Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the annual meeting of Morguard North American Residential REIT. Please note the meeting will be recorded. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, please select the Ask a Question button on your screen and type in your message within the chat box. I would like to introduce Mr. K. Rai Sahi, Chairman and CEO of the Trust. Mr. Sahi, the floor is yours.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I would like to welcome all unitholders, trustees, staff, and other attendees to our annual meeting today. In the light of the public health restrictions due to COVID-19, we are holding the meeting virtually this year. Thank you for joining us today by webcast. My name is K. Rai Sahi, and I'm Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the Trust. Here with me are Beverley G. Flynn, Secretary of the Company, Christopher Newman, Chief Financial Officer. The meeting will now come to order. I will act as Chairman, and Ms. Flynn will act as the Secretary of the Meeting. I appoint Lisa Anne Thomas of TSX Trust Company to act as a scrutineer. The notice calling this meeting of unitholders was mailed on April ninth, 2021. I would ask the Secretary to read out the report.
Thank you, Rai. The scrutineer's report on attendance shows 101 unitholder proxies representing 28,761,985 units, or 51.13% of the issued and outstanding units of the Trust. The online polls for all resolutions will be opened at this time and will be closed once all motions have been discussed. Only registered unitholders and proxy appointees will have the ability to vote at the meeting today. If you have not previously voted prior to the meeting and wish to vote today, please click on the voting icon on your screen now. If you have previously voted your shares and do not wish to change your vote, there is no need to vote again.
I propose to adopt the scrutiny report and declare this meeting regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business. The secretary will annex the declaration of mailing to the minutes. The first item of the business is the presentation of the annual report of the Trust containing the audited financial statement for the year ended December 31st, 2020, and the auditor's report thereon as presented to this meeting. Be received. With the consent of the meeting, I propose to dispense with the reading of the annual report and audited financial statement. If there are no questions relating to these documents, we will proceed to the next item of business. The next item of the business is the appointment of the auditors.
I move that Ernst & Young LLP be, and they are hereby appointed auditor of the Trust until the close of the next annual meeting of the unitholders or until their successors are duly appointed and the trustees are hereby authorized to fix the auditor's remuneration.
I second the motion.
Thank you, Ms. Flynn and Mr. Newman. You've heard the motion. Please proceed to vote your electronic ballot at this time, if you have not already done so. We can now deal with election of trustees. The meeting is now open for nominations. There are seven trustees to be elected by the unitholders at this time. I would ask a unitholder to nominate the person named in the amendment information as approved.
I nominate Avtar T. Bains, Dino Chiesa, Mel Leiderman, Frank Munsters, Bruce K. Robertson, K. Rai Sahi, and William O. Wallace as trustees of the Trust to hold office until the termination of the next annual meeting of unitholders or until their successors are duly elected or appointed, subject to the provisions of the Trust's declaration of trust.
Thank you. Are there any further nominations? If not, I declare the nominations closed. Is there a seconder for our motion?
I second the motion.
Thank you, Mr. Newman. You've heard the motion. Please proceed to vote as electronic ballot at this time if you have not already done so. I now declare that the ballots on all resolutions be closed and will wait a few moments to allow online viewers to catch up.
Mr. Chairman, I have received the scrutineer's report on ballots, which indicates that all motions have been carried. To confirm, Ernst & Young LLP are appointed auditor of the Trust, and the trustee nominees have been properly elected. The results of the meeting will be posted on our website.
With all the formalities of the meeting now concluded, I am pleased to share with you some of our strategy and accomplishment from 2020. The question and answer period will follow.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please select the Ask a Question button on your screen and type your message within the chat box.
Okay. We will roll them.
Yes.
Multi-suite residential rental properties are a great investment over the long run, generating stable income. It is why Morguard North American Residential REIT is such a wise choice.
We continually acquire high-value, profitable real estate assets that offer consistently enhanced rates of return over time and make ongoing capital improvements to our existing portfolio to increase its value. Our approach is one to be appreciated. Working together with Morguard's network of real estate professionals for close to a decade, we have nearly tripled the value of our assets to CAD 3 billion, with 43 high-quality North American residential rental properties now in our portfolio. We are an organization that's passionate about building a sustainable society, proudly believing in environmental stewardship and contributing to the community. A commitment to caring that inspired us to quickly respond to ensure our tenants, employees, and visitors were all healthy, safe, and comfortable when the pandemic struck. The REIT's approach has stood the test of time.
