Dream Industrial Real Estate Invest Trst Q4 2025 Earnings Report

Dream Industrial Real Estate Invest Trst EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$0.11
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Dream Industrial Real Estate Invest Trst Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $131.66 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Dream Industrial Real Estate Invest Trst Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2025
• Date: 2/17/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 11:00AM ET

Dream Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust is an unincorporated, open-ended real estate investment trust. Its portfolio comprises industrial properties located in key markets across Canada and the U.S. Its objective is to build upon and grow its portfolio and to provide stable and sustainable cash distributions to its unitholders. Geographically the business is organized into Ontario, Quebec, Western Canada, Europe and the USA. Substantial revenue is derived from the Canadian portfolio.

Dream Industrial Real Estate Invest Trst Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Solid 2025 financial results — FFO per unit was CAD 1.05 (up ~5% YoY), average in‑place rents rose ~8%, and Comparative Properties NOI grew ~6% for the year.
• Positive Sentiment: Leasing momentum and occupancy — Management signed over 10 million sq ft of leases (including 1.2M sq ft of development leasing), finished the year with in‑place and committed occupancy at 96.2% and ~70% tenant retention, and saw stronger leasing velocity in H2 2025.
• Positive Sentiment: Major capital recycling and deployment plan — The REIT completed/firmed >CAD 850M of dispositions, closed the first DCI JV tranche (net proceeds ~CAD 375M) and plans to deploy proceeds into buybacks, targeted acquisitions, developments, solar and private partnerships (DRIP suspended; NCIB repurchases ~CAD 32M to date).
• Positive Sentiment: Stronger balance sheet and liquidity — DBRS upgraded to BBB (high) enabling interest savings, all 2025 maturities were addressed, net debt/EBITDA was 7.9x at year‑end and available liquidity exceeds CAD 700M.
• Negative Sentiment: Near‑term headwinds and uncertainty — Tariff‑related disruptions affected about one‑third of early 2025 leasing and elevated sublease/large‑bay supply in some markets (e.g., Quebec) remain challenges; management notes continued geopolitical and trade uncertainty could affect timing of rent recovery.

Presentation

[Operator]

Hello, welcome to the Dream Industrial REIT Fourth Quarter conference Call for Wednesday, February 18, 2026. Please be advised that all participants are currently in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star then zero. During this call, management of Dream Industrial REIT may make statements containing forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Dream Industrial REIT's control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information.

[Operator]

Additional information about these assumptions and risks and uncertainties is contained in Dream Industrial REIT's filings with securities regulators, including its latest annual information form and MD&A. These filings are also available on Dream Industrial REIT's website at www.dreamindustrialreit.ca. Your host for today will be Mr. Alexander Sannikov, CEO of Dream Industrial REIT. Mr. Sannikov, please proceed.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Dream Industrial REIT's year-end 2025 conference call. Here with me today is Gord Wadley, our recently appointed Chief Operating Officer, who we are happy to welcome to the industrial team, and Lenis Quan, our Chief Financial Officer. 2025 was characterized by significant volatility and unprecedented changes to the global trade environment. Despite this volatility, our results once again demonstrated the resilience of our business. In 2025, we delivered FFO per unit of CAD 1.05, a 5% increase year-over-year. Our average in-place rents increased by 8%, driving Comparative Properties NOI growth of approximately 6% for the full year. After a turbulent start of 2025, the leasing environment strengthened towards the second half of the year.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

We have seen a solid uptick in leasing velocity across our key markets, translating into positive absorption and stabilization of asking rents. Across our platform, we signed over 10 million sq ft of leases at 30% spreads during the year, including 1.2 million sq ft of development leasing. We ended the year with in-place and committed occupancy of 96.2% and a healthy tenant retention ratio of approximately 70%. Over the past few years, we have successfully captured meaningful upside embedded within our portfolio. There's still significant mark-to-market opportunity in the next two to three years, especially in our Canadian portfolio. In addition, we expect market rents growth to resume in the second half of 2026 and into 2027, following over two years of muted market rent development.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

During this time, we worked diligently to enhance our business by adding strong ancillary revenue drivers, complementing our core operations and allowing us to continue driving FFO and cash flow growth, irrespective of the amount of upward pressure on market rents. Our solar and our private capital business are the most established within our portfolio of ancillary revenue opportunities. These businesses continue to see healthy growth trajectory, significantly outpacing the growth rates in our core business and are already meaningfully contributing to our FFO and cash flow. Through the execution of these levers, we have significantly grown our free cash flow and meaningfully reduced our payout ratio over the last five years. In addition to deploying the retained cash flow, we are actively recycling capital to enhance our return profile further.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

During the year, we completed or firmed up on over CAD 850 million of dispositions at premium to our IFRS values, including the formation of the DCI joint venture with CPP Investments. The first tranche of the recapitalization of our 3.6 million sq ft portfolio by the DCI JV closed in early February, resulting in estimated net proceeds of CAD 375 million. The deployment opportunities, offering the strongest risk-adjusted returns within our investable universe are all unique to our business and include our intensification program, activation of our land bank, solar, and co-investments in our private partnerships. Beyond these opportunities, we're looking to deploy our capital into selective unit buybacks and accretive acquisitions. Our on-balance sheet acquisition pipeline is robust, with over CAD 350 million of opportunities currently in exclusive negotiations.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

