Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust

Hello and welcome to the Canadian Department of D3 first quarter 2023 results conference call. My name is Elliot and I'll be coordinating your call today. If you would like to register a question during the presentation, please press start followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand over to Nicole Dolan, Investor Relations. The floor is yours, please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin, let me remind everyone that during our conference call this morning, We may include forward-looking statements about expected future events and the financial and operating results of CAFRI, which are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. We direct your attention to slide two and our other regulatory filings for important information about these statements. I will now turn the call over to Mark Kenney, President and CEO.

Thanks, Nicole, and good morning, everyone. Joining me this morning is Stephen Cove, our Chief Financial Officer, and Julian Schoenfeld, our Chief Investment Officer. Let's get started with an overview of our operational performance on slide four. We continue to see strong rent growth across our Canadian apartments, which account for approximately 80% of our total portfolio value. We've been maintaining this track record while also keeping near full occupancies with 98.6% occupancy at March 31st. On a same property basis, occupied AMR for our Canadian residential portfolio was up by 5% compared to Q1 of 2022. Moving to slide 5, this rent growth has been the main driver of the increase in our NOI margin, up by 0.7% versus the prior period. On a same property basis, our margin was up by 0.6%. Diluted FFO per unit increased by 2.2% despite headwinds in interest, accelerated CMHC amortization, septic system maintenance costs, and elevated G&A, mainly from wage inflation. Our active NCIB program contributed to the increase, as did a non-refundable deposit received on a property disposition that did not close. We are proud to have maintained a constant distribution rate and a conservative FFO payout ratio, which was 63.6% for the quarter. Diluted NAV per unit at March 31st was $57.47. This decreased slightly compared to Q4 due to the fair value loss on our European portfolio, partially offset by NCIB repurchases. We also continue to make good progress on our CAPREIT 2.0 strategy, which is summarized on slide 6. On the Canadian apartment front, we're improving the quality of our portfolio by disposing of non-core properties and acquiring new construction assets in attractive markets. We are also working on entitling and selling our excess land. This generates additional funding for us to allocate toward CAPREIT's core competencies. But more importantly, it helps to bring housing to the Canadian marketplace. Right now, we have incredible capital deployment opportunities. In addition to our focus on new purpose-built rental apartments, we are also allocating funds towards our value enhancing NCIB program, which Julian will expand on shortly. together with our active debt management program that Stephen will then speak to. I will now turn things over to Julian to provide an update on our capital recycling and strategic repositioning.