We create value by investing in highly desirable residential communities, where individuals have access to precisely what they need to live, work, and thrive. We acquire multi-suite residential rental properties that contribute to the vibrancy of their communities, and we constantly respond to the needs of our tenants, maintaining relevance in an ever-changing marketplace. As we continue on our journey, we will be looking to expand into even more prime markets with high rental demand, major urban and suburban centers throughout North America that are growing rapidly and are economically strong. While still pursuing assets where we have existing density and management in place, we will seek out high-performing properties that require less operational capital expenditures, opportunities that meet our stringent criteria on quality, location, and amenities.
Our capital improvement program will ensure all our existing properties are well-maintained and upgraded, giving us the ability to charge higher rents, lower our operating expenses, enhance the attractiveness of our properties, and increase occupancy rates. Operationally, 2020 was a demanding year. Our executive and operations teams were able to meet the challenges head-on. They closed pools and fitness centers as mandated by public health measures and intensified cleaning in high-touch areas of our properties. They deferred maintenance orders for non-emergency repairs and added additional hand sanitizers on our premises. They used the latest technology to keep lines of communication open with our employees and tenants. They enhanced our ad placement, upgraded residential rental websites, and became more active on social media. They established new ways of doing business, producing live videos that became an important part of our leasing process.
They launched a national communication and operations initiative supporting the health and safety of employees and tenants. The REIT remained relatively stable and resilient during 2020, thanks to our strong management and our diversification by country and community style. With 43 high-rise, mid-rise, and low-rise multi-suite residential rental properties in 11 different states and provinces, the REIT continues to be a strong and growing investment. In 2020, revenue was up, as were funds from operations. Our collections remained strong at 99%, and same-property net operating income increased by 3.1% in Canada and 1.3% in the U.S. due to growth in average monthly rent and the effective management of property operating expenses. There is so much to look forward to as we look ahead. In October 2020, initial lease-up commenced at 1643 Josephine in New Orleans' Garden District.
A recent acquisition property repositioned as part of our strategy to continually improve the overall quality of our portfolio and grow in existing markets. The REIT is in an excellent liquidity position to acquire high-quality assets in promising markets when they become available, and it continues to use refinancing to ensure low exposure for our existing properties. Increasing our portfolio's value three times since 2012 by expanding our footprint throughout North America and generating reliable cash flows through stable income. It's appreciable growth our investors truly appreciate year after year.
We will now open the floor to questions. First question we have is, understanding that no distribution increase this past year was due to economic uncertainty, and assuming the economy starts to recover, should unitholders expect the REIT to increase its distribution in 2021?
Well, we are going to review that, and we will continue to review that. I don't want to give any indication at this stage. I mean, we can confirm to you that there will not be any decrease in distribution, but we will, and the board of trustees will continue to review every quarter whether we will consider increasing or not. Thank you.
Significant amounts of the REIT's operating income is generated in the U.S. What areas in the U.S. are you focusing on to purchase assets?
Well, we generally focus on wherever we are presently. Notwithstanding, our team is always looking for opportunities and get into other areas in the U.S. as well. Yeah. It's pretty difficult to buy anything in Canada these days or even build. I say we'll continue to review every quarter to see whether we can tell what we'll do. Thank you.
Given interest rates are expected to increase at some point, are you considering lowering the overall leverage in the REIT?
No. I don't think there is any need to do that.
The REIT is currently trading around CAD 15.50 per unit. Can you please comment on the recent performance of the unit price, and would you consider another equity issue at this level?
Well, depending on opportunity to acquire something, and should we acquire that, we would consider doing an equity issue. At this time, there is no presently anything we are actively looking at. I would say at least within the next quarter, we would not be considering any equity issue.
Great. Thank you. That is all the questions that we have today.
Okay.
Next meeting.
Okay. I now declare the ballots. No, where are we?
This one, right? Yeah, turn the page.
Okay. If there are no further business, I declare the meeting terminated, and thank you for attending today. Stay healthy.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending today's meeting. You may now disconnect.