These are mid-bay infill assets in our core existing markets, with going-in cap rates on these assets is just below 6% on average, and there's strong reversion opportunity translating into mark-to-market cap rate in the mid-7% range. As we deploy the proceeds from already completed and firm dispositions, we intend to continue recycling capital out of non-strategic assets into our core strategy, focusing on urban infill, mid-bay assets, and selective new development that benefit from structural demand tailwinds. Looking ahead, while we recognize that the geopolitical uncertainty and trade tensions will continue to persist in 2026, our key growth drivers remain firmly intact. We are encouraged by the operational tailwinds, a strong access to capital attractive deployment opportunities, all underpinned by a solid balance sheet. With now, I will turn it over to Gord to discuss our operational highlights.

[Gord Wadley, COO at Dream Industrial REIT]

That's great. Thank you very much for the introduction, Alex. It's really good to be with you all again today and share firsthand some of the great work our team is doing across the platform. I'm really looking forward to executing on the robust opportunity set within the industrial business. Our portfolio continues to generate very stable and consistent cash flow growth, which is a testament not just to the quality and location of our assets, but also the leasing and operating teams we have in each region that ensure we are achieving our goals. In the fourth quarter, just from a macro perspective, the Canadian industrial leasing market continued to stabilize with 6 million sq ft of net absorption recorded during the quarter. This represents the strongest pace of absorption in the last 12 quarters.

[Gord Wadley, COO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Combine this with a shrinking supply pipeline and a transition to more build-to-suit developments, the outlook for fundamentals has improved across most of our operating regions. Across our specific occupier markets, we continue to observe sustained demand for our assets in core urban locations. Since the beginning of October, we've completed over 2.1 million sq ft of leasing at an average rental spread of 14.3%, bringing year-to-date leasing to a very strong 7.4 million sq ft at an average spread of 19.6%. This directly underscores the embedded mark-to-market opportunities across our portfolio. As Alex pointed out earlier, we're very encouraged by the recent leasing trends across key markets. Starting with the GTA, this market continues to lead the country in terms of absorption and leasing momentum.

[Gord Wadley, COO at Dream Industrial REIT]

We recorded one of the strongest quarters of net absorption in 2025 in the region. This was driven in large part by solid demand across small and mid-bay product, and improving activity in larger format space. I'm quite pleased to share that our team did approximately 2.5 million sq ft of leasing in this market across the platform over the course of 2025 alone, and approximately 610,000 sq ft in Q4, with a rental rate spread of 58%. We're also seeing significant new requirements in the market that have been waiting on the sidelines since the normalization process in 2024. Based on recent market research from major brokerage houses, there's been over 40 million sq ft of active industrial requirements across Canada.

[Gord Wadley, COO at Dream Industrial REIT]

You know, when you look at markets such as Calgary and Vancouver, active requirements significantly outpace current availability in that market and account for 40% of current availability in the GTA. In Quebec, I wanted to touch on that small and mid-bay leasing supported modest occupancy gains in Q4 2025, driven by the lease up of smaller vacancies. While elevated sublease availability and excess large bay inventory continued to weigh on overall market conditions, pushing the overall vacancy rate to just under 6%. Despite these near-term headwinds, demand for very well-located and functional mid-bay space remains quite healthy, especially for on island product, with small to mid-bay availability stabilizing in low- to mid-single-digit range. Good renewal activity, strong tenant relations, and steady absorption has allowed our team to maintain occupancy and capture rental growth where conditions support it.

[Gord Wadley, COO at Dream Industrial REIT]

A great example that I want to draw everyone's attention to of this momentum is our 366,000 sq ft asset in Laval, where we successfully regeared the entire building, occupied by three tenants, to market rents. These renewals were completed at starting rental rates of CAD 13-CAD 14, with average annual escalations of 3%, achieving a spread of over 70% compared to prior rents. Notably, we also regeared a 137,000 sq ft lease within the building, five years sooner and did better than expectations. In Western Canada, leasing conditions remained very strong. During the fourth quarter, we transacted over 800,000 sq ft. Calgary and Edmonton benefited from solid renewal and backfill activity, and leasing spreads since October have averaged the high teens.

[Gord Wadley, COO at Dream Industrial REIT]

At our Balzac 20 development, we completed 20 new leases during the quarter, achieving full lease up at rents in the mid-CAD 10 per sq ft range, with approximately 3% annual steps. This commences in early 2026. We also stabilized our Balzac 50 development through a 245,000 sq ft lease at starting rents of CAD 9.75 per sq ft, with escalations of about 2.5%. These two marquee developments in Calgary are now 100% leased, and expected annual NOI contribution of over CAD 10 million. The strong leasing performance highlights sustained industrial demand for the Calgary region and reinforces our strategy of delivering modern, well-located logistics assets to meet the need of national and global occupiers. In Europe, we're also observing very robust leasing activity.

