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Bring it Home: Canada's Regulatory Gridlock & Real Estate Recovery with Jon Love of KingSett Capital

In this episode of Tank Talks, host Matt Cohen sits down with Jon Love, founder and executive chair of KingSett Capital, one of Canada’s largest and most experienced private equity real estate platforms. A seasoned investor who has navigated multiple market cycles, Jon is known for his frank, unfiltered takes on Canadian policy, regulation, and capital deployment, and this conversation is no different.

Jon Love

Jon Love

Jon Love background

  • Jon Love is the founder and executive chair of KingSett Capital, one of Canada’s leading private equity real estate platforms.
  • With decades of experience across multiple market cycles, Jon has built a reputation for candid, principle‑driven commentary on Canadian policy, regulation, and investment.
  • He is a former CEO of Oxford Properties and has been a key figure in shaping Canada’s institutional real estate landscape.
  • Beyond investing, Jon is known for mentoring young talent, championing affordable housing, and relentlessly advocating for cutting red tape.

Episode Overview

  • In this episode of Tank Talks, host Matt Cohen sits down with Jon Love, founder and executive chair of KingSett Capital, one of Canada’s largest and most experienced private equity real estate platforms.
  • A seasoned investor who has navigated multiple market cycles, Jon is known for his frank, unfiltered takes on Canadian policy, regulation, and capital deployment, and this conversation is no different.
  • Jon shares his honest assessment of the federal government’s newly announced $25 billion Canada Strong sovereign wealth fund, the push to fast-track major resource projects, and what’s really holding Canada back: not a shortage of capital, but a shortage of permission.
  • He also breaks down where the real estate market stands today across office, retail, industrial, and residential, and why he believes a sharp recovery is coming for those with the balance sheet to wait it out.
  • Whether you’re a developer, investor, policy watcher, or simply trying to understand what’s actually happening in the Canadian economy, Jon Love delivers the kind of straight talk that cuts through the noise.

Key Topics

  1. Canada’s $25 Billion Sovereign Wealth Fund: Progress or Déjà Vu?

    Jon’s honest take on the Canada Strong fund and what’s still missing

    Why the real barrier to investment isn’t capital, it’s permission

    Lessons from the Heritage Fund and what discipline looks like in practice

  2. Resource Fast-Tracking and the Major Projects Office

    The bull and bear case for Tim Hodgson’s promise of 5–10 shovel-ready projects by spring 2027

    What regulatory bottlenecks remain under the Carney government

    Why Shell’s takeover of Arc Resources signals renewed confidence and what still needs to happen next

  3. Institutional Capital Coming Home

    What’s different about this wave of pension fund repatriation

    OMERS, the Maple Eight, and why Canadian real estate returns are among the best in the world

    The case for Canada as a technology superpower and why Jon is more optimistic than most

  4. The Real Estate Cycle: Where We Are and What’s Coming

    Triple-A office as the surprise strongest asset class in the country

    Why for-sale residential is in pain and why a sharp recovery is inevitable

    How banks are behaving with stressed borrowers, and the Oxford story from 1992 that defined a strategy

  5. Creative Repurposing, Affordable Housing, and the HST Rebate

    Office-to-hotel conversions in Toronto and why adaptive reuse is just getting started

    Why streamlining affordable housing approvals matters more than new funding programs

    The HST rebate: right medicine, but the prescription still isn’t written

  6. Media, Trade Wars, and What Jon Would Tell Carney

    Why the Port of Vancouver’s seven-day container turnaround vs. Dubai’s seven hours is a symbol of a much bigger problem

    How media fragmentation and social media have made constructive policy debate nearly impossible

    The one frank piece of advice Jon would give Prime Minister Carney if he had 15 minutes: give permission