probably something that the Canadian rental market needs more of. Do you see more opportunities to purchase assets like that? Or, you know, at $300,000, just over $300,000 a door, Could you build those, or was that just a very unique situation and it might be a bit of a unicorn?

Hey, Dean. Okay, well, I'll start. Samantha speaking.

You're right. It is a unique opportunity for us. We would love to see more purpose-built townhomes built across the country in all of our target markets, actually, because we think they really do offer... a wonderful choice and option for our resident members. The challenge in some markets, of course, is land cost, but wherever we see these opportunities, and we have connected with some developers over the past to see if there's the possibility of working together to build purpose-built townhomes. So we are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to acquire communities like this.

Dean, it's Sam, and unicorn's the right word because we're always looking for the best deal. That's only one deal. And so that absolutely is the best deal in Saskatchewan that we've seen, and we're so excited because our team is so excited, and it is a very unique product, absolutely. It's an underserved product type in the entire Canadian landscape. In our portfolio, historically, our townhomes, are as cyclical-free as our Banff-Canmore communities. Very, very little turnover, very, very little vacancy regardless of the economic cycle we happen to be in. So you're spot on, Dean. Yeah, just wanted... They're homes, right? They are homes.

That's right. Just wanted to add, so that you get all the Samanthas and Sams, that we maintain our relationships with developers and look forward to future opportunities just like that and hopefully catching more unicorns in the future.

Thank you. Perfect. Thanks, everyone.

Your next question comes from Mike Marquitas with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Thanks, operator. Good afternoon or morning for the BoardWalk team. Obviously, the private market demand, particularly in Edmonton and I guess now Quebec City, has been pretty strong. We've been hearing about how the institutional demand has kind of dried up in some of maybe certain cities. And it feels like you guys are getting a little bit more active. So I'm just wondering if you could give us a sense on if this is a reflection of you being more confident to deploy capital from an acquisition perspective. just given what you're seeing in the market, or is it actually an uptick in the opportunities that you're seeing? Thank you.

Hey, Mike, it's Samantha Adams speaking. Well, to your point, we've seen a lot of demand for our product in Edmonton and Quebec City. And to your point about not a lot of institutional interest, it's all come so far for us anyway from private buyers. And so what that does is it does provide us with a wonderful opportunity to transact. We are able to sell some of our older non-core assets and then upcycle into the newer, nearly new, depending on the property, obviously, acquisitions as we continue to look for the right opportunity and the best value to continue improving our free cash flow.

Okay, thanks for that. But what about on the demands, the acquisition side? Is it that the opportunity set that you've seen has increased over the past 12, 24 months, or is it just that perhaps now that we've sort of seen occupancy stabilize, you guys are more confident in the market, and that's making you more confident in terms of your willingness to deploy capital?

I would say it's probably a combination of all of the above. I think also what we are starting to see is people are approaching us perhaps earlier in their sale process than they might not have done prior, as we are now quite active on both the disposition side and the acquisition side. But we're very confident in our target markets. And yes, there may be some upcoming supply challenges in a few sub-markets within, say, the Calgary area. But overall, we're very confident in our portfolio and in our platform and teams, quite frankly, in their ability to to provide the best service for our resident members and unit holders.

Thanks for the call. I appreciate it.

Your next question comes from Matt Cornack with National Bank Financial. Your line is now open.

Hey, guys. Maybe a quick follow-up in terms of what you're targeting on the acquisition front. Are you market agnostic? Does rent control play into kind of what you're looking at? Or is it really an asset-specific attribute that you're looking after?

I mean, first and foremost, it's sort of the asset-specific. We're looking for the, as Sam described it, the sort of the unicorn, the very best acquisitions we can transact on. And in terms of the markets, we remain really, really confident in our current target markets, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon in particular, now as well, and Regina. We are still very watchful in some of the BC markets. We're in Victoria, for example, and we continue to watch to see where the opportunities there might be. Quebec has performed very well for us, and so we're very interested in looking at further expansion in those markets as well. Ontario gets a little bit trickier. Sorry, your point was rent control. So if we were to... explore opportunities in the Ontario market, we would definitely be leaning towards the non-rent-controlled segment of that market.

