A nd quality care to our residents, which we believe will generate high resident satisfaction rates and resident referrals. This, in turn, will drive high occupancies and strong profitability. Such resident experiences can only be delivered by highly engaged employees who are committed to our vision of making people's lives better. That is why I am grateful to the leaders in our residences for the great work they have done promoting a positive, inclusive, and rewarding work environment. Their success was evidenced this year by our employee engagement score reaching 57% highly engaged. Remember, in our survey, we only count top box responses on a five-point scale, and the score comprises of the average responses to 25 core engagement statements. The combined score of highly engaged and engaged employees, those who marked boxes 4 and 5 in our survey, was 86%.
Our 2024 score of 57% represents a 3 percentage points increase from 2023, and remarkably, it is 2 percentage points higher than our 2025 aspirational target of 55%. It is wonderful to see the fruits of our team's labor in so many aspects of our operations. I will now turn the call to Karen to provide some more color on our ongoing initiatives.
Thanks, Vlad. Moving on to slide four. In Q2 2024, our marketing strategies led to an increase in personalized tours for marketing sources of 22% compared to Q2 2023, and an overall increase of 6% quarter over quarter. Leasing activity continued to be strong, with year-to-date ahead of 2023 and a steady increase in closing ratios. We hosted two open house events in Q2, one in April, and for the first time ever, another in June, both of which helped us to drive new leads. Our marketing strategies now include Facebook Ads, and we have also improved the volume of Google Ad conversions and continue keyword optimization, which resulted in an increase to the click-through rate and a decrease in the cost per click.
In Q2, we introduced a new, more comprehensive approach to sales training, designed to set up our new retirement living consultants for success from their first day through month 12. We also held sales training for all of our RLCs in Q2 and redesigned and improved our competitive analysis process. We are also pilot testing an online post-tour survey for prospects to complete after they have visited our homes. As occupancy continues to recover, we are determining property-specific pricing strategies, which include faster-growing market rates and/or eliminating recurring discounts for communities with high occupancies, targeting specific suites for incentives to accelerate lease-up, or in select cases, continuing with broader incentives depending on occupancy levels and competitors' rates. Turning to slide 5, we reduced our staffing agency costs by 60% in Q2, 2024, compared to Q2, 2023, through focused recruitment and retention activities.
This agency spend continues to be below pre-pandemic levels. We have also fully redesigned our resident manager onboarding program, which is designed to reduce turnover and improve performance of these key leaders in our residences. Although always a difficult decision to close a property, I'm pleased to say that we have found alternative accommodation for all 186 residents at Chartwell Heritage Glen, and we expect to have all residents relocated by mid-August. Finally, the operations team has been busy integrating the 5 new homes that we recently purchased in Sherbrooke, Terrebonne, Saint-Jérôme, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and the Outaouais region in Quebec. Being agile certainly mattered in this case, as we only had 30 days to close this transaction and transition these residences into our key systems. By all accounts, including feedback from the teams at these 5 homes, this transition was a success.
We are also excited to be welcoming five more properties to the Chartwell family later this year with our new partners, Groupe Champlain. I will now turn it over to Jeff to take you through our financial results.
Thank you, Karen. As shown on slide 6, in Q2 2024, net loss was CAD 2.8 million, compared to a CAD 7.5 million loss in Q2 2023, primarily due to higher resident revenue, lower G&A expenses, and higher net income from joint ventures. Partially offset by higher direct property operating expense, absence of income from discontinued operations due to the completed LTC transactions, deferred tax expense in Q2 2024, as compared to a deferred tax benefit in Q2 2023, net loss on asset sales as compared to net gain in Q2 2023, higher finance costs, and higher depreciation of property, plant, and equipment.
FFO from continuing operations increased 72.6%, and total FFO increased 45.3% in Q2 2024 compared to Q2 2023, from strong operating results in our core property portfolio. FFO growth also benefited from CAD 4.2 million of lower G&A expenses, primarily due to the CFO transition costs that were incurred in 2023, lower compensation costs as we continue to execute on our plan to achieve efficiency improvements, partially offset by higher unit-based compensation costs due to the increase in value of our trust units. In Q2 2024, our same property occupancy increased 660 basis points to 87.2%, and our same property adjusted NOI increased by CAD 10.4 million, or 20.6%. Slide 7 summarizes our same property operating results for each platform.
