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Canada has proven to be an ideal place for developers, builders and real estate investors to acquire lasting wealth. Lists of the richest Canadians include many real-estate billionaires—both homegrown and immigrant—who have changed the face of the nation’s cities, towns and suburbs.
But it takes a special kind of entrepreneur to reach the top of the field.
The potential to invest and make money is the No. 1 driver to get into real estate, says Mark Fieder, principal and president of Avison Young Canada. “But also there are families who are doing it as a business. They love creating ‘place’ in cities and neighbourhoods. There’s a sense of satisfaction that comes with that.”
These executives need to be entrepreneurial and have “a tolerance for high risk,” Fieder says. “They know how to manage the risk properly and therefore they reap the returns in the long term.”
The rewards can be enormous. For many investors, real estate is considered a way to diversify a portfolio, but these moguls use it as a long-term engine to create wealth.
Canada is a good place to do that, says Fieder, thanks to its stable government, increasing population and natural resources. The result is several families who are now into second, third and fourth generations in the development and building business.
These multi-generational developers remain prominent, says Fieder, even though the ownership landscape of some real estate assets has changed. In the 1980s and 1990s, for instance, most downtown Toronto office towers were privately owned, he says. Now, pension funds and institutional investors dominate.
Real estate has the dual appeal of the capital appreciation of the asset and, in the case of commercial property, the income distribution from leases.
“In real estate, we have cycles,” says Fieder. “But you manage through them. And because we have five, 10, 15, sometimes 20-year leases, [the property] still delivers income to the family.”
The following list compiled by Canadian Family Offices of wealthy real estate individuals and families reflects the diversity of the industry. Some of the richest started building homes in their own city’s neighbourhoods and now are major players in residential development across the continent.
You’ll find shopping mall, hotel and entertainment venue developers also on the list, as well as big-time investors who finance and trade commercial properties.
Plenty of billionaires derive a fair portion of their wealth from real estate. The Westons, better known for their retailing enterprises, own a lot of property. And Edmonton’s Daryl Katz is changing the centre of his hometown through his partnership in a mixed development portfolio around the arena that houses his hockey team.
But this list concentrates on those whose central wealth focus is real estate.
Our sources for net worth estimates include Forbes, Maclean’s and business and local media reports, which in turn use publicly available information. Many of these families also hold private investments and assets, so the numbers are approximate. They are roughly ranked in order of net worth.
Peter Gilgan, Toronto
Forbes estimates 74-year-old Peter Gilgan’s fortune at US$7.5 billion.
Gilgan was an accountant before launching Mattamy Homes in 1978 in Burlington, Ont. The firm is the largest privately owned homebuilder in North America, completing projects in the Toronto area, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and in the United States. The company was named for two of his children, Matt and Amy. Gilgan has eight children in total.
Gilgan is known for his charitable giving to hospitals and health centres, including Trillium Health Partners and the Hospital for Sick Children. He also donated to Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) to redevelop part of Maple Leaf Gardens as the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
Gilgan recently announced plans for a prefabricated modular home factory in the Toronto area.
Bob Gaglardi and family, Vancouver
Bob Gaglardi launched Northland Properties in the hospitality industry in 1963 with the small Sandman Inn in Smithers, B.C. With a second generation now involved in management, the family’s portfolio includes 63 hotels and resorts and about 175 restaurants and venues, according to Maclean’s magazine. The family added Northland Living, a real estate development firm, last year.
An in-house construction and design division handles many of the family’s projects, according to the publication Business in Vancouver. And Northland Asset Management handles commercial and residential properties in Western Canada. His son Tom Gaglardi also owns the Dallas Stars hockey team.
Forbes estimates the Gaglardi family’s net worth at US$5.2 billion.
Carlo Fidani, Toronto
Carlo Fidani, 70, is the chairman of Orlando Corporation, his family’s real estate firm. The Mississauga-based company, one of the largest industrial property developers and management firms in Canada, was originally founded in 1948 as Fidani and Sons.
Orlando Corporation owns, leases and manages more than 46 million square feet of industrial, office and retail property, according to its website. Fidani learned about the business from his father; they worked together for about 25 years during the transition.
Forbes estimates Carlo Fidani’s wealth at US$4.5 billion.
He is also known for his philanthropy, particularly to health care institutions.
Lalji family, Vancouver
The Lalji family, real estate magnates with premium hotel, shopping centre and other developments across Canada, are led by brothers Aminmohamed, Mansoor and Shiraz Lalji. They have kept their private lives private, but what is known is that the family fled the Idi Amin regime in Uganda in the 1970s to come to British Columbia and ultimately found the Larco Group of Companies.
Maclean’s estimated their wealth at $4.86 billion last year. In 2007, Larco spent $1.4 billion to buy federal buildings from the government in order to lease them back for 25 years, the magazine also reported.
The family owns Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier along with other hotel properties and shopping malls. The firm has been embroiled in some disputes with hotel workers over wages.
Aquilini family, Vancouver
From a beginning in homebuilding, the Aquilini family’s business empire now includes development, construction, property management, agriculture and hospitality interests, as well as the Vancouver Canucks and Rogers Arena.
