When real estate is in your DNA

With three generations worth of real estate and construction knowledge, here’s what makes this mortgage broker successful

When real estate is in your DNA
Being the third generation of a real estate dynasty has certain perks – the most valuable of which is the wealth of knowledge that comes with the family name.

Adit Kumar was born in Delhi, India and grew up in Jordan and Iraq, watching his father and grandfather build project after project. However, the 34-year-old was always drawn to the finance side of the business and started working at TD Bank as a portfolio manager in 2008, specializing in real estate loans. Eventually, he decided to found his own brokerage, Anbros Financial Corp. five years ago.

“Instead of joining the family business, I decided to do financing,” said Kumar. “Our family has been in construction for three generations. I’m the third-generation, but I’m on the finance side. After I left TD, I didn’t want to go into construction.”

To be clear, Kumar loves construction, however, having grown up with the inside track, he learned how to optimize the financial side as a private lender. “I specialize mostly in real estate construction and development finance,” he said. “I don’t really do conventional house mortgages.”

Kumar’s family runs Infinity Development Group, one of the largest developers of condos and subdivisions – and one of the largest land holders – in the GTA. Kumar’s father has only been in Canada for 20 years, but he began buying as much land as he could upon arriving, holding onto it rather succumbing to lucrative offers.

The inside knowledge with which he was raised, as well as the contacts he amassed during his days at TD, has allowed Kumar to develop a niche as a lender.

“I offer a niche product with development finance and there isn’t much competition because it’s hard to break into the industry,” he said. “It’s a very tight-knit community, and it was an easy transition coming from TD.”

The exclusivity the GTA’s development finance ne plus ultra may have been partly succoured by his family name, but, ultimately, Kumar was born with real estate in his DNA. Understanding the intricacies of land deals has allowed Kumar to take on risky projects that regular banks usually shy away from.

“Finance and developing go hand-in-hand. Real estate works in numbers; when you buy a piece of property, if you’ve done it once, you can do it twice. If you’ve done it twice, you can do it 10 times. Building is straight forward if you have a team together, but understanding capital stack, debt and equity – that is key to any real estate transaction.”