A changing business landscape and rising costs are making Canadian real property transactions more costly and complex. With one of the largest and most experienced practices in Canada, McCarthy Tétrault’s real property lawyers can help you make the right decisions to drive value and growth in a challenging environment.

Macro-level business cycles and new rules, laws, and regulations mean the factors affecting real property projects and transactions are constantly evolving. As one of Canada’s leading commercial real property practices, we can help you navigate changing market conditions and develop the right strategies to address uncertainty, mitigate risk, and achieve your goals.

Whether you are acquiring an income-producing property, taking a parcel of land from greenfield through the entitlement process and construction, creating a real estate equity or debt fund, or seeking financing or commercial leasing support, we provide the full range of real property advice to support your needs. We’ll guide you through all aspects of your projects while keeping you informed of sector developments and trends that can affect outcomes.

We understand your business inside and out

Using an integrated and cross-practice approach to service delivery, McCarthy Tétrault’s real property lawyers provide comprehensive advice on your most complex and important business and legal matters. Having advised on some of Canada’s biggest real property transactions, we have the knowledge and experience to guide you to success. We offer:

• Industry expertise: Our deep knowledge of the real property sector and the industries driving the Canadian economy enables us to provide you with relevant, strategic, and timely counsel. Taking your unique business needs into consideration, we’ll proactively address emerging challenges and identify issues that can affect you down the road.
• Multijurisdictional support: As a national law firm with offices across Canada and in New York City and London, U.K., we can guide you through complex domestic and cross-border deals. Whether you do business domestically or abroad, we’re committed to providing seamless client service to support your objectives.
• Creative solutions: We always consider alternative approaches to a deal so we can optimally structure a real property transaction to unlock value and mitigate risk. Collaboration, excellence, and innovation are at the core of how we work, empowering us to identify and develop new solutions as the real property sector changes and grows.

Related practices

Leveraging our broad real property experience, McCarthy Tétrault’s legal and business advisory services cover the full range of challenges and issues that arise when buying, selling, developing, financing, or leasing real property assets.

Construction

Building in times of uncertainty comes with risk. To address the challenges that can jeopardize your projects, we partner with you to provide full-service advice that covers every aspect of transactional construction law, risk mitigation, and construction dispute resolution. We advise owners, contractors, lenders, builders, consultants, and suppliers on projects of every size and type.

Leasing

Whether you’re a landlord or a tenant of an industrial, retail, office, or mixed-use space, signing a comprehensive lease that protects your long-term interests is vital. We offer all-inclusive legal and business support for leasing arrangements and related contracts, including initial negotiation, dispute resolution, enforcement, remedies, and the management of dispositions, assignments, and subleases, enabling you to achieve your desired results.

Planning and Regulatory Matters

When dealing with governments and their agencies, you need counsel with specialized expertise and strong connections within the planning and regulatory space. Drawing on their knowledge and contacts in business and government, our planning and regulatory experts can help you avoid costly delays and enforcement actions and ensure you meet your obligations in relation to real estate, real property development, environmental and Aboriginal law, and other areas.

Real Estate Financing

Backed by strong connections with all major Canadian banks and lending institutions, we work closely with you to craft bespoke financing arrangements that unlock value and long-term growth. With comprehensive support across every conceivable financing arrangement, including construction and project financing, mezzanine financing, joint venture financing, and credit tenant financing, we can assist you with creatively funding any real property transaction.

Real Estate Fund Formation and Fund Investment

Given the unique characteristics of real estate as an asset class, investors and fund managers must know the right strategies to meet their business goals and effectively manage risk. Our lawyers can devise the right approach for establishing real estate investment funds and raising and deploying capital. Our work in this area is extensive, covering fund structuring, governance, and tax planning, and we apply our deep knowledge of key commercial and tax provisions to ensure Canadian and international institutional investors are fully supported throughout an investment’s lifecycle.

Real Property Acquisitions and Dispositions

Our real property lawyers combine diverse hands-on experience with strong technical skills to deliver timely and strategic solutions for buying or selling large-scale commercial real estate. We partner with principals, consultants, and advisors within Canada and across the globe to tackle complex transaction challenges and close deals.

Real Property Development

The development of real property can be a lengthy process and subject to numerous legal challenges. Efficiently completing a deal requires a deep understanding of the process from the project’s outset with the foresight to avoid costly delays and litigation. Our lawyers are not only experienced in the core elements of real property development, they have also been pioneers in legislative and policy changes, new ownership structures, and thought leadership, meaning some of the sector’s best legal minds in real property development are guiding your project from start to finish.

REITs

Real estate investment trusts operate at the intersection of corporate, real estate, and tax law, creating legal issues that require multidisciplinary, full-service advice. We provide practical and comprehensive guidance to assist publicly and privately owned REITs, real estate funds, partnerships and joint ventures, issuers, underwriters, lenders, sponsors, and advisors in successfully completing transactions and resolving other legal issues.

Real Estate Litigation

Real estate disputes can have significant consequences for your business. They can be complex and cover a wide range of subject areas, including construction, development, leases, disputes with neighbouring land owners, bylaws, contaminated sites, tax and assessment, and more. Drawing on the national strength and regional expertise of our Real Property and Litigation and Dispute Resolution groups, we can help you navigate complex real estate disputes and develop strategies to prevent them from arising in the first place, protecting your interests and your most valuable relationships.