Business in Vancouver last year estimated the family’s wealth to be $3.3 billion. Founder Luigi Aquilini arrived in Vancouver from Travagliato, Italy, in 1953. Today, three generations of the family are involved in its diverse portfolio of businesses.
The family’s real estate operations design, build, own and manage properties in multiple real estate classes, including housing, hotels, resorts and office, with properties from British Columbia to the Maritimes.
Mitchell Goldhar, Toronto
Mitchell Goldhar, 64, founded the company SmartCentres, which developed power-centre retail malls anchored by Walmart stores in the 1990s. He continues to have an ownership stake in the developments through its successor firm, SmartCentres REIT.
Forbes pegs Goldhar’s fortune at US$2.8 billion.
Goldhar also has investments in Vaughn, Ont.’s master-planned city centre, a resort in Muskoka, and the Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club in Israel.
Jay Hennick, Toronto
Jay Hennick, 68, is CEO and controlling shareholder of the real estate service firm Colliers. The entrepreneur also founded and is the largest individual shareholder in FirstService Corp., a North America-wide residential property management and services firm.
Hennick & Company, his private investment firm, invests in business and real estate assets, including the architecture firm Foster + Partners and mortgage lender Haventree Bank.
Forbes estimates his worth at US$2.4 billion.
Hennick and his wife, Barbara, are philanthropists who support hospitals and other health causes and the Royal Ontario Museum.
Bill Malhotra, Ottawa
Developer Bill Malhotra, 75, founded Claridge Homes in Ottawa in 1986. The firm, operated by Malhotra and his sons, has built 14,000 properties, including the Claridge Icon, a 45-storey condominium tower in Ottawa.
Malhotra, who was born in India, moved to Canada in 1971 and named his company after New Delhi’s Claridges Hotel, which he had visited as a child, according to the company’s website.
Forbes pegs his wealth at US$2.2 billion. Malhotra also served as the city of Ottawa’s chief structural engineer from 1977 to 1986.
Azrieli family, Montreal, Toronto and Israel
The heirs of real estate mogul David Azrieli—Naomi, Danna and Sharon—own 46 per cent of the publicly traded Azrieli Group, according to Forbes, which estimates each of the sisters’ net worth at US$2 billion.
David Azrieli started his business building duplexes in Montreal, eventually expanding to highrises and shopping centres. In the 1980s, he began building in Israel, and today the Azrieli Group is the largest real estate firm in that country. David died in 2014.
David’s daughters are on the board of the Azrieli Group. They also oversee the Azrieli Foundation, a public philanthropic foundation with $2.4 billion in assets, according to Canada Revenue Agency records.
Elly Reisman, Toronto
Elly Reisman, 75, co-founded Great Gulf Homes Ltd. in 1975 with his late brother Norman. They started building single-family houses in Cambridge, Ont., then branched into condos and other asset classes.
The Great Gulf website says the company has built 100,000 homes. Reisman also has interests in Ashton Woods Homes, an Atlanta firm that builds across the U.S., and a commercial real estate firm, First Gulf.
Reisman is known for his passion for yachting. Forbes reported his wealth at US$1.4 billion in August.
Michael Audain, Vancouver
Now known as an audacious patron of the arts, Michael Audain built his fortune via a long history in homebuilding and housing policymaking. While his net worth is not readily available, in 2021 Audain’s private foundation gave $100 million for a new Vancouver Art Gallery, the largest private gift to a gallery in Canadian history.
Audain was a housing and urban planning advisor to the Ontario and British Columbia governments before becoming an executive and partner in Polygon Homes Ltd. in 1980. Now 88 and still chairman of the Polygon board, he told Montecristo magazine in 2021 that he estimated his companies had built about 30,000 homes worth $30 billion.
Terry Hui, Vancouver
Developer Terry Hui’s Concord Pacific Developments has undertaken projects across Canada, but he is best known in Vancouver, where he made his mark in redeveloping the former Expo 86 site on False Creek.
The Hong Kong-born Hui, 60, moved to Vancouver in 1985 with degrees in physics and electrical engineering in hand. He has mixed his interest in science into his real estate career, diversifying into green energy and telecommunication concerns. In 2024 he included an EV charging park that can handle 2,000 cars in a Burnaby building complex.
His major projects include the Concord Pacific Place community at False Creek and Toronto’s Concord CityPlace. No estimate of Hui’s wealth is available.
His Wikipedia entry describes him as a keen sailor.
Daniel Argiros, Toronto
Investor Daniel Argiros co-founded the private-equity real estate management firm Conundrum Capital Corp. in 2000 and founded Arch Corp., a private equity investment management firm, in 2017.
Argiros worked as a tax accountant at Deloitte before beginning his real estate investment career in 1988. The Globe and Mail reported in 2021 that at one point his portfolio included 44 Toronto-region apartment blocks, which he subsequently sold for $1.7 billion.
Arch Corp. bills itself as a firm with more than $3 billion under management, investing in private and public real estate markets on behalf of pension funds, family offices and institutional investors.
Argiros is a director on the Royal Ontario Museum board and is a past president of the National Club of Toronto.