[Gord Wadley, COO at Dream Industrial REIT]

The leasing market has been somewhat less impacted by tariffs in 2025, and we have continued to see very resilient fundamentals with new demand drivers for industrial space, such as defense and nearshoring, becoming more prominent. Availability has stabilized in the low-mid to single-digit range and is trending downwards, with increasing take-up and declining supply. Our team expect market rent growth across our core markets in the Netherlands and Germany to outpace inflation in the very near term. To date, we've already addressed over 40% of our 2026 expiries, and since the start of 2026, we have signed or advanced negotiations on over 1.3 million sq ft of space, positioning us very well as we move throughout the year. I will now turn it over to my friend, Lenis, to discuss the financial highlights. Thank you.

[Lenis Quan, CFO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thanks, Gord. We are pleased with our 2025 financial performance as our business continues to deliver stable and consistent growth. Despite slower leasing of its existing vacancies amid tariff-related disruptions that affected roughly 1/3 of the early part of 2025, our portfolio delivered solid comp, Comparative Properties NOI growth of 8.4% for the quarter and 5.7% for the year. This strong organic growth allowed us to absorb higher costs of refinancing and also the impact of early refinancing over CAD 500 million of low-cost debt in 2025. We delivered diluted FFO per unit of CAD 0.27 for the fourth quarter, 5.3% higher than the prior year quarter. For the full year, diluted FFO per unit was CAD 1.05, representing a 4.9% increase year-over-year.

[Lenis Quan, CFO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Our net asset value at year-end was CAD 16.60 per unit, reflecting stable investment property values. The slight quarter-over-quarter decrease in NAV primarily reflects transaction costs, largely the incentive fee payable on the gain realized on the sale of the initial assets into the new DCI venture with CPP Investments. During the fourth quarter, DBRS upgraded our credit rating to BBB high with stable trends. Following the upgrade, we secured interest rate savings on our various corporate bank unsecured facilities, which represent approximately CAD 0.005 on FFO per unit this year. We continue to actively pursue financing initiatives to optimize our cost of debt and maintain a strong and flexible balance sheet with ample liquidity. We successfully addressed all of our 2025 debt maturities.

[Lenis Quan, CFO at Dream Industrial REIT]

We repaid the maturing Series A debentures in December by just temporarily drawing on our credit facility and ended 2025 with leverage in our target range and with a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 7.9x. In early February, we repaid the majority of the balance on our credit facility following the closing of the first tranche of asset sales to the DCI venture. Over the next few quarters, we expect to deploy these proceeds on an accretive basis towards a combination of unit buybacks and strategic growth initiatives. In conjunction with this objective, we suspended the DRIP, our distribution reinvestment plan, as of the end of 2025.

[Lenis Quan, CFO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Through last Friday, in 2026, we have repurchased 2.4 million of units at a weighted average price of CAD 13.08, or a total of CAD 32 million under our NCIB program. With growing cash flow generated from the business and current available liquidity of over CAD 700 million after repaying our facility draws, we retain sufficient capital to fund our value add and strategic initiatives, including funding our development pipeline, solar program, and contributing to our private capital partnerships. Our 2025 performance highlights the resilience of our business. The multiple growth drivers we have built position us well to continue delivering on our operational and financial targets. For the full year 2026, we expect to maintain stable average in-place occupancy in the high 94%-low 96% range.

[Lenis Quan, CFO at Dream Industrial REIT]

We expect Comparative Properties NOI growth for the first half to be relatively consistent with the Q4 2025 growth rate, and depending on timing of leasing, we expect 2026 full-year CP NOI growth to be stronger than the full-year 2025. We expect to deploy the proceeds from the sale of the initial DCI portfolio over the course of the next few quarters, more weighted towards Q2 and Q3. As such, average leverage is forecasted to be in the low- to mid-7x debt-to-EBITDA range, so almost one turn lower than at year-end on a run-rate basis as we deploy the proceeds. As a result, we currently expect our Q1 FFO per unit to be slightly lower than that of Q4 2025, with the quarterly run rate accelerating as we deploy the sale proceeds.

[Lenis Quan, CFO at Dream Industrial REIT]

For the full year, our current outlook for FFO per unit is CAD 1.08-CAD 1.10. As we execute on our leasing and capital deployment targets, we will update our outlook. In addition to the above factors, our FFO growth expectation is predicated on current foreign exchange rates and interest rate expectations. I will turn it back to Alex to wrap up.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thank you, Lenis. Over the past five years, our cost of debt has gradually increased by approximately 200 basis points. During this time, we delivered FFO per unit growth of 30%, equating to an annual growth rate of approximately 6%-7%. Going forward, our business remains on a strong growth trajectory, and we expect to continue delivering solid results to our unitholders. We will now open it up for questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. Your first question comes from Kyle Stanley with Desjardins. Your line is open.

