Over $10,000 given away to students: The Business of the Founder of the UVic Real Estate Club

Over $10,000 given away to students: The Business of the Founder of the UVic Real Estate Club

The UDI development/real estate lobby, advertised to its corporate members “Project Support UVic Real Estate Club & Student Housing Initiative“

The following excerpt is from the Student Housing Initiative (Studenthaus) website About Page:

“The reality is that to model stakeholder values decades out, you need a thorough understanding of what matters to the next generation. This demographic can require deep expertise to engage. The perspectives of youth should be driving housing policy, real estate investment strategy, development, and research, yet a lack of intel leaves them consistently underrepresented.

That’s why we’re building Studenthaus, because if you don’t have a seat at the table, you can always bring your own chair.

“Canada’s national housing agency (CMHC) says we need more than 3 million new homes by 2030 to reach affordability. That means the time is now to double down and execute – we need more of all kinds of housing to hit this target and deliver affordability.

Vancouver’s public consultation process is being abused, critics say – The Globe and Mail

What if it isn’t developers paying students though, at least not directly, but rather students paying students, while simultaneously advancing development…

I’ve written a considerable amount about the UVic Real Estate Club, over the last couple years, focussing on overwhelming influence held over it by the Urban Development Institute (UDI) and its member companies, financially and in terms of the leadership role that its Directors both current and former, have played on the Board of the UVic Real Estate Club.

The UDI is an actively registered lobbying organization for corporate interests in development and real estate.

Urban Development Institute / Anne McMullin, President & CEO – 12-Month Lobbying Summary – Lobbyists Registry – Office of the Registrar or Lobbying of BC

You can read all about the UVic Real Estate Club, and its conjoined relationship to the UDI lobby, in the following index of articles and other material on the subject:

Index of documentation covering the UVic Real Estate Club and development industry influence over it. – CRD Watch Homepage

One of the key articles in that index in regards to the club, is the following:

UDI (registered lobbying organization) Newsletter from March 2023 Advertised “connecting with the University of Victoria Real Estate Club for your next public hearing” – CRD Watch Homepage

Most recently I wrote the following article, which shows the same phenomena a year later, as revealed by a Freedom of Information request to BC Housing:

UDI’s Policy and Advocacy Updates, newsletter from early 2024, shines more light on the UDI advertising “Project Support” from the UVic Real Estate Club to the UDI’s corporate members. – CRD Watch Homepage

The Freedom of Information document showing the UDI Capital Region’s newsletter to its paying corporate member organizations, through which it advertised the UVic Real Estate Club for project support, revealed an important additional lead:

There was a second organization mentioned in this newsletter under the heading “Project Support UVic Real Estate Club & Student Housing Initiative”:

The names Jonathan and Julian look pretty familiar, they are the names of the two students that were on the Board of Directors of the UVic Real Estate Club, prior to the board being renamed the Advisory Board. All the other board members prior to the name shuffle, were current (3) and past (3) UDI Directors.

UVIC Real Estate Club compelled to rename its Board of Directors the “Advisory Board” after it turned out that the board was overwhelmingly dominated by current and past Directors from the same Provincially registered development/real estate lobbying organization. 6 out of 8 of the UVIC club Board members as it turned out, were not students attending UVIC. – CRD Watch Homepage

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Needless to say, I decided to jump down another rabbit hole, by following the link provided, studenthousing.ca, which instantly redirects to Studenthaus.ca.

Studenthaus – Powering Housing with Youth Perspectives

“Studenthaus Next generation housing intelligence for developers”
We power the future of housing with youth perspectives”.
“See our work Schedule a call”

The text actually rotates when the site is first loaded:

Which reminds me of the old UDI Capital Region website, which was taken down in 2023:

The logo of Studenthaus, looked awfully familiar. Here it stands towering above the logo of the UVic Real Estate Club:

The Studenthaus site continued:

“Trusted by public, non-profit, and private sector leaders.”

“Insights that drive affordability

We build future proof cities by championing the voices of young Canadians.”

This was followed by Student Engagement on various development projects

That guy looks pretty familiar. Oh yeah, it’s Julian Wells the founder of the UVic Real Estate Club.

“We elevate projects with a unique lens

Young people are not the demographic that decision makers are used to hearing from, so when their voice is heard, it holds tremendous weight.”

“View our services”

“Mission

Generate and identify value creation opportunities throughout the built environment by empowering the perspectives of the next generation.”

“Method

Engage the youth demographic through bespoke, project-specific studies, contrasting the findings to pinpoint underserved gaps in a market.”

“Goal

Establish actionable next steps by decoding the intersection between youth housing preferences and public and private stakeholders.”

“We are devoted to creating lasting change in housing

Creating future proof cities is challenging.

Predicting societal trends, addressing affordability, listening to the needs of future homeowners and renters. None of these are simple.

The reality is that to model stakeholder values decades out, you need a thorough understanding of what matters to the next generation. This demographic can require deep expertise to engage. The perspectives of youth should be driving housing policy, real estate investment strategy, development, and research, yet a lack of intel leaves them consistently underrepresented.

That’s why we’re building Studenthaus, because if you don’t have a seat at the table, you can always bring your own chair.

We envision a future where decision-makers work alongside young Canadians to develop a vision for our cities. While researching and mobilizing youth opinion, we’ve learned a lot about what matters to this demographic (and given away more than $10,000 to students). They have diverse needs, but three similarities stand out – a shift away from cars, a desire for 15-minute cities, and a lack of affordability.

Canada’s national housing agency (CMHC) says we need more than 3 million new homes by 2030 to reach affordability. That means the time is now to double down and execute – we need more of all kinds of housing to hit this target and deliver affordability.

