Dream Impact Trust (MPCT-UN-T) has unveiled a five-year plan centred around development, including two major Toronto projects, 49 Ontario and Quayside, and updated its strategy to reduce debt and maintain liquidity.

The Toronto-based real estate investment trust provided details on the financing and debt of the two-tower rental housing projects which together will introduce over 2,300 units to the market when finished. Most notably, the trust announced its intent to sell surplus land at the site of 49 Ontario later this year.

Dream Impact also outlined its strategy to sell multifamily assets for liquidity and crystallize value on commercial assets and passive investments.

Its target is to own approximately 2,300 residential rental units by 2030, with the multifamily segment making up approximately 90 per cent of its value. Another goal is to have approximately 72 per cent of its debt made up of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)’s Affordable Construction Loan Program financing and nine per cent by MLI Select CMHC financing.

Summarizing its efforts in 2025 — starting the construction of 49 Ontario, advancing pre-development of Quayside, reducing its land debt and securing long-term corporate debt — Dream Impact’s portfolio manager Michael Cooper said, “We expect to build on this momentum throughout 2026."

Cooper is also the chief responsible officer for Dream group of companies, which is the manager of Dream Impact Trust.

Progress on 49 Ontario 

49 Ontario, the larger of the two Toronto projects, is a 1,226-unit purpose-built rental development. Demolition on the site started in November 2025.

Dream Impact closed government-affiliated financing for the development under a 20-year term. The debt “materially mitigates financing and refinancing risk,” Dream Impact said. The fund cited how refinancing will not be required until 2046 and an expectation for net operating income to increase by approximately 63 per cent over the loan term.

Dream Impact intends to sell excess land on the site of 49 Ontario this year - though it did not disclose the size of the sale property nor its expected value.

On Monday, the trust closed on the $6.5-million sale of a 10 per cent interest in 49 Ontario to co-developer and partner CentreCourt, a deal announced in August. Dream Impact now holds an equity value of $58.5 million in the project and will recover $4.9 million of pre-development costs.

Dream Impact said the development of 49 Ontario benefited from the federal waiver of the HST on apartment projects and the City of Toronto's waiver of development charges under its Rental Housing Supply Program. The government backing helped generate development savings that offset lower rental rates, Cooper said.

The combination of government support, expectation for principal reduction and growth in net operating income has led Dream Impact to conclude there will be a “substantially lower loan-to-value ratio at maturity” for 49 Ontario, helping to facilitate future refinancing.

Looking at the Toronto market as a whole, Dream Impact identified falling immigration numbers and an injection of new condo supply as factors currently reducing demand and increasing supply. However, the fund noted the supply of new multifamily units in the city is projected to “decline substantially over the next few years.”

Cooper anticipates a “more constructive rental rate environment during the development period of our new buildings” because of the approaching end of the current condo development cycle and a return to higher immigration and population growth.

About Quayside, other major Dream developments

Quayside is a 12-acre, multi-phase project being developed by Dream, Great Gulf and Waterfront Toronto. To be built along the Toronto waterfront, Dream Impact plans to develop approximately 1,100 market rental units in a public-private partnership with Waterfront Toronto and the City of Toronto.

Dream Impact expects to own 25 per cent of the development.

Progress is moving as anticipated, Dream Impact said, estimating it is approximately nine months behind the development start of 49 Ontario.

Like 49 Ontario, the development of Quayside is expected to benefit from government aid such as the federal HST waiver and Toronto’s development charge waivers.

Development on two of its other major mixed-use projects Zibi and Brightwater is continuing, Dream Impact said.

Zibi is a 34-acre project straddling the Ottawa River in the neighbouring cities of Ottawa and Gatineau. Currently under development with some of the residential, office and components completed, Zibi is designed to have approximately 5,000 residents, 1.7 million square feet of office space and 430,000 square feet of retail space at full build-out.

Brightwater in Port Credit is planned to have approximately 3,000 residential units and approximately 340,000 square feet of retail and commercial space.

Dream Impact continues to tackle debt

On its land loan exposure for projects that are not under development, Dream Impact said reduced its debt from $237 million to $144 million during 2025. The fund expects to further reduce land loans by an additional $56 million this year, related to its Scarborough Junction, Quayside, Forma West and Lakeshore East projects.

Dream Impact expects land loans to be reduced by over 60 per cent from the beginning of 2025 to the end of 2026.

Despite the “swift and significant negative changes to the housing market,” the actions made in 2025 and the new business plan “provide a road map for a stronger business in the future," Derrick Lau, the CFO of Dream Impact Trust, said in the announcement.