All of our platforms posted occupancy gains in Q2 2024 compared to Q2 2023, which positively impacted our results. Our Western Canada platform, same property adjusted NOI, increased CAD 1.9 million or 11.4%. Our Ontario platform, same property adjusted NOI, increased CAD 6 million or 21.6%, and our Quebec platform, same property adjusted NOI, increased CAD 2.5 million or 43.3%. Turning to slide 8. At August 8, 2024, liquidity amounted to approximately CAD 341.9 million, which included CAD 41.9 million of cash and cash equivalents, and CAD 300 million of borrowing capacity on our credit facilities. For the remainder of 2024, we have CAD 152.6 million of mortgage debt maturing at the weighted average interest rate of 6.58%.
We expect to renew or refinance these loans during the year. At August eighth, 2024, 10-year CMHC insured mortgage rates are estimated at approximately 4.1%, and 5-year conventional mortgage financing is available at approximately 5.0%. Moving to slide 9. With the continuing strong prospect traffic and leasing activity, we expect occupancy to continue to grow in 2024. We now forecast to achieve 88.7% same property occupancy by September of this year. We have been using targeted incentives in certain markets to support this rapid occupancy growth. As more residences achieve higher occupancy rates, we expect to gradually reduce the use of these incentives. We believe that improving occupancies, combined with lower new supply coming to market, will support higher than historical market rate increases over the next several years.
We expect these dynamics will result in the growth of our adjusted operating margins from the current levels. I will now turn the call to Jonathan to discuss our recent acquisitions and portfolio optimization activities.
Thank you, Jeff. Turning to slide 10. Over the past couple of months, we announced the acquisition of several newer, high-quality residences in the province of Quebec. On July 22, 2024, we closed on the acquisition of a portfolio of five modern residences, totaling 1,428 suites in the Greater Montreal Area, Gatineau, and Sherbrooke, for a purchase price of CAD 297 million. We are working towards closing the acquisition of a 50% interest in a portfolio of another five beautiful residences, totaling 1,805 suites in Quebec City and Shawinigan, and look forward to a successful relationship with our new partner on these assets. Further, we've acquired an 85% interest in three state-of-the-art residences, totaling a further 1,053 suites in Montreal and Quebec from our development partner, EMD- Batimo.
On slide 11, you can see more pictures of these residences. All of these newer, high-quality assets are located in strong markets and are complementary to our existing portfolio, which allows for efficient management, lower incremental overhead costs, and smooth transitions into our management platform. We acquired these high-quality assets at attractive pricing, significantly below replacement cost. Occupancy at most of the acquired properties is at stabilized levels, averaging 95%, with 3 properties in lease-up, supported by NOI guarantees as part of the structured acquisitions. We expect higher market rate growth out of these assets than our same store portfolio over the medium term, which will generate strong investment returns. These acquisitions, totaling over CAD 750 million at share and over CAD 1 billion of assets taken on under management, represent Chartwell's strategic objective to grow in our markets with newer quality assets.
This is shaping out to be a record year of investments for Chartwell. We're not done with a number of exciting strategic acquisitions being evaluated and at various stages of negotiation. We want to take this moment to express our gratitude to our investors and our investment banking syndicate members for their strong support in our recent equity offering of CAD 345 million to finance these important transactions. We appreciate the strong investor demand for this offering and are glad to see our investors being rewarded with a meaningful appreciation in our trust unit trading prices post-transaction. I'll turn the call back to Vlad to wrap up.
Thank you, Jonathan. Moving to slide 12. We believe we're now at the front end of what is going to be a multi-year of growth in retirement living in Canada. Demand for our services should continue to grow for decades, driven by the senior population growth and lack of long-term care accommodations.
With persistently high costs, new construction has been virtually nonexistent, which, combined with the obsolescence of some of the existing inventory, is creating shortages of new suites. These dynamics are likely to result in growing occupancies, market rates, and profitability of the existing operators. As one of the largest participant in the senior living sector, Chartwell stands to benefit from them. As shown on slide 13, we're not just waiting for the rising tides to lift all boats. In addition to delivering on our 2025 aspirational targets in resident satisfaction, employee engagement, and occupancy, we are focused on transitioning our management operations into an agile and scalable management platform. This will be achieved by further empowering the teams in our residences to take charge of developing and executing property-specific strategies and adapting to changing market conditions, while delivering exceptional resident experiences.
