This interview of Adam Gant is part of Exeleon Magazine’s annual issue – The 100 Most Dynamic Leaders. Check out the Full Listing of Exeleon’s 100 Most Dynamic Leaders of 2025.
Persistence, patience, and vision are qualities often reserved for athletes and entrepreneurs alike. For real estate professional Adam Gant, those traits were honed early on while training with Canada’s National Rowing Team. The discipline and endurance that rowing demanded shaped how he would later approach real estate, a field that, much like the sport, requires long-term focus, resilience, and adaptability.
Over the years, Adam has worked across multiple real estate sectors and become a leading voice in shared equity and innovative housing finance models. In this interview with Exeleon Magazine, he discusses the lessons that shaped his journey, the evolving dynamics of the housing market, and his vision for a more inclusive and sustainable future in real estate.
You began your real estate journey in your early twenties while training with Canada’s National Rowing Team. How did that experience influence your mindset as an investor and developer?
Adam Gant: Training with the National Rowing Team taught me a lot about endurance and delayed gratification. In rowing, you spend countless hours training for a race that lasts only minutes, and the difference between winning and losing often comes down to how well you handle discomfort and pressure. That mindset translated directly into real estate. Development cycles are long, sometimes five to ten years from idea to completion. There are setbacks with zoning, financing, or market shifts. My rowing background gave me the discipline to stay focused on the long-term vision even when the short-term challenges felt overwhelming.
You’ve worked across a wide spectrum of real estate sectors — residential, retail, office, industrial, hospitality, land development, and senior care. Which sector do you find the most dynamic right now, and why?
Adam Gant: Residential is by far the most dynamic because it touches on affordability, urbanization, and demographic change all at once. Canada is welcoming record levels of immigration, and household formation is accelerating, but supply hasn’t kept pace. The disparity creates both social challenges and investment opportunities.
I’m also interested in seniors housing as well. Our population is aging quickly, and the current infrastructure isn’t sufficient. There’s a need for housing that balances affordability, accessibility, and cherishes aging generations. That sector is going to expand dramatically over the next two decades.
But the real innovation, in my view, isn’t tied to a single asset class; it’s in financing models. Shared equity is one example. It’s a system where ownership is split between the occupant and an equity partner, making homes more affordable without over-leveraging individuals with debt. I co-wrote A House Shared to explore this idea in narrative form and provide an example of how alternative models could stabilize markets, improve accessibility, and still deliver returns for investors. That’s the conversation I believe will define the next era of real estate.
What common mistakes do you see real estate developers or investors making when it comes to financing projects?
Adam Gant: The most common mistake is assuming that liquidity will always be there. Too many developers structure projects with thin margins and aggressive timelines, leaving no room for delays or cost overruns. When interest rates rise, sales slow, or approvals drag out, the whole project becomes fragile.
Another mistake is over-reliance on conventional debt. Traditional mortgages and construction loans have their place, but they aren’t always the best tools for building resilient portfolios. That’s why I’ve spent years studying global models. Markets in Singapore, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia have experimented with shared equity, cooperative structures, and hybrid financing in ways that North America hasn’t. Those approaches can provide stability when traditional financing is under stress.
How do you balance your professional commitments with your philanthropic initiatives?
Adam Gant: I see them as part of the same mission. My professional work is about building housing systems that function better for people and ideally supplements other initiatives, whether those are focused on affordable housing, shelters, or community development. The two reinforce each other.
For example, if I advise a group on structuring a shared equity fund, I can also support nonprofits that help prepare families for equity sharing options once they are ready. It’s about alignment, not balance. When my business and philanthropic commitments move
in the same direction, they strengthen one another instead of competing for my time.
What advice would you give to young professionals looking to break into real estate investment today?
Adam Gant: First, learn the fundamentals — finance, markets, and construction. You can’t shortcut those. But once you’ve mastered the basics, stay curious about new models. Real estate is shifting all the time. Shared equity, co-living, and impact-driven funds are creating opportunities that didn’t exist when I started.
Don’t think only in terms of a narrow-minded ROI, especially when sustaining occupancy with low turnover is important. Ask yourself: how does this deal hold up over ten years, across cycles? One of the lessons from the credit crisis is that what looks profitable in the short run can collapse if it isn’t sustainable. Build for endurance.
And start small. Your first deal doesn’t need to be groundbreaking. What matters is learning by doing and then scaling gradually. Real estate rewards patience and persistence more than risk-taking.
What excites you most about the future of real estate development and investment? What is your vision going forward?
Adam Gant: What excites me is the growing recognition that we are not done when it comes to housing finance innovation, and there is a whole other world of equity options we can deploy, where the past has usually involved debt innovations. Housing has to function as shelter first but can also provide families with financial equity for the millions of Canadians who need affordable solutions.
My personal vision is to see broader adoption of shared equity and other innovative ownership structures that balance individual affordability with investor returns. They reduce risk for families, provide stable yield for capital, and strengthen communities. That’s the vision I laid out in A House Shared, and it’s something I continue to work on with the groups I advise.
The future of real estate, if done right, will be more inclusive, more resilient, and more sustainable. We can build systems where investors succeed by helping people live better, not by pricing them out. That’s what motivates me every day.
