Mario Lefebvre returned to the commercial real estate sector this past June when he was appointed Chief Economist for Canada at CoStar Group. Mario had previously worked in commercial real estate, first as President and Chief Executive Officer of the...
Mario Lefebvre returned to the commercial real estate sector this past June when he was appointed Chief Economist for Canada at CoStar Group. Mario had previously worked in commercial real estate, first as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Urban Development Institute of Québec in 2014 and 2015, and then as Vice-President, Research, at Ivanhoé Cambridge from 2016 to 2020.
Over the course of his career, Mr. Lefebvre completed two stints at the Bank of Canada. He began his career there in 1991 and worked in the Research Department and the International Department until 1997. He returned to the Bank of Canada from 2020 to 2024, this time as Regional Director at the Bank’s Québec Office.
Mario Lefebvre also spent 16 years at The Conference Board of Canada, from 1998 to 2013. He first worked on projects with the ministries of finance of Tunisia, Morocco, and Ukraine before becoming Director of the Conference Board’s Centre for Municipal Studies from 2002 to 2013. More recently, Mario Lefebvre was an Associate Consultant with the Québec-based firm Aviseo Conseil.
Mr. Lefebvre holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from the Université de Montréal. He is co-author of the book Power Play: The Business Economics of Pro Sports, published in March 2014. He is also co-author of the book Maximiser le potentiel économique du Québec: 13 réflexions, published in May 2016. Finally, Mr. Lefebvre has been a lecturer at the Université de Sherbrooke since 2023.
The Bank of Canada's policy interest rate has stood at 2.25% for 10 months since being set on Oct. 29, 2025. At this level, the policy rate is considered somewhat stimulative, as the neutral interest ...
Canada’s multifamily sector is continuing to diverge into two very distinct narratives. The vacancy rate for the most affordable units remains very low at just 3%, while the vacancy rate for ...
Canada’s office sector is telling a story quite opposite to that of multifamily. While high-end apartments continue to suffer from elevated vacancy, higher-end office assets outperform, and this has ...
Canada’s industrial property sector looks to be improving after facing its fair share of issues in recent years, with a significant increase in construction, combined with slowing occupancy, raising ...
Canada’s housing affordability debate has long centred on one prescription: build more residences. But recent experience in several major markets suggests that adding new supply alone may not be ...
So apparently, the Canadian economy is in a technical recession, at least, according to Statistics Canada. And it might well be, based on the strict definition of two consecutive quarters of economic ...