[Kyle Stanley, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Desjardins]

Thanks. Morning, everyone. Gord, you gave a really good overview of kind of the market dynamics, and leasing demand looked quite strong in the fourth quarter. I'm wondering, as we've kind of begun the first quarter of this year, have you seen any changes year to date that would either be more positive or somewhat concerning? And maybe where is your pipeline today versus, you know, where it would have been last quarter? I believe last quarter, with reporting, you disclosed roughly 1.7 million of leases under negotiation on both the on-balance sheet and JV portfolio. So just curious how that looks today.

[Gord Wadley, COO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Yeah, it looks good. It looks very consistent. Appreciate the question. It looks very consistent to what we saw last quarter, and the fundamentals are largely in line, going into Q1, so we feel pretty good about the start of the year.

[Kyle Stanley, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Desjardins]

Okay. Thank you for that. Just looking at the Calgary assets, the development assets that have been leased up, I think the disclosure highlights CAD 10 million of NOI on a run rate basis. I'm wondering if you can disclose how much of that CAD 10 million of NOI was baked into the fourth quarter results. I'm just trying to think about, you know, bringing that the ramp up online through 2026.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Very limited was in the fourth quarter. There's been some spacing producing. It is going to gradually build up into 2026, and you'll see the run rate in the second half kicking in.

[Kyle Stanley, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Desjardins]

Okay. Okay, perfect. And then, maybe just a higher level question as it relates to the new defense strategy. Obviously, we just kind of rolled out yesterday and still very early days, but clearly it seems like it should be positive for manufacturing activity. And although, you know, Dream Industrial doesn't necessarily play in the manufacturing space as much, I just wanted to get your high-level thoughts on what this could do for demand going forward.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Yeah. Thanks for this question, Kyle. We, as you say, we're not in manufacturing space. However, because of the assets that we have, which is, you know, infill, mid-bay product, primarily in Canada, you know, these assets are pretty flexible, so they can be used for last mile distribution. They can also be used for light industrial. And we do have some occupiers who are in light industrial and manufacturing operations within our properties. And so, you know, these manufacturing, you know, facilities will benefit from, you know, these defense driven demand drivers. But broadly, industrial sector, we expect will benefit from that.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Primarily, the more closer-in mid-bay product is going to benefit mostly as opposed to kind of big box logistics and fulfillment type centers. So we are encouraged by what we're seeing, and we're starting to see early drivers from that emerging. In addition, I would say that we're seeing a slight uptick in user acquisition activity connected to defense needs in particular.

[Kyle Stanley, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Desjardins]

Okay, interesting. That's it for me. I'll turn it back. Thanks very much.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thank you.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Himanshu Gupta with Scotiabank. Your line is open.

[Himanshu Gupta, Director and Equity Research Analyst at Scotiabank]

Thank you and good morning. So just on the 2026 FFO guidance, does that include full deployment of, you know, net proceeds from the JV by the end of the year and NCIB as well? And the question is just wondering, you know, when we will see the accretion from that, CPP JV in numbers?

[Lenis Quan, CFO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thanks, thanks, Himanshu. Yeah, we do expect to deploy the proceeds over the course of the year. The first tranche closed in February. Second tranche is targeted to close by the second half of the year. So that would help, you know, just with timing of deployment. So we do expect to have it, you know, we're targeting to have it fully deployed by the end of the year. So the, you know, looking at Q4, kind of that run rate will be, you know, higher than what Q1 would be as the proceeds are fully deployed. So, you know, a stronger run rate through the end of the year and into 2027. And I think in terms of types of deployment and buyback activity, I think it is going to be dependent on the opportunities.

[Lenis Quan, CFO at Dream Industrial REIT]

We've stated a target on the buyback program, but I think we want to, you know, just monitor other deployment activities, returns, and where the unit prices, and how the unit prices are acting.

[Himanshu Gupta, Director and Equity Research Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. And, I mean, do you still expect, like, low to mid single digit FFO accretion from this transaction? Looks like more in next year than this year.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thanks for the follow-up, Himanshu. As we communicated, in the original announcement press release, we do expect that the accretion is going to mature, fully materialize when we get the balance sheet fully deployed, which, as Lenis just commented, will happen in 2026. So the accretion will build up through the second half towards the run rate. We still expect accretion to be there, and it is moderately accretive for the full year 2026, as we communicated in December when we announced the transaction. So the thesis remains intact.

[Himanshu Gupta, Director and Equity Research Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. Thank you. And then when you say balance sheet fully deployed, in terms of acquisition activity, fair to say most of the acquisitions will be done in Europe and then the remaining, on the JV in, in Canada?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

We expect that on-balance sheet acquisitions in Canada will be around 30%-40% of the volume for this year. Obviously, our co-investments in private partnerships are going to be mostly in Canada as well.