Such empowerment will be aided by enhanced training, coaching, and targeted support delivered by our corporate teams, as well as more robust performance-based monetary incentives. We believe with such agile and scalable platform, we will be better positioned to innovate, make decisions, and take actions faster, generate management cost efficiencies, and ultimately outperform. We will also continue to focus on optimizing our property portfolio to make it more efficient and resilient to future competition. We're doing this through acquiring newer properties in strong locations, which generate higher rental rate and operating margin growth and require lower capital investments. We will also continue our program of disciplined dispositions of older, less efficient properties, which often require a disproportionate amount of management time and higher capital investments. And we continue focusing on asset management, repositioning properties to be more successful in their markets.
These repositioning projects so far have taken many forms, from changing service offering to cater to specific ethnic communities, to investing capital to upscale some of our residences, to offering additional care services, including government-funded care, or alternatively, moving towards more independent living options, all driven by local market demand and positioning of each residence in their respective markets. These are exciting times to be in the retirement living sector in Canada, and even more so, to be the part of the dynamic, customer-focused, and evolving Chartwell. I will now close our prepared remarks with a story from one of our residences, as pictured on slide 14. Recently, we celebrated Canadian Multicultural Day across our residences, with Chartwell Gibson hosting a particularly vibrant cultural appreciation day. The event featured captivating performances, traditional attire, and a diverse array of cuisine from around the world.
Residents, staff, and local community members came together to dance, dine, and celebrate the many cultures that enrich their residents. Vida Gavia, General Manager of Chartwell Gibson, along with her dedicated team, has been organizing similar events for several years, aiming to create an environment where everyone feels welcome and respected. As Vida observed: "Understanding our differences and similarities helps unite us and educate us," a sentiment that resonates deeply within our communities. By organizing and participating in these events, we reinforce our ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion values central to Chartwell's culture and success. These efforts help foster a sense of belonging and connection among our residents, allowing them to engage with diverse cultures and perspectives. This enriches their daily experiences and strengthens the overall well-being, supporting our mission of making people's lives better. Thank you for your attention this morning.
We would be pleased to answer your questions.
Thank you. We will now take questions from the telephone lines. If you have a question, please press star one on your devices' keypad. You may cancel your question at any time by pressing star two. Please press star one at this time if you have a question. There will be a brief pause while participants register for questions. Thank you for your patience. We will take the first question from Jonathan Kelcher, TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Thanks, good morning. First question, just digging into the, the same property NOI growth by region a little bit. Quebec, really stands out at, at 43%. Can you maybe give a little bit of color on what drove that versus the, the other two regions?
Sure. Yeah. Good morning, Jonathan. Yeah, and we did see, did see strong growth in all, all platforms this quarter. You know, one of the things that did lower the growth in the Western Canada platform was we did have a one-time staffing cost reversal in Q2 of 2023 at CAD 1.7 million. That would have impacted that year-over-year comparison.
In Quebec, in particular, they have very strong occupancy growth, and I think they've done a very good job of managing labor costs and reducing the reliance of agency costs. Quebec, in particular, has been... It will continue to be a problematic region, but they've done an amazing job reducing the reliance on these agency costs, so the labor cost helped with this outsized NOI growth.
Okay. That's helpful. And then as just on your, your margin overall, and I, I think I don't think I heard it, but I think 38% is still sort of your target for 2024 on a, on a same property basis. But how, like, going forward, how should we think about that as occupancy gets closer to 95%?
Sure. Yeah, we do believe that we still will be able to hit that 38%. We delivered 37.9% in the quarter. We expect that continue to grow as our occupancy grows above current levels.
And we also believe that there will be potential. As the properties achieve higher occupancy rates, there will be potential to increase market rates at a higher pace because the supply and demand dynamics are such, given low construction starts and continued growth in demand, that would allow all existing operators to do that, and so the margins should be positively impacted by that.
Okay. So would it be unreasonable to think low 40s if you're close to 95%?
Yep, that's reasonable.
Okay, thanks. I'll, I'll turn it back.
Thank you. The next question is from Fred Blondeau, from Green Street. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning. Three questions from me. First, maybe for Jeff. In terms of the balance sheet, I was wondering where do you see the Debt-to-EBITDA ratio heading at the end of 2024?
