Vaughan’s industrial market seeing a record-breaking year
KEY Highlights
- This year will be a record year by value of industrial permits for Vaughan as permit totals in the third quarter reach $448.1 million
- Vaughan’s industrial development market ranks fourth nationally by value of permits after the first three quarters
- Vaughan’s non-residential development activity ranks ninth nationally by value of permits over the same period
- Vaughan’s commercial market ranks fifth in Ontario despite a reduction of activity from 2021
- Vaughan remains the largest industrial market in York Region and the fourth largest industrial market in the Greater Toronto Area after Toronto, Mississauga, and Brampton
ANALYSIS
Vaughan’s industrial market is one of the busiest in the country by value of industrial permits, breaking City records with one quarter remaining this year.
Statistics Canada recently released its building permit rankings for the third quarter, which includes previous data from the first two quarters.
The third quarter saw Vaughan move up a ranking from the previous quarter to the fourth industrial market overall in Canada by value of permits. Vaughan’s industrial market is breaking records at the City-level, surpassing 2021 with a quarter of building activity remaining this year. The total value of industrial permits as of the third quarter is $448.1 million compared to $373.3 million in 2021, as reported by the City of Vaughan’s Building Standards department.
Top Ten Canadian Industrial Markets by Value of Permits
- Brampton
- Montreal
- Mississauga
- Vaughan
- Toronto
- Whitby
- Laval
- Calgary
- Vancouver
- London
Vaughan continues to be one of the largest industrial markets in the Greater Toronto Area, with a total industrial inventory of more than 96.4 million square feet at the end of the third quarter with an additional 2.3 million square feet under construction, according to a market report by Colliers. Both vacancy rates and availability rates remain very low in Vaughan and across the Greater Toronto Area for industrial properties – York Region was the only region in the third quarter with a reported 0 per cent vacancy rate and had the lowest availability rate of 0.2 per cent.
Vaughan’s non-residential markets remain in the top ten in Canada, in large part due to the strength of its industrial market.
Vaughan ranks ninth overall in the country for value of non-residential building permits. This includes industrial, commercial, and institutional permits. At the end of the third quarter, Vaughan’s building permit values for non-residential permits totaled $593.8 million.
Top Ten Canadian Non-Residential Markets by Value of Permits
- Toronto
- Vancouver
- Montreal
- Calgary
- Edmonton
- Quebec
- Mississauga
- Brampton
- Vaughan
- Hamilton
Vaughan’s commercial market remains among the top in Ontario, where commercial market activity has cooled off in 2022.
Vaughan’s commercial market by value of permits was fifth in Ontario behind Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, and Mississauga respectively, and 14th in Canada at the end of the third quarter of this year. To date, the value of commercial permits in Vaughan totals $118 million with one quarter remaining, down from the record-setting $362.3 million in commercial development activity seen in 2021.
DEFINITIONS
Industrial buildings are defined as buildings used in the processing or production of goods, or related to transportation and communication.
Commercial buildings are defined as buildings used in the trade or distribution of goods and services.
Institutional buildings are buildings used to house public and semi-public services, such as those related to health and welfare, education, or public administration, as well as buildings used for religious services.
Availability rate is the ratio of available space to total rentable space, calculated by dividing the total available square feet by the total rentable square feet.
Vacancy rate is a measurement expressed as a percentage of the total amount of physically vacant space divided by the total amount of existing inventory. Under construction space generally is not included in vacancy calculations.