[Himanshu Gupta, Director and Equity Research Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. Thank you. My last question is, Alex, in your prepared remarks, you mentioned market rent growth to resume in second half of this year, and, you know, then next year as well. Can you elaborate, like, which markets you think can lead the market rent growth recovery here? Do you assume, like, limited new supply in the near term?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

We're already seeing market rent growth in the West. So we expect that that will continue. And you know, certain segments of the market in Calgary and Edmonton will likely outperform others, but broadly, we expect the market rent growth to continue in the West. And when it comes to Toronto and Montreal, we would indeed expect second half just to start seeing rental growth again, primarily in the tighter end of the market, which is small and mid-bay product, leading the way, and then that gradually translating into growth in market rents for larger bay assets, starting perhaps in Toronto, where we are seeing more robust pace of absorption.

[Himanshu Gupta, Director and Equity Research Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. Thank you so much for the color. I'll turn it back. Thank you, guys.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thank you.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Brad Sturges of Raymond James. Your line is open.

[Brad Sturges, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Raymond James]

Hey, good morning. Just to clarify comments there, Lenis, on the same property NOI, I think you said for the first half of the year, you expect NOI growth to be similar to what the Q4 level was. Is that correct? Would there be any guidance for the full year, or maybe I missed that in the opening comments? Thanks.

[Lenis Quan, CFO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thanks, Brad. That's right. For the first half of the year, you know, we're expecting the same property growth to be consistent with fourth quarter. We reported 8.4% for fourth quarter. So it's to be in and around that range. And obviously, as we complete more of the leasing towards the year, we commented that we expect full year growth to be stronger than full year 2025 growth.

[Brad Sturges, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Raymond James]

Okay. That's, that's helpful.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Just to build on that, Brad, I think what we're effectively saying is we are confident that it's going to be stronger than 2025 in 2026. The degree to which it's going to be stronger is going to depend on the timing of leasing. But we think 2025 is an achievable hurdle.

[Brad Sturges, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Raymond James]

I guess for now, we should think about it as, as sort of similar goals for now, and then we'll kind of see on timing as the year progresses.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

We'll update you on timing, yeah.

[Brad Sturges, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Raymond James]

Yeah. Okay. You talked about private partnerships. Obviously, you've had success in Canada. Just any updates on European opportunities at this point? Is this, you know, is there any kind of changes in opportunity there that you might be able to get across the line, this year?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

No change in the outlook, and we are still exploring opportunities in Europe. We did put more emphasis onto the Canadian JV with CPP Investments in the second half of 2025. So that took precedent over any European joint venture formation. Perhaps pushing back the European joint venture by a couple of quarters, but it still is on our radar to explore, and we are advancing dialogue there.

[Brad Sturges, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Raymond James]

Okay. And just in terms of, last question, just on, you know, your development opportunity, I guess more specifically, like expansion and intensification, how does that opportunity shape up for this year? Could you see some more projects get added to the pipeline this year?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thanks for that follow-up. Yes, we do, and we are tracking a number of opportunities, some of them on a Build-to-Suit basis, some of them on a speculative basis, both in Canada and in Europe, and in Canada, that would include the wholly owned portfolio, but also our private ventures. So we are continuing to pursue opportunities to activate our land bank selective banks.

[Brad Sturges, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Raymond James]

Okay. Thank you. I'll turn it back.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Mike Markidis with BMO. Your line is open. Mike, with BMO, perhaps your line is on mute.

[Mike Markidis, Managing Director at BMO Capital Markets]

It was. I apologize. Thank you, operator. Just wanted to lean into the JVs in Canada a little bit, Alex. I mean, I think there are, you've outlined it a little bit in the MD&A and in your comments, but there are differences between the JVs, but maybe you could just walk us through sort of the different strategies within DSI, DCI, and what's on your balance sheet?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thank you for this follow-up, Mike. As we articulated in the announcement press release in December, when the DCI venture was formed, the on-balance sheet strategy in Canada is going to lean into newer quality. You can describe it as generally core plus, mid-bay infill assets, whether we acquire them or build them, that's generally what we are gonna be pursuing more of, for the on-balance sheet strategy. The DSI joint venture is very mature. We continue to be active, and looking at opportunities, both acquisitions and dispositions. With the DCI joint ventures, it's just starting.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

It has generally more of a value add lens to evaluating opportunities, both from a profile of assets, but also from a kind of target underwriting timelines and perhaps the leverage point as well. So, quite different from the DSI joint venture, given its scale, and overall setup. So that's how these ventures fit together. And from our standpoint, without maybe going into too granular specifics, we believe they fit well together, and we can be active across all ventures. And we'll have more capital available to cover opportunities that we weren't covering before.

[Mike Markidis, Managing Director at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. Thanks for that. And then just your comment on DSI being very mature and obviously still looking at acquisitions and dispositions. But from a net square footage or net asset value perspective, do you expect that to grow, or will be the focus be more on growing DCI just because it's earlier stage at this point?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

It is hard to comment specifically. We do have acquisitions identified for the DSI joint venture. We have assets that we just closed on in Q1, and we have another asset in due diligence right now. But equally, we will look at recycling opportunities as we have in the past. It's really difficult to comment on the net growth and or net contraction. We will pursue both. And we'll aim to achieve the best total return outcome for the venture through this capital recycling activity.

