Caleb Whitaker
Brookfield Residential handled coronavirus by keeping construction going under tighter job site rules, moving a large share of home selling online, and giving buyers who lost income a clear way to delay or exit their purchase. That summary comes from the company’s own leadership, who described their approach in detail in late May 2020, about ten weeks after the pandemic began reshaping daily life in North America.
Most of what circulates online about this topic is vague and interchangeable from page to page. This article sticks to what was said on the record and explains the reasoning behind each decision. It also flags where the public details run thin. If you want to know what Brookfield Residential actually did, and what buyers and builders can take from it, the specifics below are the useful part.
How Brookfield Residential Handled Coronavirus in Brief
The most detailed public account comes from a May 26, 2020 conversation hosted by the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. Adrian Foley, listed on the event page as president and COO of Brookfield Residential, spoke alongside Scott Laurie of The Olson Company. Based on Foley’s remarks, the response had five main parts:
- Construction kept moving. Most markets stayed active, with added safety practices and somewhat longer schedules.
- Sales shifted online. The company leaned on virtual touring, remote sales appointments, and unattended access to model homes.
- Office teams went remote. The large majority of staff worked from home.
- Buyers who lost jobs got a defined option. They could take a deposit refund or a 60-day extension.
- New land development paused. Lot buyers were also given extra time to close.
The rest of this article unpacks each piece.
Who Brookfield Residential Is and Why Context Matters
Brookfield Residential is a homebuilder and land developer that traces its roots to 1956 in Ontario, Canada. Today it operates across the United States and Canada. It sits inside the wider Brookfield family of real estate businesses, and that shaped how leadership viewed 2020. Foley explained that the group’s overall portfolio leaned heavily toward retail and office property, both hit hard by the pandemic. Residential for-sale and multifamily housing stood out as a rare source of optimism.
Two more details matter. Brookfield Residential sells finished homes to buyers, and it also develops land and sells finished lots to other builders. Those are different businesses with different pressures, and the company had to manage both at once. Foley also set the Canadian markets aside when describing results, noting that Alberta was dealing with an oil price crisis on top of the pandemic. That made those numbers a misleading guide to the pandemic’s effect alone.
The Sales Shock of Spring 2020
What Happened in April
Foley described the first ten weeks of 2020, up to about March 16, as a record sales stretch that beat the company’s projections. Buyers were moving through a healthy pipeline of reservations, contracts, and qualified traffic. Then demand fell off a cliff.
As he described it, monthly sales dropped from an average of roughly 300 to about 60 in April. Foot traffic at communities fell to around a tenth of its normal level. The event transcript is auto-generated and contains errors, so treat the exact figures as approximate. The direction and scale are clear enough. Brookfield Residential’s spring selling season nearly stopped for about a month.
The May Rebound
May looked very different. With several days still left in the month, Foley said the company had already logged about 120 sales, roughly double April. He had projected second-quarter sales at around a quarter of plan, and by late May the company was running at about twice that forecast.
He described it as a real bounce, and later as a bit of an “Indian summer.” He also warned that it was not a trend to build a 2021 business plan around. Both he and Laurie said they were not discounting homes at that point, which set this downturn apart from earlier ones. Backlogs were healthy, and neither builder wanted to pressure buyers or erode margins while cancellations stayed low.
Moving Home Sales Online
Brookfield Residential handled the loss of foot traffic by leaning hard on digital selling. The change was less about inventing new technology than about scaling tools the industry already had and getting buyers comfortable with them.
Digital Touring and Unattended Access
According to Foley, virtual traffic normally made up about 5 to 7 percent of the company’s visits. By late May it had climbed to 30 to 40 percent. The toolkit included online information and touring, virtual sales appointments in which a salesperson leads a tour remotely, and what the company called unattended access. Unattended access lets a buyer visit a model home independently, without a salesperson present. Foley said these options rose sharply in May and described a 300 percent increase.
The Tools Behind the Shift
Foley named Matterport as an example of a high-quality virtual walkthrough. He also described a tool called “I See What You See.” A salesperson wearing earbuds walks through the common areas and model home while talking with the buyer, and the conversation is recorded. The buyer can replay it later at home with family and talk through the future home together. It is a simple idea, and it shows how the company tried to keep the personal side of selling intact without putting people in the same room.
Buying a Home Without Visiting It
Foley confirmed that some sales had happened sight unseen. He said the company had a blueprint for digital and online sales and was willing to share it, because it wanted the approach accepted more broadly across the industry. He did not predict an overnight shift to fully virtual selling. He expected buyers to arrive more informed, if they came to a sales office at all, and to expect a high bar for digital presence.
He also floated a longer-term idea: an online purchase path that might be priced differently than a traditional purchase involving brokers or in-house sales staff. That was a view under discussion, not an announced policy, and it should not be read as a described change to how Brookfield Residential prices homes.
Keeping Construction Moving Safely
Brookfield Residential handled construction by staying open wherever it could and adjusting how work was scheduled. Foley said the company remained active across its markets, with the exception of a couple that shut down for a period. He named Austin and Toronto.
On job sites, he described using single trades in each home at a time. The company had once assumed that having multiple trades working together was efficient, but trades preferred not having others around, and the approach delivered. Brookfield also added roughly five to seven days to some schedules to allow for cleaning and other precautions. Across development and construction combined, he estimated the company lost an average of five to seven days, plus some processing time with cities and agencies and some design time at the front end.
Permits and inspections were the bigger unknown, and they went better than feared. Foley credited cities for responding innovatively to keep housing moving as an essential service. As one example, he cited the city of Dublin, California, which handled plan check for the company’s permits virtually through the Bluebeam platform. He said he did not think the company had missed an inspection in the prior 11 weeks across the United States. Not every city moved that aggressively, but enough did to keep projects on track.
