10/02/2025
Toronto’s Great Commute: Is the Return-to-Office Mandate Shifting the Housing Market?
The era of full-time remote work is fading fast, and its ripple effects are starting to shake up the Toronto real estate market. With major employers and the provincial government increasingly mandating employees return to the office 3, 4, or even 5 days a week, the pendulum that swung toward the suburbs is now swinging back.
The Conclusion: As workers who fled the city are being called back, demand for centrally located housing is on the rise. We are seeing a gradual resurgence in downtown rental and condo demand, with leasing activity picking up to accommodate the newly mandated daily commute.
Will this be a positive shift in the condo market? Increased demand for core housing is likely to support downtown condo and rental prices, which had cooled during the remote-work boom.
Will this impact suburb sales? The distant suburbs (like the outer stretches of Durham or Simcoe) that saw huge price gains now face softening demand as the value of their distance from the city is eroded by the unavoidable daily commute. Transit-connected suburbs (like Mississauga or Vaughan) may be more resilient.
It’s still too early to tell the full extent of the change, but for a city that runs on its downtown core, times are a changin’.
