#158 Businesses Trade at 6x. Their Real Estate Trades at 20x. | The Sale-Leaseback Arbitrage Explained | Mark Sinnett, Avison Young

Background: Mark Sinnett Executive Vice-President and Head of Capital Markets Eastern Canada

Description: Skyler Steinke hosts Mark Sinnett, Head of Capital Markets and EVP at Avison Young in Eastern Canada, who shares his 25-year real estate career from CBRE research to brokerage, building private capital markets, leading JLL’s capital markets team, and moving to Avison Young in 2023, with roughly $10B across about 900 transactions.

Mark gives a primer on Canada’s market, highlighting large pension funds, conservative lending, fewer peaks and valleys, and less specialization than the U.S. He explains alternative real estate niches and outlines sale-leasebacks as a compelling strategy for liquidity and lower-cost capital, including private equity use cases.

He discusses advising as both broker and LP investor, Avison Young’s transaction process and fund lifecycle support, longer deal timelines and higher pricing volatility, a value-add view on office’s improving fundamentals, and cautious views on tokenization given real estate’s operator-dependent nature.