2026 Real Estate Finance Summit

Portfolio health amid the mortgage renewal wall.

Many Canadian borrowers who secured low-rate mortgages during the pandemic period are renewing into a materially different rate environment. For lenders, the question is not only whether delinquencies rise. It is how renewal pressure affects borrower behaviour, portfolio performance, credit migration, prepayment, household liquidity, and long-term customer relationships.

This session examines how institutions are monitoring portfolio health through the renewal wall. Panelists will discuss early warning indicators, payment shock, amortization pressure, loss mitigation, IFRS 9 considerations, segmentation, renewal strategy, and how lenders can distinguish temporary stress from structural borrower impairment.

The expansion of private credit in real estate finance.

As regulated lenders face capital, underwriting, and risk appetite constraints, private credit is becoming a larger part of the real estate finance ecosystem. This can provide flexibility and liquidity, but it also raises questions about transparency, borrower protection, systemic risk, pricing discipline, and the migration of risk outside the regulated perimeter.

This panel explores the growth of private credit in residential, commercial, construction, bridge, and alternative mortgage finance. Speakers will discuss where private capital is filling gaps, how risk is priced, what institutional investors are looking for, and whether Canada needs a clearer view of the shadow mortgage market.

An underexplained loan in an underserved market.

Older Canadians hold trillions in housing equity. Only a small fraction borrow against it, though many more say they would consider doing so. The obstacle may be less the loan itself than the difficulty of explaining it: borrowers need reassurance about a decision they cannot easily undo, yet lenders have an interest in the answer.

In this fireside chat, the CEO of HomeEquity Bank and EQB’s EVP, Personal Banking consider whether better, more independent guidance could bring reverse mortgages into the mainstream. Can lenders grow the market by helping homeowners decide, including when the right decision is no?

Buyers who may never buy.

For many younger Canadians, the question is no longer when they will buy a home. It is whether they will buy one at all. Affordability pressures, income volatility, housing supply constraints, delayed family formation, student debt, climate anxiety, and changing attitudes toward work and mobility are reshaping the traditional path to ownership.

This session looks beyond affordability alone. The keynote will discuss how Gen Z and younger millennials view home ownership, what lenders need to understand about future demand, and how products, channels, underwriting, savings tools, and public policy may need to evolve for a generation that may not follow the old housing script.

AI, synthetic identity and financial crime in RESL.

AI can fabricate the documents and signals lenders rely on to verify a mortgage application. Manipulated documents, synthetic identities, deepfakes, inflated income claims, property valuation fraud, and coordinated fraud rings are converging with AI tools that can generate convincing borrower profiles and documentation at speed.

This panel explores how lenders are modernizing fraud prevention across the real estate secured lending lifecycle. The discussion will cover fraud for shelter, fraud for profit, income and property valuation fraud, document intelligence, link analysis, consortium data, explainability, and the balance between stronger fraud controls and a frictionless borrower experience.

The human role in an AI-driven mortgage journey.

The mortgage experience is becoming increasingly digital. Borrowers can search, apply, upload documents, receive recommendations, and move through approval workflows with limited human interaction. But mortgages remain emotionally charged, financially significant, and highly contextual decisions.

This session examines where human judgment still matters. Panelists will discuss advice, exception handling, vulnerable borrowers, broker and advisor roles, complaints, explainability, relationship management, and the moments when automation must give way to human accountability.

Institutional real estate credit in a repriced market.

As traditional lenders manage balance-sheet constraints and commercial real estate owners confront refinancing gaps, institutional capital is assuming a larger role across the real estate capital stack. Global credit managers are deploying first-lien mortgages, construction and bridge loans, mezzanine debt and preferred equity across transactions ranging from US$50 million to US$500 million.

This panel brings together senior leaders from major real estate credit firms to examine where institutional capital is moving across office, multifamily, industrial, retail, hospitality and alternative asset classes. The discussion will explore how firms are pricing risk, selecting their position in the capital stack, structuring downside protection and evaluating opportunities created by maturities, recapitalizations, distressed loans and asset repositioning.

Panelists will also consider how the roles of banks, insurers and private credit funds are changing, what distinguishes a financeable transaction in the current market, and where Canada fits within the global competition for commercial real estate capital.

Ecosystems, Embedded Lending, and the Role of the Broker

The mortgage distribution landscape is undergoing one of its most significant transformations in decades. Digital platforms, real estate ecosystems, and embedded lending experiences are reshaping how borrowers discover, compare, and obtain mortgage products. At the same time, lenders are re-evaluating the economics and strategic value of proprietary channels, broker networks, referral partnerships, and platform-based distribution models.

This panel explores how mortgage distribution is evolving and what it means for lenders, brokers, and technology providers. Speakers will discuss the rise of ecosystem-led customer acquisition, the growing influence of digital marketplaces and embedded finance, and whether the traditional broker model remains fit for purpose in an increasingly automated and data-driven market.