Maybe switching quickly to the cadence of rent increases, it seems like, again, the June numbers were inflecting. Given where occupancy is, does that give you comfort at this point to be a little bit more aggressive on new leases. It seems like turnovers remained fairly low, and again, occupancy has held up. So, can you give us a sense, do you kind of see a convergence between the renewal and new spreads at this point, or will the new kind of move towards the renewal?

Hey Matt, it's James.

As we said earlier, we're continuing to see a really strong July. SharePoint turnover has declined, but that's by design. That's by design on our part where retention teams are quite aggressive in ensuring that we're able to retain as many residents as we can. On the new side, we still have a couple more days here in July, and so we're looking forward to reporting that July-August number come our next report. But so far, we're seeing good consistency. Again, the number one priority is keeping this occupancy high. And I'll just remind everybody again, our renewals represent about 75% of that deal flow. And we're already, as we talked about, seeing kind of similar trends on the renewal front going all the way out to September, October at this point.

And I know with some of your peers, probably less pronounced with you guys because you didn't deal with the rent control, but there was a period of time post-pandemic when you could really push on the rent front. And some of those, some people are lapping those and there was a negative roll down, but it's going to be just a temporary kind of roll through of those higher leases. Is that something that is evident in your portfolio or because you're mostly non-controlled markets, you never really dealt with that?

Yeah, less of that, Matt. But I will say that You know, if you're looking at specifically slide 10 and you're looking at our new leasing spreads, the type of unit that turnover does matter for that. And where we are seeing more turnover within our portfolio is generally more the upper end or more expensive products. And where we are getting a lot of retention is our more affordable product. So when you put those together, there is a little bit of that trend that occurs, but for different reasons.

Okay.

That makes sense. Thanks, guys.

Matt, it's Sam, and we really have to give credit where credit's due. Our design team, our small caps, and contractor partners, and our rebranding is a significant advantage versus our competitors. We have really improved our value proposition and have exceptional, and as our Stampede Tour, and for anybody who... never got to attend our property tour, we're always open to touring our communities and the amazing work and upgrades and transformational common area upgrades with common area rooms, fitness that we are doing. It really is a big reason why we stay ahead of our competitors.

Now that makes sense. It seems like the value proposition, given the quality, is definitely showing through. Thanks again.

Thanks, Matt. Your next question comes from Siram Sriniva with Cormark Securities. Your line is now open.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everybody. Just a quick question for Samantha. Just hearing the comments on your relationship with developers in your markets, if you kind of think about these relationships and the temperature of developers over the last 12 months, how would you characterize that compared to all that we're seeing in newspapers in terms of developers struggling to offload inventory? And how are they doing across different markets? If you could just comment on that.

Hi, it's Samantha speaking.

I mean, it's a bit of a difficult question to answer because obviously each market is very different and whether you're new to the development cycle or a well-established developer, you're facing different challenges. I would say as a general statement, though, we are seeing more offers to partner with developers on the equity side. I think that's one of the larger challenges. Very broadly speaking, of course, one of the largest challenges for the developers is the equity piece. So we are certainly receiving more inbound calls this year than we did this time last year.

And operating platforms, I think we can add to that as well. Operating platforms certainly matter and our results are the perfect example of that where, yes, there is more balance in the housing market here in Canada and so we have to be good operators to ensure that we're optimizing the opportunities that present themselves in the current market today.

When you think about these opportunities, how would you bet them against all-out acquisitions when it comes to partnering with developers versus going out for the assets completely? How would you go for one versus the other?

How do we make the decision, just so I understand, between buying an acquisition versus partnering with a developer? Oh, okay, sorry. Well, it really depends on the opportunity and the location and what the returns look like. But, you know, we like to look for a decent spread, essentially, with development. And right now we're seeing some wonderful opportunities to buy, you know, existing income-producing properties. And right now that's our focus.

All right. That makes sense. That's all from me. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press star one. Your next question comes from Mario Sarek with Scotiabank. Your line is not open.

