Greater Toronto Industrial — Q1 2026

The Quarter in Brief

Greater Toronto's industrial market opened 2026 with the same theme its brokers had been tracking since late last year: demand is firming, supply is thinning, and rents are still resetting — but more slowly. Across all six brokerage reports, the first quarter reads as a market that has moved past its tightest point and is searching for a new balance rather than weakening further.

Leasing was the clear bright spot. Cushman & Wakefield recorded new leasing of 8.7 million square feet (msf), an eight-year high and roughly 970,000 sf ahead of Q4 2025, with nine large-format deals of 200,000 sf or more — already about one-third of 2025's full-year total. Net absorption stayed positive for a seventh straight quarter on Cushman & Wakefield's measure, and JLL described a "second straight quarter of vacancy declines." At the same time, the construction pipeline kept contracting: CBRE put it at its lowest level since 2018, and every broker reported new supply well below the pace of the past three years.

Rents continued their long reset. Brokers placed the average net asking rent between roughly $16.30 and $16.52 per square foot (psf), down about 5% to 6% year-over-year and marking the tenth consecutive quarterly decline on Colliers' count — though several reports noted the pace of decline has eased.

The supply story is the quarter's clearest signal: net absorption has turned positive while construction completions have fallen sharply from their 2023–2024 peak, narrowing the gap that pushed availability up over the prior two years.