I work across the office and industrial submarkets of Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area. This page summarizes each submarket from an occupier's perspective and is refreshed quarterly; the current tenant-side market notes live in Insights.
Downtown Toronto office
The Financial Core and adjacent nodes (King West, Wellington West, the waterfront) remain the centre of gravity for financial services and technology occupiers. The post-2020 reset left tenants with meaningfully more choice: direct space, high-quality subleases, and motivated landlords competing on incentives. The best towers and built-out suites still move faster than headline vacancy suggests. For tenants, this is a market where running a real competitive process gets rewarded.
Midtown and uptown office
Yonge-Eglinton and Yonge-St. Clair offer talent-friendly locations at a discount to the core, popular with professional services and technology firms whose teams skew north of downtown.
GTA West industrial
Mississauga, Brampton, Milton, and Oakville form Canada's largest industrial market, anchored by Pearson Airport and the 400-series highway network. Vacancy remains tight by any historical standard; occupiers face limited options and need long lead times, especially for larger footprints or specialized requirements.
GTA North industrial
Vaughan, Concord, and Markham serve occupiers needing proximity to the northern labour pool and the Highway 400 and 404 corridors. Small- and mid-bay product is scarce, and renewals here demand current market data. Rates have repriced substantially over the past several years.
What this means for tenants
Office tenants hold more leverage than at almost any point in a generation; industrial tenants hold less. Both conditions argue for the same thing: start early, know the market, and negotiate with credible alternatives. That is the work I do.
Your lease expiry is closer than it looks.
The best outcomes start 12 to 24 months out. A first conversation costs nothing and preserves your leverage.
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