The Greater Toronto Area leads the country with the lowest
office vacancy rate of any major metropolitan area in North America
(4.2% as of Q4 2018), and a stunning 1.4% office vacancy rate in
Toronto's central business district1. This may
seem like an impenetrable landlord's market for tenants looking
for space in the GTA, but, a savvy tenant can still negotiate some
key elements into their office lease to reign in rental costs and
exert control over rental cost increases. Tenants should
focus negotiating leverage on these five issues.
- Base Rent and Additional Rent. The
marketplace drives base rental rates and a good leasing broker can
arm a tenant with optimum comparable data to negotiate the best
base rent. Once base rent is set, often at the letter of
intent stage, the focus should shift to additional rent.
Here, the tenant can negotiate mechanisms into the lease to ensure
the landlord is not recovering extra operating costs than what is
permissible under