Menkes family, Toronto
Menkes Developments has been involved in many high-profile projects in Toronto and environs.
Founded 70 years ago by the late Murray Menkes, the company is now helmed by his three sons, Alan, Steven and Peter, with grandsons Jared, Jason, Adam and Sean also taking on roles in the firm.
Murray Menkes started with single-family homes before adding condominiums, apartments and office properties to the mix. Among the premier developments under its belt are Toronto’s Four Seasons Hotel, Waterfront Innovation Centre and Sugar Wharf condominium complex.
No estimates of the family’s wealth are available.
Andrew Lutfy, Montreal
Although Andrew Lutfy is better known for his retail clothing business Groupe Dynamite, he estimates he spends about half his time managing his real estate portfolio.
The 60-year-old entrepreneur’s holdings include 80 per cent of Royalmount, a luxury shopping mall in Montreal. The first phase of the mall cost close to $1 billion to build. The Financial Post reported that he plans to add thousands of housing units to the Royalmount complex, which aspires to be carbon-neutral in its day to day operation.
The Montreal Gazette estimated Lutfy’s personal wealth at $2.5 billion.
Roger Greenberg, Ottawa
Minto Group, the Ottawa homebuilder established in 1955 by four members of the Greenberg family, has expanded across Canada and Florida into a major residential construction and property management firm. It celebrated its 100,000th home built in 2023.
Second-generation family member Roger Greenberg took over as CEO in 1991, diversifying the firm into the condo market. He stepped down as CEO in 2013, taking on the executive chairmanship of the company. He also serves as chair of the board of trustees of Minto Apartment REIT.
Greenberg is also an ownership partner in the Ottawa Redblacks football team and sits on the board of governors of the Ontario Hockey League and the Canadian Football League.
No reliable estimates of the family’s net worth are available.
Apostolopoulos family, Toronto
Maclean’s pegged the Apostolopoulos family fortune at $9.4 billion in a 2024 story. That wealth was built on commercial properties acquired through two generations of the family.
The late family patriarch, Andreas, who immigrated to Canada from Greece in 1969, started out with an office cleaning company and plastic bag manufacturer before entering the commercial real estate field with his Triple Group of Companies.
Now his sons Steve, Peter and Jim control the company portfolio, which includes office towers in Detroit as well as Durham Live, an entertainment district anchored by a casino under development in Pickering, and TriBro Studios, a movie studio in Toronto.
Ron Kimel, Toronto
Ron Kimel, son of the founder of the retail chain Fabricland, chose a different career path. Today he is director of Westdale Construction Co. Ltd. and Westdale Properties and chair of the development firm Urbanfund Corp.
Kimel acquired 200 townhouses in St. Catharines, Ont., in the 1970s. Now, Westdale Properties includes 42,000 rental units in 30 cities across North America along with retail, commercial and industrial properties. The company is partnering on the Frank Gehry-designed Forma project at King and Duncan streets in Toronto, which will include two residential towers.
Urbanfund Corp. bills itself as a “real estate development and operating company” with assets in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.
Kimel is known for his philanthropy, including $10 million to fund the University of Toronto’s Kimel Family Field House.
No reliable estimates of Kimel’s net worth are available.
Miguel Singer, Toronto
Miguel Singer and his sister Nelly Zagdanski are current-generation members of the Singer family making waves in downtown Toronto real estate.
Their firm, Madison Group, was founded in 1960 with a focus on suburban homebuilding. Its portfolio includes mixed-use highrises, low-rise planned communities, office retail and retirement properties in southern Ontario and New York.
Now, the company touts signature residential and commercial projects with celebrity names attached. The firm unveiled plans last year for four midtown towers on Eglinton Avenue featuring residential, office, retail and public spaces. Rafael Vinoly Architects is attached to the project.
Madison also partnered with Robert de Niro and celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa on Toronto’s Nobu restaurant, hotel and residences.
No estimate is available of the Singer family’s net worth.
The Ghermezian family, Edmonton
With their North American mega-malls, the Ghermezian family pioneered the hybrid retail-entertainment model.
The Iranian-Jewish family, originally in the rug import business, arrived in Edmonton in 1964. By the 1970s, the four sons—Eskandar, Nader, Raphael and Bahman—were active in real estate, founding the Triple Five Corp.
Their West Edmonton Mall opened in 1981 and was billed as the largest shopping mall in the world. In 1992, Triple Five opened the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.
At its zenith, the family was estimated to be worth more than $2 billion, but the drastic downturn created by COVID-19 caught up with them just as they’d embarked on the mega American Dream mall in New Jersey. One estimate put their fortune at $650 million in 2021, but the family disputed that. The New Jersey venture is now picking up steam as the retail recovery continues. The firm is also involved in developing residential and mixed-use projects in several Canadian and U.S. cities, according to its website.
Kathy Kerr is a veteran online and print journalist who, as a newspaper reporter, editor, and now freelance writer has covered the Canadian business and financial scene for more than three decades. Kathy has contributed to Canadian Family Offices for four years and has also written for The Globe and Mail, the Real Estate News Exchange and various commercial business publications. She also comments on Alberta politics for TV, radio and online publications.
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