[Mike Markidis, Managing Director at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. And, you know, globally, I guess Canada is a pretty small place. And you now got three different strategies running in Canada. Is there room for any more at this juncture, or do you think you're pretty much set up from a private capital perspective on the Canadian assets or the Canadian landscape?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

We feel like we reasonably set up. We don't have core segment of the market covered right now. So there could be room for that, but we're not actively pursuing that at the moment.

[Mike Markidis, Managing Director at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. I guess last one or maybe two last ones really quickly. Just, is there, I mean, obviously things can change, and an asset could become more of a core value add versus what you deem as being core plus today. But is there any more, ceding or transfer of assets from the wholly owned into either of the JVs contemplated in the near term?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Nothing is currently contemplated.

[Mike Markidis, Managing Director at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. Thank you. Last one for me, just, I know you guys have a core fund in the U.S. Just, it's been relatively inactive. If you give us some updated thoughts on the landscape down there and if there'd be potential to raise capital for a U.S. strategy over the next year or two? Thank you.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

We are seeing better opportunities in the U.S. now than we were, let's say, two years ago. So, that is both on the acquisition side and on the capital raising side. So, we are spending more time there, and hopefully we'll see more growth for that vehicle. Or, if not, then we'll perhaps start exploring other opportunities, more likely in private capital partnership set up to grow the U.S. business. We are generally encouraged by, well, the trends we're seeing for the U.S. market and for that vehicle, although it is early days.

[Mike Markidis, Managing Director at BMO Capital Markets]

Thank you.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Sam Damiani with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

[Sam Damiani, Equity Research Analyst at TD Cowen]

Thank you. Thank you, everyone, and good morning. Alex, just on your comment for market rent growth sort of to resume in the latter half of this year into next year, what do you need to see, you know, from a market sort of, data point perspective to, I guess, give you more confidence or be more certain that market rents, you know, growth is gonna resume under that timeline?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thanks for the follow-up, Sam. We expect to, well, that we will need to see consistent pace of absorption, consistent trends, either stable to downward trends on the availability rates, and that will then lead to greater confidence by the landlord community to push for stronger rents. And, you know, there are some less significant metrics and factors such as sublease availability that will contribute to that. We think that it's not going to be broad base rental growth to start. It's going to affect certain subsegments of the market first.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

What we're seeing, for example, if you look into statistics for the GTA, is that there's quite significant difference between vacancy rates for small assets versus large assets, as a proxy for small bay versus large bay. And so, with the smaller assets showing tighter vacancy rates and availability rates. So, we will likely see or we expect to see stronger rental growth for that segment of the market sooner than for larger bay. And, it is going to be, you know, market specific, not just segment specific. As we commented before, we expect to see stronger, perhaps rental growth in the West, and maybe sooner than we would in the GTA and the GMA.

[Sam Damiani, Equity Research Analyst at TD Cowen]

Okay. That's helpful. And, between, you know, th DSI, the DCIs appreciate the new acronyms there), and the balance sheet strategy, I mean, which of those sort of three buckets would you expect to see the most acquisition activity in 2026?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Well, for the on-balance sheet program, we expect to deploy the capital that we have, whether it's in the unit buybacks or the acquisition. So we expect that is going to be all deployed in 2026. When it comes to private ventures, it is difficult to comment. We will, these are early days for the DCI JV. We don't want to comment on behalf of our partners indirectly, so we'll report on our progress, including the pipeline that we are pursuing for DCI venture as we make progress.

[Sam Damiani, Equity Research Analyst at TD Cowen]

Appreciate that. Well, last one from me, and I apologize if this might have been asked, but we're working on a European JV. Is that still in the works? Have you progressed on that sort of path, since November, December?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

So we commented earlier, Sam, you may have missed it, that yes, it's still something that we are pursuing. We did put more emphasis on the DCI JV in the second half of 2025. We didn't want to pursue kind of two joint ventures at the same time. So it did push out the European JV formation by maybe a couple of quarters, but it still is something that we are exploring.

[Sam Damiani, Equity Research Analyst at TD Cowen]

Okay, great. Look forward to hearing about that, and I'll turn it back. Thank you.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Matt Kornack with National Bank. Your line is open.

[Matt Kornack, Real Estate Equity Research Analyst at National Bank Financial]

Hey, guys. It was evident with the results that you sold some vacancy, but also some mark-to-market potential. Obviously, the cap rate was quite low on what you achieved. But can you give us a sense of the, A, whether the residual portfolio that you wholly own should operate at higher occupancy? And B, just the ability to get kind of cap rates more in line with your IFRS cap rate in terms of deploying some of that capital?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Yeah, thanks, Matt. So the market opportunity in the DCI initial portfolio was quantified in the announcement press release, and if you refer to that, you'll see that the mark-to-market opportunity as of September thirtieth in the DCI initial portfolio and the on-balance sheet wholly owned portfolio was pretty close. Too, as we approached year-end, the mark-to-market opportunity for the wholly owned portfolio did decline a little bit, just as a function of NOI growth and in-place rental growth, as opposed to kind of changing the balance dramatically. When it comes to the occupancy outlook, as Lenis commented, we think that mid-90% range for our portfolio, let's call it 94%-96% range, is the right run rate for it.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

For 2026, we obviously are aiming higher, but as we've consistently highlighted, for a multi-tenant portfolio like ours, high nineties, 96%-97% range is relatively full. So, we are unlikely to exceed that for a prolonged period of time.