Hi, good morning, and thank you for taking the questions. I wanted to maybe focus a little bit on Calgary. I appreciate that you don't have a lot of competing products with the new supplies coming online. With that said, though, are you seeing any trends with respect to the incentives that are being offered by developers on that new supply? Are you seeing the incentives come down a little bit? Just maybe share some color in terms of the trends that you're seeing on the incentive level with the new supply.

Hey, Mario. It's James. I can start. Certainly, it's for buildings that are going through lease-up. We've actually seen incentives decline relative to what we saw at the beginning of the year. At the beginning of the year, you could find offers that were two months free and Today, in our most recent shops, we're seeing one month free is kind of your most common incentive that's out there. As Jimmy had pointed out earlier, we are still seeing population growth, so there is absorption that's happening. We're seeing some of the best population growth in the country, albeit at a slower pace, but we do need these homes for these new Albertans that are coming to our province. And so, though there is supply, they are going through a lease-up. Generally, about one month free is pretty well what we're seeing consistently through these summer months. So on a trend basis, to answer your question, Mario, less discounts from the beginning of the year, but it's been pretty consistent through this summer leasing season.

Okay. And then within your portfolio, when you're looking at your new leases, turnover leases, Can you comment on the rent-to-income ratio that you're generally hitting or that you hit in Q2 relative to a year ago, relative to three months ago, if there's any discernible change there?

Pretty consistent again. We're actually almost bang on to the rentals.ca average when we do look at our rent-to-income ratios, which is generally in your low to mid-20s for the most part. Again, affordability is not the challenge here in Alberta.

my last question just looking at the 26 again just thinking about new supply and specifically focusing on the rental stock as opposed to the overall housing stock it's difficult to gauge because completions or anticipated completions can vary in terms of timing so some may go into 25 some may get delayed to 26 and so on and so forth but generally For Calgary and Edmonton, when you're thinking about your rental positioning going into 26, what are your expectations in terms of an acceleration slash deceleration in the supply growth in those two cities relative to 25?

In terms of product that's going to go under construction, so starts, our expectation would be we start to see a decline for a couple of reasons. You know, one, again, we are seeing more balance in the market. Two, CMHC has recently increased the cost and the premiums associated with MLA-select construction, which, you know, should make it a little bit more difficult to access capital. But three, we continue to see construction costs increase, you know, which, you know, to Samantha's earlier point about acquiring the orange at such an attractive per door price, that acquisition... looks great today, it's going to look even better when we compare it to these inflating construction costs. So our expectation would be to start to slow. In terms of deliveries, our team has done, and we have to give our asset management, our operations, our whole team a ton of credit. Whenever we see a new product or a new building start to go under construction near one of our communities, our team is in front of that making sure that we are positioned. to be able to compete and win against that community. We've already done all of that. And so if we look around town in both Calgary and Edmonton, where buildings are expected to come online in the next 12 to 24 months, we've already repositioned those assets. And so I think as that supply comes on, again, we need it because we have population growth in Alberta. But from a boardwalk standpoint, we're well positioned to compete and win through that environment as those buildings come online.

Got it. Okay. But generally speaking, is it your view internally that the pace of supply growth, both in Edmonton and in Calgary, will decelerate in 26 relative to 25?

Yes, just on economics. Again, as Sam always says, we have more than enough supply at the upper end. And you're seeing that with the competition and the availability that's there. And that's not just Calgary and Edmonton.

That's pretty well across the country. Okay, thank you. Thanks, Mark.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Sam Collius, CEO for Closing Remarks.

Thank you, Joelle. As always, if there are any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us. With gratitude, we'd like to thank our extraordinary team, loyal residents, Seamate C, our lenders, and of course, our unit holders, from far and wide and local. It really is all about our BFF, our Boardwalk Family Forever, whose huge shoulders we stand. And as leaders, we continue to do everything we can to support continued growth and extraordinary. We really can't thank our extraordinary team and great leaders ever enough. We are pleased with our improving results on a foundation of exceptional value, service, and experience. We continue to provide our family resident members, our investors, and all our stakeholders. We conclude, home is where our heart is, our heart is where our family is, and our family is where Love Always lives. Our occupied rent average, $1,559. Our Love Always, priceless. Welcome home to Love Always, Our future is boardwalk family forever. What can be more important when choosing where to call home?

God bless us with peace. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.