It probably will move up a bit from current levels, 'cause we did have the equity raise that brought it down ahead of closing on some of the acquisitions planned for the year. So we closed at 8.5x at the end of Q2, but that will increase a bit as we get to the end of the year.
It also depending on the level of acquisition activity, as Jonathan pointed out, we're looking at several interesting opportunities. They're one-off, and we feel that we have balance sheet room to do these acquisitions without any external financing at this point in time. So, if we're successful negotiating and getting those deals, they will also move Debt-to-EBITDA a little higher for a short period of time. This will obviously be offset by the earnings growth, and our long-term goal is to run the company at about 7.5 x Debt-to-EBITDA, and we are continuing moving down this path, and this will be achieved through primarily growth in our EBITDA.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Oh, fair enough. Thank you. And then, just looking at one of your most recent acquisitions at Trait-Carré in Quebec City, I was wondering, I mean, I understand it's relatively recent, but how's the asset performing so far? And whether you're seeing supply in Quebec City becoming at risk or, or not really, since demand is so strong.
Trait-Carré is performing extremely well. It's high 90s occupancy and in terms of the supply in Quebec City, there is, just like in the rest of the country, there's not a lot being built, so we do not see Quebec City supply being riskier situation than anywhere else in the country.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay, thank you. Lastly, on the stencil agreement with Batimo on the three properties, maybe you could share your views on this for, I guess, for the second half of the year since it's coming due in January.
Sure. So these properties are attractive properties to Chartwell. We currently manage them, and they're performing well.
Mm-hmm.
As part of these acquisitions, we did buy three properties from EMD- Batimo in the year. And so, as part of these acquisitions, Batimo agreed to stand down from any of its put rights on the balance of any of its properties for the balance of the year.
Mm-hmm.
Everything would revert back on January first, 2025. But again, I would, I would emphasize that these are all great properties that we want to bring into our portfolio. We just. This was just a question of timing and part of the overall transactions that we had with Batimo.
Mm-hmm, fair enough. Thank you. I'll leave it here.
Thank you. Next question is from Lorne Kalmar from Desjardins. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning. Maybe just following on the Batimo line of questioning. With the three properties stabilized, and presumably you'll take those in the not too distant future, and I guess there'll just be the one left in the pipeline. Is there an expectation for that to sort of be the end of the relationship with Batimo, or do you guys expect them to initiate additional projects within you'll be able to take in?
We don't expect that to be the end of our relationship with Batimo. We have a very strong and collaborative relationship with them, and we have a number of different projects that we are in discussions with them on. So we would expect the pipeline to continue.
Are those projects, would they be, still pre-development, or would they be ones they, they have now, they're just not part of this pipeline?
There are pre-development projects that we are talking about and redevelopment projects.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. Maybe moving off of the acquisition side of things, you've done a couple of one-off dispositions. Could you maybe give us an idea of the quantum of dispositions you expect to do over the balance of the year and into 2025?
We continue to work to evaluate all our properties, and, there's certainly going to be some, but we, we are not prepared at this point to give you the quantum of this. All dependent on the timing of the disposition. We want to make sure that we generate value that is appropriate to us when we're selling these properties. So we continue going through the process of valuation, our portfolio, and determining what would be the appropriate time to sell properties that we decided to sell. But you should expect us to continue to dispose non-core assets in 2025.
Could you maybe give us an idea then of how big of a bucket this non-core asset pool would be?
Well, it depends what you use as the measurement. In terms of the value to overall company, it's not going to be material. It may be quite a few suites, but in terms of value, these are, as we said, non-core properties. They're older, the valuations are not as high as on the rest of our portfolio.
Okay, fair enough. And then maybe just last one. We've obviously seen the headlines around slowdown in the housing market, and I know, you know, obviously, retirement is, is a needs-based business. But I was just wondering, do you think, you know, because the slowdown's been so material that, that, you know, it's creating some pent-up demand that could continue to drive even higher occupancy growth as, as things start to heat up or, or not so much?
I think we're seeing pretty strong demand right now, and the housing market slowdown, remember, we talk about this, this slowdown from the record levels of sales and pricing, and so, it's not really slow in any kind of historical comparison, just slow compared to the peaks that the market was at. And so we do not, at this time, see any kind of pressure from the slowdown on the demand. And, remember, our business is also predominantly needs-driven. People come to us because they need some sort of assistance or foresee that need. And, yeah, maybe an ability to sell their house may delay their decision, but it's not gonna be a long delay. So from that perspective, we're not seeing much pressure at this time.
Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. That's all for me.
Thank you. Next question is from Himanshu Gupta from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Thank you and good morning. So let's just start with G&A when it came in lower in Q2. Is this the new run rate?
Yeah, good morning, Himanshu. Yeah, this is a good run rate for us. We didn't have any efficiency-related severance costs this quarter, but do expect those to come in future quarters this year as we move to exit the Welltower JV. So that would increase above the current run rate when those do occur.
Okay. And does this incorporate any savings from, like, you know, exiting the LTC platform?
Yes. All costs that related to LTC platform were transitioned to the new management. It was actually the platform itself was transitioned to the new manager. There were some incremental savings on the kind of back office, staff perspective, but those costs are out of Chartwell system.
Okay. And, no, thanks for that. And then this Quebec acquisition, which would be closed, you know, Q3, that will not lead to any G&A increase as such?
Nothing significant.
Okay, awesome. Okay, thank you. Okay, now let's talk about NOI margins. Same-property NOI margin, good to see expansion in Q2. Like, what led to margin expansion in Q2? I mean, you were already seeing staffing, you know, agency staffing reductions and rental rate increases, but what happened in Q2?
Just that occupancy growth, rent increases, and good control of other expenses. We also have been beneficiary of lower utility costs all year. That helped a bit for the margins as well.
Okay. And, what about incentives? I think incentives were the word used in your prepared remarks, you know, quite a bit. Is it like the incentives were lower in Q2 versus Q1, or do you think that is something in the future where incentives can be lower than what they are at compliance?
That's more applicable to the future. Once property is achieving occupancies in 90s, then we're pulling back discounts, and at that point in time, as I mentioned, we think that the ability to grow market rates, not the rates to our existing residents, but market rates for new residents, will be, much better.
Okay. And, you know, on the incentives, is it, like, focusing, like, Ottawa, Durham kind of markets, you know, tough markets? Or very property-specific across the board?
The incentives that we use are property-specific, and their different properties have different programs that they use, and it all depends on the local market conditions. That's why we talk a lot about this empowerment and local approach to sales and marketing. There is no one recipe that could be applicable to every one property, to every home in our portfolio. And so there's a lot of detailed work that goes behind to figure out the appropriate pricing and appropriate level of incentives, for each individual property. So it's really tough for me, Himanshu, to tell you kind of broad, broad strokes and, and averages. They, they are deceiving in this case.
Okay, fair enough. Okay, so maybe the last question is around the growth buckets and margins in particular, right? I mean, thanks for, you know, clarifying same-property NOI margin at 38% for the year. Is there a reason that, you know, margin expansion and growth bucket will be different compared to same-property portfolio?
It's also difficult to answer that question, Himanshu. The growth bucket contains properties that are recently acquired or have recently been developed. Often, they are not yet at stabilized occupancy levels, and that bucket changes constantly during the year as we buy new properties that are being put in these buckets. So it's really a mishmash of many different properties with many different specific features that also depending on the timing of where the properties are in lease-up, will affect the margins. So generally, they should be increasing, just like the rest of our portfolio. Generally, probably they should be increasing faster, because many properties in that bucket are in lease-up stage, more so than our, you know, existing property portfolio. But those are very broad generalization of a very eclectic mix of properties.
Fair enough. Is it fair to say that, you know, the ultimate growth bucket margin should be much higher than your same-property NOI margin? I mean, given the average age of your, you know, growth bucket is, like, significantly lower than your same property.
That would be correct. On stabilized basis, these properties should deliver higher margin than our same-property portfolio.
Okay, fantastic. Okay, thank you so much, and I'll jump back.
Thank you. Once again, please press star one on your device keypad if you have a question. The next question is from Pammi Bir, RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning. You know, you're clearly making some good occupancy traction, and you're on pace to pick up maybe another 100 basis points in Q3. But as you tackle maybe some of the more challenged properties, how do you see that maybe that cadence trending over the next few quarters? And maybe just the second part to that question is really, you know, what gives you the confidence that, you know, you'll get to 95% by the end of next year?