We’ve grown from full-time students focused on local impact to a team serving a spectrum of industry leading clients who are pioneering the future of housing in Canada. Follow along with our journey as we bring young voices to the forefront of this discussion.”

Note: I added that bolded text above, with note on this section in particular, “and given away more than $10,000 to students.”

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Where did all that money come from?

Where did Julian’s business get all that money to give away to students? There is no mention of where the StudentInitiatives or Studenthaus gets its financing from on its website.

We know where the UVic Real Estate which Julian founded, gets its money from. As shown in previous articles, it comes almost exclusively from the UDI and its member companies, and the UVic Real Estate Club has shown up at numerous public hearings advancing the projects of those companies.

The text was followed by a brief bio of the founder:

“Julian is one of Canada’s youngest housing leaders, devoting the early stages of his career to the thesis that cities should be built for future residents. In his role leading Studenthaus, he executes on client projects and drives the organization’s strategic vision forward.

Julian spent the final two years of his undergrad researching how students make housing decisions and was involved in approvals for more than 4,500 homes. He was recognized as the youngest member of the 2024 class of BC Business 30 Under 30 for his impact.”

Did I read that correctly? Julian was involved in approvals for more than 4,500 homes?

This is clearly a guy who gets things done!

The email provided below the text julian@studenthousinginitiative.com is the same email the UDI advertised to its corporate members for support for their projects, underneath the contact for the UVic Real Estate Club.

Julian is not only the founder of the Student Housing Initiative (Studenthaus), he’s the only person associated with it on their website.

There are no other contacts provided, except for a big button:

If to click “Work” one gets:

With a tab heading: “

The first part of the “work page” is followed immediately afterward with:

That’s a lot of public hearings, support, and approvals, as part of the organization’s “work”.

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Bubbly Calabrian wine.

In two recent articles I showed how bubbly Calabrian whine was poured for students of the UVic Real Estate Club at an event held in a building of a UDI member company, with a former head of the UDI present, and a featured speaker being the club’s founder Julian Wells:

UDI Capital Region newsletter from early 2024, shines more light on the UDI advertising “Project Support” from the UVic Real Estate Club to the UDI’s corporate members. – CRD Watch Homepage

UVic Real Estate Club 2025 Spring Industry Social once again shows how the club is inseparable from the UDI, its finances, and its agenda. – CRD Watch Homepage

Above screenshot is of bubbly Calabrian wine, which was poured for UVic Real Estate Club students at a building owned by a UDI member company. A former head of the UDI was present at the event.

Is this sort of subsidized lavishness appropriate for a University of Victoria club?

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“I think we’re, we’re an interest group” – Julian Wells

Video clip: Founder of the UVic Real Estate Club, Julian Wells to UVic’s recent President Kevin Hall: “Some of the projects that we’ve been involved in, I think that it’s really important that our perspective is heard. I think we’re, we’re an interest group.”

In an interview with UVic’s recent president Kevin Hall, and the UVic Real Estate Club. Club founder, Wells told the university president “I think we’re, we’re an interest group.” Hall at the end of the interview claimed that he wasn’t aware of the club, before they entered the door to his office that day.

The UVic Real Estate Club is not a member of the UVic Student Society (UVSS). As I was informed, by UVSS members, they club would not qualify, as they are not fully student-led a requirement of the UVSS for club membership.

Rather, they are part of an independent society called the Commerce Student Society (CSS), which brings into question how the UVic Real Estate Club was able to co-opt the brand name of the public body, a publicly funded University.

A couple years ago, I made a major FOI request to the University of Victoria for a number of its branches communications with and regarding the UDI. UVic violated the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPPA) in not delivering the results. That they had violated the Act was confirmed to me by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC). The OIPC compelled UVic to ultimately deliver the response that they had previously refused.

When the results did pour in, I received thousands of pages, some of the content of which when I brought forward to people in the administration seems to have compelled the UVic Real Estate Club to rename their UDI dominated Board of Directors, the Advisory Board.

Among the most intriguing of the results, and simultaneously among the most elusive, were the results from the President’s Office which contained hundreds of blanked out pages in regard to the UDI. They were intriguing precisely for their elusiveness.

UVic’s Real Estate Strategy, has been a major focus under Hall, and UVic Properties is a UDI member.

UVic Real Estate Strategy – University of Victoria

Last summer, Hall surprised everyone, where after only recently being reappointed to the position of UVic President, he took off to Dubai with hardly any notice, in order to lead another University in the UAE.

“His departure from UVic was announced just a day before his last day on Aug. 1.”

Ex-UVic president to lead United Arab Emirates university – Victoria Times Colonist

The Burj Khalifa, in Dubai UAE, is the tallest building in the world. It looks a bit like the logos of studentinitiatives.ca, and the UVic Real Estate Club.

Photo By Donaldytong – commons:File:Burj Khalifa.jpg, originally from the author as noted below. CC BY-SA 3.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37469604

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See also:

Index of documentation covering the UVic Real Estate Club and development industry influence over it. – CRD Watch Homepage

Index of Articles and other Media Coverage about Homes For Living – CRD Watch Homepage

Index of articles about lobbying influence on the City of Victoria and deliberations regarding it. – CRD Watch Homepage

UVic Real Estate Club Seeking New Hires: Job Descriptions Appear to Describe Lobbying Activities – CRD Watch Homepage

UVic Real Estate Club 2025 Spring Industry Social once again shows how the club is inseparable from the UDI, its finances, and its agenda. – CRD Watch Homepage

Creating future proof cities is challenging.

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