CPP takes hit from empty offices

Changing workplace trends following pandemic have taken bite out of pension funds' portfolios

- JOSH RUBIN

Those empty seats at the office keep taking a bite out of pension funds.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board announced its annual results for fiscal 2024 Wednesday, and for the second straight year, its real estate holdings took a loss, dropping five per cent of their value.

“Most of the losses were in the office sector, given the additional impact of changes in workplace trends,” the CPPIB said in its report for the year ending March 31.

In fiscal 2023, the CPPIB’s real estate portfolio lost 1.2 per cent of its value.

Other big Canadian pension funds have also taken a hit in their real estate portfolios. In fiscal 2023, the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan had a negative return of -5.2 per cent in its real estate portfolio. The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement system saw its real estate holdings fall by 7.2 per cent in 2023.

Those trends will likely continue for a while, said real estate economist Peter Norman.

“There’s more pain to come,” said Norman, chief economist at Altus Group, a real estate economics consultancy.