GO Residential Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX:GO.U) may be a newcomer, but it has already outperformed expectations in its first year as a public company. The REIT, which owns a portfolio of luxury residential properties, views New York City as an especially attractive market because of its favorable fundamentals, most notably strong demand and limited supply.
In July 2025, GO Residential raised $500 million from its IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange. “This was the largest-ever Canadian REIT IPO [and the largest IPO of any kind since summer 2022 on the Toronto Stock Exchange],” says Max Kaufman, COO of GO Residential. In January, meanwhile, it received an investment grade credit rating from Morningstar DBRS.
GO Residential expects to announce a dual listing on a U.S. stock exchange sometime in the second half of this year, adds Joshua Gotlib, the REIT’s CEO and chief investment officer.
“While there are lots of conversations around politics here, the New York luxury rental market is one of the strongest in the country,” Gotlib says. “We own some of the best assets in the city, with much higher average rents than other buildings, and we have a financially solid tenant base.”
Kaufman points out that not only is GO Residential a fully integrated owner, operator, and acquirer of luxury multifamily properties, but the internally managed REIT’s founders, Gotlib and Meyer Orbach, chairman of the board of GO Residential, maintain a significant personal stake. “It’s not often you see a management team aligned in this way,” Kaufman says. “If they win, our unitholders win with them.”
Dean Wilkinson, an analyst with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), commented on this shortly after GO Residential’s IPO. “The substantial investment in excess of $300 million (at the IPO price) creates a level of management alignment that is well above average,” he noted.
Orbach and Gotlib have known each other for a decade, after meeting across a negotiating table, Kaufman says. Orbach invested in affordable housing in 14 states and Gotlib invested in the same sector in New York City.
Bullish on New York City Housing
Confidence in New York’s fundamentals has shaped GO Residential’s strategy from the outset.
“Meyer and Josh formed GO Partners [precursor to GO Residential] in 2021 when they saw an opportunity in market rate rentals in New York City during the pandemic,” Kaufman says. “Their first purchase was the American Copper Buildings, one of the premier multi-family assets in North America.”
Six months later, the partners closed on their acquisition of 1,600 units of luxury rentals that were part of real estate developer Sheldon Solow’s estate.
“The first year or two was all about institutionalizing the portfolio,” Kaufman says. “That meant right sizing the structure, putting more efficient processes in place, and, on the revenue side, closing the significant gap to market on the properties we purchased.”
Rather than instantly raising rents, GO Partners took a disciplined approach to closing that gap, balancing that initiative against tenant retention, he says. Today, their rents are still slightly below market rate, Kaufman says, which provides room for growth.
High construction costs in New York City make new development virtually nonexistent, according to CIBC’s Wilkinson, while demand continues to rise.
“The dynamic has caused a structural deficit in the growth of new rental supply that we believe will worsen over time,” he wrote in an analysis in August 2025. “With a projected supply growth rate of less than 1% through 2029, and an expected long-term population growth rate of 10%, the projected trajectory of rental rate increases in GO’s portfolio… is a rarity that sets it apart in the market.”
In 2024 and 2025, GO Partners predicted a significant buying opportunity was coming to New York City based on several factors that had occurred during the previous few years, such as new rent laws in 2019, the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the regional bank crisis in 2023, and higher interest rates, Kaufman says.
“We forecasted that folks would have to sell some of their free market assets in order to cover some losses on the office and affordable housing sides,” he says. “We anticipated that there would be really attractive assets coming available at really attractive valuations.”
The need to position their balance sheet to take advantage of these options led the partners to create GO Residential. “Josh and Meyer always envisioned this as a platform to build something permanent,” Kaufman says.
Canadian Connection
Initially, GO Partners anticipated an IPO of approximately $350 million centered on the current portfolio without the American Copper Buildings.
“That was a little too small for the U.S. stock exchange, but still big by Canadian standards,” Kaufman says. “As we went down the path to go public in Canada, our conviction in the transaction increased. We ended up vending The Copper Buildings in and increasing the size of our raise to $500 million.”