[Matt Kornack, Real Estate Equity Research Analyst at National Bank Financial]

Makes sense. And then as we think about, and again, we've all asked about this market rent growth inflection, but is there kind of a magic number on occupancy before tenants start to get a little antsy and want to pay up for rent or make decisions to move into space that would maybe precipitate that change in market rent?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Our observation is that every market is different in that regard. So there are markets where rents grow at 6%-7% vacancy, and there are markets where rents are growing at 3% vacancy. So it is highly market specific, and increasingly, a subsector specific. So, what we,

[Matt Kornack, Real Estate Equity Research Analyst at National Bank Financial]

Sure

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Generally expect we need to see is just consistent pace of absorption and consistent development of availability rates, flat to down.

[Matt Kornack, Real Estate Equity Research Analyst at National Bank Financial]

Okay. Just look at your projects in planning. I think to get to the 6%-7% estimated unlevered yield, it looks like you need kind of in the CAD 18 rent level. Obviously, different markets, so maybe it's achievable in some and not others. But can you give us a sense, is that still kind of the gravitational pull higher in terms of market rents, but it's more expensive to deliver this type of space than what you're currently getting for space in the market?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Yeah, a lot of our products, projects and planning are in Brampton, or they weighted towards Brampton, by by cost to complete. And, rents for new product in Brampton are in that high teens range, and that is pulling the average a little bit.

[Matt Kornack, Real Estate Equity Research Analyst at National Bank Financial]

Okay. Makes sense. Thanks, appreciate. Sorry. Thanks.

[Operator]

Once,

[Matt Kornack, Real Estate Equity Research Analyst at National Bank Financial]

Appreciate the call.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thank you, Matt.

[Operator]

Once again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. Your next question comes from Pammi Bir with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.

[Pammi Bir, Managing Director of Real Estate & REITs at RBC Capital Markets]

Thanks. Good morning. Not sure if you can quantify this, but with the 2026 same property NOI guidance, does the sale of the assets to, you know, the DCI JV, help or detract from, you know, that outlook that you provided? I think, you know, I think you're greater than 2025.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Without commenting specifically on the DCI JV, it is probably aiding the numbers a little bit in the first half, and relatively neutral in the second half. Maybe DCI JV could see higher growth into 2027 as some of the vacancies get leased up.

[Pammi Bir, Managing Director of Real Estate & REITs at RBC Capital Markets]

Okay, got it. Then just on the Lenis, the again, coming back to the guidance on same property NOI. Just putting all the comments together and the occupancy numbers that you quoted, is it fair to say that at this point, the way you see it, is that the bulk of the growth in 2026 is going to be from higher rents, as opposed to, occupancy gains?

[Lenis Quan, CFO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Yeah, there'll be some slight from occupancy gains, but I mean, obviously, it's going to be higher rents. There's the escalator, you know, the base escalators in Canada, indexation in Europe. But I mean, certainly the trend over the last few years has been on the capturing the higher, the higher rents as we've rolled over leases, and that'll continue. I think we include some disclosures as to kind of over the next few years, the spreads of, you know, where our in-place rents are by market versus the average market rents for the region. So there's still quite a bit of upside to capture.

[Pammi Bir, Managing Director of Real Estate & REITs at RBC Capital Markets]

Okay. Got it. And then just maybe last one, sticking with the lease maturities and tenants. Any on your watchlist at the moment, and any large known vacancies coming back to you in the next few quarters or that you're aware for this year?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

We have a couple of vacancies coming back to us. There's one unit in Spain that is coming back to us in the first quarter that we expect to retenant at higher rents after demising that unit. That's about 200,000 sq ft. There's a couple of idiosyncratic units that are on known vacates, but then there's you know vacant units, currently vacant units in the pipeline. So overall, as Lenis said, that occupancy and run rate plus minus at the range where we are at today for 2026 on average is a good modeling level.

[Pammi Bir, Managing Director of Real Estate & REITs at RBC Capital Markets]

Okay, great. Thanks very much.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

And just going,

[Pammi Bir, Managing Director of Real Estate & REITs at RBC Capital Markets]

Okay.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Just coming, following up on your CP NOI question, Pammi. As you know, over the last year or two, while, you know, occupancy wasn't contributing to the CP NOI growth, it was actually taking away a little bit as, you know, occupancy was declining slightly. So as we expect that the occupancy is going to stabilize, in-place occupancy is going to stabilize at today's level, then it's going to be less of a negative factor to the overall CP NOI equation.