So the challenging properties, again, every property has a different story. There is no one answer. How do we see driving these occupancy faster with ongoing focus on every property that we have in our portfolio? And in some cases, the work goes in to optimize the pricing because we're at stabilized occupancy, and those market rate increases or pulling back discounts that I talked to you about is the focus of the teams. In most other cases, the focus continues to be occupancy growth. And so, how are we gonna do this? Through doubling down on the strategies that we saw working in other properties, local marketing, focus on sales, making sure the pricing is right and competitive in the environment, and making sure that we deliver great services to our residents, so they continue to refer their friends to us.
So that's kind of, again, pretty generic answer, but every property has their own story, and we're focusing on each one of them separately. What gives us confidence to get to 95% occupancy? Well, the sort of the traction that we have for the last now two years has been pretty strong, and we expect it to continue. The leading sales indicators continue to be strong, so we continue to see good demand out there. And the overall backdrop of growing demand, no construction starts, continuous shortage of long-term care beds, and continuing closure of some of the existing obsolete properties that we expect to see over the next couple of years. All of that is positive for all operators in senior housing space in Canada, including Chartwell.
The other part that we continue to do, that we talked about, is optimizing our property portfolio. Properties that cannot achieve 95% occupancy or really 100% occupancy in this kind of environment, probably not the right properties to be in Chartwell portfolio. And so, that's to the question of dispositions of non-core properties. That will continue.
Thanks for the color, Vlad. That, that's helpful. Just last one for me. Just on the, the strategic acquisitions that Jonathan mentioned, that you're contemplating. Can you just expand on that? You know, what sort of quantum are you thinking, maybe the geographies, and any sort of comments on where pricing seems to be, at this stage? I mean, you've just done a bunch, but just curious if there's any, any real changes as the competitive landscape, maybe picks up a little bit. And then I just want to clarify that, you know, you're not referring to the Batimo properties.
That's correct. We were not referring to Batimo properties. We are looking at a number of different opportunities across the country. And again, it's too early to talk about because we don't have firm deals. As soon as we do, you'll know all the details about them. The pricing seems to be in line with what the market is today, kind of on a stabilized basis, low- to mid-6 cap rates, is what we're looking to achieve on these acquisitions. Some of them may not be at stabilized levels, and we are prepared to take some short-term dilution for a long-term gain. All of them that we're looking at will be a great fit for our portfolio, and certain level of upgrade to what our current portfolio is.
Are any of these vendors or deals that you're working on any sort of, not distressed, but maybe capital structures that aren't working? Or is it just maybe recycling capital out of some other funds?
Well, I mean, same, same answer as I gave on the properties. Every story is different, so the answer is yes to all of it. It depends on the situation, but yes, some of them are restructuring, financing, some of them are looking to recycle capital to continue developing. All of the above is applicable.
Got it. Thanks very much. I'll turn it back.
Thank you. Next question is from Giuliano Thornhill , from National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, guys. Just on the obsolete supply that you guys comment on, is, wouldn't this be, you know, potentially be used for as a cheaper alternative for somebody, somebody looking for retirement housing? And what kind of percent of the inventory do you consider to be this obsolete supply?
Well, if you look at Cushman & Wakefield report that Sean and Heather and their team did recently this year, or maybe a little earlier this year, I think they used something like 10% of inventory being obsolete over the next 10 years, and probably they are right. I mean, they know better than I would know. So about that, can they be used for cheaper alternative? I don't think so. The cost of operating smaller buildings are high. You have inefficiencies in terms of the staffing, you have significant capital requirements and maintenance costs for older buildings. And so it's difficult to make them affordable enough to attract people to those kind of living arrangements because they're not, you know, not as good as the new ones.
My view would be that not many of them can be used for that, more affordable segment of the market. That, that'd be my view at the present time.
Okay. Then M&A has been pretty featured on this call, but looking towards next year, would your preference be towards returning capital or a future M&A?
It will all depend on the market conditions and opportunities that we have in front of us. So we want to make sure that we have all options open for us, when it comes to capital allocation. In the environment where we see multi-year growth in our sector, given the overall factors that I just talked about, adding high-quality new properties to our portfolio that can generate significant long-term returns and make our overall portfolio better positioned to do that, would be our preference. But who knows what the future holds? We'll evaluate these opportunities when the time is right and when they are in front of us.
Okay. All right. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. There are no further questions registered at this time. I would now like to turn the meeting back over to you, Mr. Volodarski.
Thank you, and thank you, everybody, for joining us. As always, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to give us a call. Goodbye.
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