Remote Work for Office Teams
Foley said roughly 850 team members worked across the business, and that about 75 to 80 percent of them were working remotely by late May. He described being in about week 11 of remote work. In his words, it was not something he would want to repeat, but it had tested the company’s culture and pushed innovation in ways that might not have happened otherwise. He also said he still expected many people to want to return to an office and work in a team environment, though not necessarily all roles.
What Happened to Buyers Who Lost Their Jobs
If a Brookfield Residential buyer lost their job because of coronavirus, the company said they had a choice. They could receive a full refund of their deposit, with the company holding on to option money, or they could accept a 60-day extension in the hope of finding work, while the company held the home. Foley said this was the company’s publicly stated position.
Cancellations stayed manageable. He described a typical cancellation rate in the range of 16 to 18 percent, with about 5 to 6 percent tied to the pandemic, though the transcript wording here is unclear. Long escrow periods of four to five months on many contracts also helped, since buyers who had already committed were less likely to walk away.
How Brookfield Residential Handled Land Development and Lot Sales
The land side of the business needed its own response. Brookfield typically closes 3,000 to 4,000 lots a year with third-party builders. When the pandemic hit, roughly 600 to 700 lots were in backlog, meaning they were in the process of being delivered.
Builders asked to hold off until they had better visibility. Foley said the company generally agreed to push takedowns out 60 to 90 days, comparing it to the forbearance offered elsewhere in the economy. On its own side, Brookfield froze new land development. It did not want to start new phases when even an optimistic third and fourth quarter would not absorb the existing supply of homes and inventory. That pushed new work into 2021.
He also saw a possible opening in public agencies that needed cash and might partner with developers to get housing built. He expected more distress in the land market over the following 12 to 36 months.
Supply Chain Watch
Foley said the company produced a weekly supply chain report covering its housing and land businesses. He described very little disruption from China and the rest of Asia, more from Europe, and less than expected from countries under shutdown, since some manufacturing continued. The near-term pinch was lighting, particularly fixtures made in China. He also expected more onshore manufacturing and more need for domestic storage.
One clarification helps avoid a common mix-up. The door delays tied to plant closures in Mexico came up in the same discussion, but Laurie raised them about The Olson Company, not Brookfield Residential.
What Brookfield Expected Next, and What Followed
Foley was cautious about the road ahead. He expected 2021 to be significantly down from 2020, forecast year-end unemployment of 12 to 14 percent, and called it “a slog” in the making. That view shaped the decisions to freeze land development and to control costs.
Hindsight adds context. Housing demand across the United States stayed strong through 2020 and 2021, and unemployment fell faster than he had feared. That is not a criticism. The May 2020 forecast was made with almost no visibility, and caution on land and costs was a reasonable hedge. It does show why any account from that period should be read as a snapshot, not a final verdict.
Practical Takeaways for Buyers and Builders
A few lessons hold up beyond 2020:
- Get contingency terms in writing. The company’s deposit and extension policy for job loss was clear and public. Any buyer in an uncertain market should ask what the options are before signing.
- Expect buffer time. Extra days for cleaning and safer trade sequencing showed that schedules built for speed can be built with cushions.
- Use digital tools, then verify. Virtual tours worked for many buyers, but Laurie noted that many people still wanted to visit in person, so the tools complemented visits rather than replacing them.
- Track the pipeline closely. Both builders described watching backlogs weekly, because certainty of closing mattered more than speed of selling.
A Note on Sources and Unverified Claims
Search this topic and you will find many pages listing flexible payment plans, daily temperature checks, remote notarization, and redesigned floor plans as Brookfield Residential’s pandemic response. None of those claims could be traced to a primary source in the research behind this article, and many of those pages read as templated. Treat them with caution. For current, market-specific details, check Brookfield Residential’s own communications for the community you care about.
Conclusion
Brookfield Residential handled coronavirus by making a handful of practical decisions quickly. It kept building where it could, moved much of its selling online, sent most office staff home, and offered buyers who lost income a defined choice. On the land side, it slowed down new development and gave builders room to delay closings. Sales collapsed in April and rebounded in May, but leadership stayed cautious about the year ahead.
The clearest takeaway is that the company’s response rested on flexibility and clear policies, not on any single tool. For buyers, that means asking direct questions about contingencies and schedules. For everyone else, the best source remains the on-the-record account from May 2020, not the generic summaries that repeat it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Brookfield Residential stop building homes during the pandemic?
Not broadly. Foley said the company stayed active across its markets, apart from a couple that shut down for a period, including Austin and Toronto.
Did Brookfield Residential offer virtual home tours during COVID-19?
Yes. Foley described online touring, virtual sales appointments, and unattended access to model homes, and he named Matterport as an example of a walkthrough tool.
What happened if a buyer lost their job because of coronavirus?
Foley said the buyer could take a full deposit refund, with the company retaining option money, or accept a 60-day extension while the home was held.
Did coronavirus delay Brookfield Residential construction?
Slightly. Foley estimated an average loss of five to seven days in development and construction schedules, plus some time lost to city and agency processing.
How did Brookfield Residential’s sales change?
By Foley’s account, monthly sales fell from roughly 300 to about 60 in April, then rebounded in May to about double April’s pace with days still left in the month.
Did Brookfield Residential employees work from home?
Yes. Foley said roughly 75 to 80 percent of about 850 team members were working remotely as of late May 2020.
Where can I find the original source for these details?
The USC Lusk Center for Real Estate event page “Home Builders: Today and in the Future,” dated May 26, 2020, includes the recording and an auto-generated transcript.