[Pammi Bir, Managing Director of Real Estate & REITs at RBC Capital Markets]

Right. Got it. Okay. Thanks, Alex.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Tal Woolley, with CIBC. Your line is open.

[Tal Woolley, Executive Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC Capital Markets]

Hi, good morning. Lenis, in the outlook, for this year, I think, you know, just looking at your numbers, you did about CAD 11 million in management fees in 2025. I'm just wondering the timing of, the JV closings and the expected ramp-up of its asset base. You know, if we're looking at, you know, incremental management fees on the order of, like, CAD 3 million-CAD 4 million for 2026, and then growing thereafter?

[Lenis Quan, CFO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Yeah, I think that would be, you know, it seems like a reasonable estimate. Obviously, the new venture is going to close in two tranches, so it'll take a little bit of time for that new component to kick in throughout the year. But certainly by the second half of the year, that will be in there. A lot of the margin is also dependent on leasing. There's a leasing component as well, you know, there's a high margin on that as well, so that's a little bit lumpier, but, you know, obviously something that we focus on as well.

[Tal Woolley, Executive Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC Capital Markets]

Okay, and just, if I'm modeling that this was just an exit Cap Rate in around 6%, I'm not gonna get too much in trouble if I use that?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

For what purpose are you modeling exit cap rates?

[Tal Woolley, Executive Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC Capital Markets]

Sorry, for the portfolio disposition. For the CAD 805 million.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Oh, we would suggest that you refer to the announcement press release, where we quantified the in-place rents. The disclosure we provided in the announcement press release will also allow you to calculate roughly the market rents for the portfolio, and then that would be a more accurate way of modeling the NOI impact.

[Tal Woolley, Executive Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC Capital Markets]

Okay-doke. And then I just, you know, I apologize if I missed this earlier, but just, with respect to the potential defense opportunity there is in the industrial space here in Canada, is this something like you're not especially interested in, just given that you guys are, you know, tend to focus more here in the country on small mid-bay product versus larger stuff? You know, what sort of strategy are you trying to develop to address the potential demand there?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thanks, Tal. No, we, we are very interested in it. And we actually think that our product is, is going to be a beneficiary of the additional defense requirements and activity relating to defense industries because of the flexible nature of our real estate. So occupiers for this kind of product tend to look for closer in infill assets with strong power connectivity to public transit, and that's exactly the type of assets that we are targeting to own and own, own already. And so we, we are very much focusing on the defense opportunity and how it can affect our portfolio.

[Tal Woolley, Executive Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC Capital Markets]

Do you have an estimate of how much square footage you have occupied by defense-related tenants right now, whether it's contractors, the government itself?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

We are, we do. We haven't disclosed that yet, but we'll probably provide more color over time. It is meaningful across our managed portfolio. We have a number of users that are already in defense sector. And we have some light industrial, some manufacturing. We have buildings with strong power connections, connectivity, and that drives again demand from light industrial-type occupiers. So this is something that we are going to quantify more as we observe kind of how the defense requirements develop.

[Tal Woolley, Executive Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC Capital Markets]

Okay. Then, I think in mid-December, you were sort of talking about how you were in due diligence, in late-stage negotiations on roughly CAD 600 million of product. I'm just wondering if you can talk about, you know, the progress made there and where and what type of assets, so where are you finding these assets right now?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

So,

[Tal Woolley, Executive Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC Capital Markets]

Any quantification of, like, what the sellers, like, who's selling this stuff right now?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Yeah. So we commented in our prepared remarks that we have over CAD 350 million of assets in exclusive negotiations. The going-in cap rate we are currently underwriting these assets to is just under 6%, with mark-to-market cap rates in the mid-7% range. And these are, you know, mid-bay assets in our target market. So this is the type of product that you will be very familiar with as you look at what we've been acquiring over the last few years.

[Tal Woolley, Executive Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC Capital Markets]

No large portfolios out there at all?

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Like, we are monitoring a number of portfolio situations across our footprint.

[Tal Woolley, Executive Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC Capital Markets]

Okay, great. Thanks very much.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thank you.

[Operator]

This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Sannikov for any closing remarks.

[Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT]

Thank you for your support and interest in Dream Industrial REIT. We look forward to reporting on our progress next quarter. Goodbye.

[Operator]

This brings to close today's conference call. You may now disconnect. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.

Participants

Analysts

• Alexander Sannikov, President and CEO at Dream Industrial REIT
• Brad Sturges, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Raymond James
• Gord Wadley, COO at Dream Industrial REIT
• Himanshu Gupta, Director and Equity Research Analyst at Scotiabank
• Kyle Stanley, Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst at Desjardins
• Lenis Quan, CFO at Dream Industrial REIT
• Matt Kornack, Real Estate Equity Research Analyst at National Bank Financial
• Mike Markidis, Managing Director at BMO Capital Markets
• Pammi Bir, Managing Director of Real Estate & REITs at RBC Capital Markets
• Sam Damiani, Equity Research Analyst at TD Cowen
• Tal Woolley, Executive Director of Institutional Equity Research at CIBC Capital Markets