It is eight weeks since the World Health Organization officially declared the COVID-19 pandemic and countries began to respond in earnest to contain its spread.

At RENX, it has been business “as always” but far from being business “as usual” since the onslaught of the pandemic.

Canadian commercial real estate news has changed dramatically, shifting from what looked like a fairly brisk year of industry activity to being overwhelmingly about the impact of the pandemic on the sector.

Uncertainty about the future put most business transactions on pause and closing sales of all kinds has become a challenge.

In the CRE sector, RENX has continued to report on a steady though diminished number of transactions. We’ve also seen that new opportunities, such as development land acquisition, may be emerging.

At RENX, as is no doubt the case with most businesses, executing on the achievable is a daily activity along with reviewing the strategic options – Plans A, B, C and so on – in the face of weak economic reports.

Delivering CRE news and advertising as never before

In the midst of all the turmoil, RENX has continued with its usual publishing schedule and focus on the grist of daily life in the CRE industry: transactions, developments, financings, market reports, and executive activity.

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, RENX’s subscriber base has continued to grow and website volumes have remained very strong.

Visits and pageviews to RENX.ca both continue to show enormous year-over-year growth.

The three busiest days ever on the RENX website have all occurred during the past three months, with the busiest day ever in February.

The RENX email newsletter open rate has increased by about five per cent since the pandemic started and is now in the 40 to 45 per cent range daily.

On LinkedIn, RENX has 11,800 followers and is gaining 435 new followers every 30 days.  The RENX Twitter account has 11,410 followers.

On May 4, Simon Rideout joined RENX and Sustainable Biz Canada as its National Account Executive bringing fresh ideas and new energy to RENX sales.

RENX has extended its STAY VISIBLE advertising offer for NEW advertisers (available until June 21, 2020) which provides two months advertising free for ad programs that extend from now to Dec. 31, 2020.

Business “as always”

RENX continues to be Canada’s premier online news service for the Canadian CRE industry as we move through all the challenges associated with the pandemic.

It remains a prime advertising choice for businesses targeting CRE executives.