GO Residential REIT (GOU) completed its US$410M IPO on Friday, in the first corporate listing this year and the largest since Groupe Dynamite’s $300M raise in 2024. Since the pandemic, getting new companies to list has been a challenge…

… so while GOU’s U.S. focus drew criticism, if it opens the IPO market… net positive in my view. It’s not the first American REIT on our market either, with capital rotating out of BSR REIT (HOM-U) and Flagship Communities REIT (MHC-U) on Friday.

The reason behind the Canadian listing strategy becomes clear when looking at the publicly traded U.S. REITs - only the biggest companies get sell-side attention. An important, but misunderstood part of equity research is that it’s a two-sided model.

On one hand, it’s a resource to help investors - on the other, it’s a marketing tool for the corporate. GOU’s TSX listing is evidence that in the REIT space, Canada’s best brokers are preferred over America’s B-Team.