Gotlib added: “At that point, we were big enough for the U.S. but decided to move forward with a TSX-listing. We had built strong relationships with Canadian investors and maintained the flexibility to dual list in the future.”
Along the way, the REIT built relationships with Canadian investors, so they planned to be a dual listing in both Canada and the U.S. stock markets.
Per GO Residential’s IPO prospectus, every dollar went to pay down debt. “After right-sizing the balance sheet, our focus turned entirely to operating our business and hitting our forecast numbers across the board” Kaufman said.
As of May, GO Residential:
- Delivered $43.8 million in net income and comprehensive income
- Achieved 99.0% occupancy with an average rent per suite of $6,876
- Delivered $46.3 million in revenue compared to a forecast of $45.2 million
- Delivered $33.7 million NOI compared to a forecast of $32.8 million, driving an adjusted margin of 72.8% compared to a forecast of 72.6%
- Achieved FFO of $16.5 million, surpassing the forecast by approximately 10.6%
- Achieved a debt-to-gross book value ratio of 50.3%
The anticipated market opportunities in New York City came to fruition during the first half of the year, with GO Residential announcing four new acquisitions in Manhattan and Brooklyn in the first quarter.
“This doubles our building count, increases the number of suites by over 1,000, and will drive mid-single-digit FFO growth and mid-single-digit NAV growth in an effectively leverage neutral manner,” Kaufman says. “We’re expecting to close out these deals during the second quarter of this year.”
Going forward, GO Residential intends to continue its focus on Class A residential market-oriented properties in supply constrained markets.
“We’re careful to choose the submarkets that don’t have 10 other buildings nearby with rental concessions,” Kaufman says. “We’re also looking for buildings that attract quality, creditworthy tenants with higher incomes, and low unemployment risk.”
GO Residential is bullish on neighborhoods such as Tribeca and Hudson Yards that attract tenants with high incomes who want to walk to nearby employment centers.
“For example, the trophy asset at 7 Dey St., which sits near Brookfield Place and other Fortune 500 headquarters, attracts tenants making an average income of nearly $500,000, which not only provides sustainable growth but also protects against volatility,” Kaufman says.
Policies and Predictions
After last year’s election of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, headline news focused on a potential rent freeze and additional taxes, including a “pied-à-terre” tax that was expected to possibly result in people leaving the city.
“Supply is so constrained in this city that anything thrown out so far by the government isn’t likely to have much of an effect on the luxury rental market,” Gotlib says. “The gap between the cost of ownership and renting has grown, and we’re seeing a significant increase in renters by choice, which has always been a big part of the New York City renter pool.”
As Wilkinson points out in his research, New York City is a renter-dominated market, with just 25% of Manhattan residents owning a home compared to a national average of 66%.
“The pied-à-terre tax actually offers an incremental benefit to our portfolio because it encourages people to rent a luxury apartment in one of our buildings rather than buy a second home in the city,” Gotlib says.
The New York luxury rental market is incredibly strong, he says, which not everyone understands if they’re not from the area.
Return to office mandates add to demand for luxury rentals, particularly GO Residential’s buildings near new or improved office buildings.
Most of GO Residential’s acquisitions don’t require improvements, other than One East River Place, which was built in the 1990s and is their oldest asset, Gotlib says. The REIT plans a full cosmetic upgrade to that building over the next two years that will allow rent increases of $20 to $25 per square foot. Gotlib anticipates that will drive $8 million to $10 million of incremental NOI.
“We’re always open to a light value add for our investments, but generally speaking we invest with an eye to luxury housing in luxury locations and a rent that captures the luxury segment of that particular submarket,” Gotlib says.
GO Residential is focused on New York City, particularly because the leadership team shares deep knowledge of the Tri-State area. The supply constrained market there has helped the REIT drive rent growth. However, expanding to other supply-constrained gateway markets may be in their future.
“Our ultimate goal is to maximize unit holder value,” Kaufman says. “If there’s a way to maximize value, we’ll pursue it, which means evaluating the opportunities at each property level and at the market level. If there are locations out there with opportunities, we’ll underwrite them rigorously. We’re not afraid to go after other opportunities in other gateway markets.”