The commercial rent market runs in the dark. We turn on the lights.
For business owners, lease terms are private, figuring out average rents in a neighbourhood is a guessing game, and most negotiate the single largest cost they will ever carry with almost no information. CommercialRent.ca exists to change that, with open data, practical tools, and policy that makes main streets work for the people who keep them running.
Why we built CommercialRent.ca
The Better Way Alliance is a network of Canadian business owners who believe that paying well and creating good jobs is the secret to a successful business. Rising rents and other fixed costs have made that harder every year. CommercialRent.ca is our effort to level those costs out, so owners can invest in their workers and build more productive businesses and a stronger Canadian economy.
We have surveyed and interviewed hundreds of business owners since launching CommercialRent.ca in 2022, and the same problem keeps surfacing.
It’s the rent.
In housing, a renter can compare listings, see comparable rents, and understand the rules before they sign. In commercial leasing, almost none of that exists. There is no public record of what neighbouring units lease for, no standard lease, and no straightforward way to resolve a dispute short of court. A landlord knows the market. The tenant signing a ten-year lease often does not.
Would you sit at a casino where the dealer can see everyone’s cards?
So we built the resource we wished existed. CommercialRent.ca is Canada’s most comprehensive commercial rent resource, used by business owners, landlords, and elected officials across the country.
We are not anti-landlord: fair, transparent rules create the stable tenancies good landlords want too.
The evidence is moving decision-makers. In May 2024, Toronto City Council passed Motion MM18.24 by a vote of 21 to 1, asking the Province of Ontario for commercial rent control, a tribunal for landlord and tenant disputes, and standardized leases.
In BC, New Westminster City Council passed a motion in 2024 asking the province for the authority to enable commercial rent controls in designated zones, a resolution later endorsed by the Union of BC Municipalities. When the rent rises too fast, it restricts the types of businesses that can afford to operate, often cutting out long-term local staples first.
That is the conversation we set out to start. Now we are working to finish it, with smart policy, market-based initiatives, and a Canadian economy that continues to work for entrepreneurs.
Tools that help everyone read the same market.
Free, practical resources for the three groups who shape every lease: the owners who sign them, the landlords who write them, and the officials who set the rules.
Know your lease before you sign it.
The guidance we wish every tenant had before negotiating. Survival tools, plain-language explainers, and answers to the questions that cost businesses the most.
Stable tenancies, written down.
Clear rules and predictable terms reduce turnover and vacancy. We work with property owners who want a market that holds good tenants instead of churning through them.
Evidence, not anecdote.
Research, policy frameworks, and survey data built for committee rooms. Everything an official needs to understand the issue and act within their jurisdiction.
In development
We are extending these tools from documents into live, public data, the infrastructure a transparent marketplace actually needs.
Our policy ideas, scoped to the level of government that can act.
We organize our asks by the level of government that can actually act on them, plus the market-transparency ideas that connect them.
Our marketplace ideas: transparency as infrastructure
The fastest fix is not always a law. Much of the imbalance disappears when both sides can simply see the same information. These ideas make the commercial rent market legible.
What a rent increase actually costs.
Behind the numbers are real businesses that did everything right and still lost their space at renewal.
Footprints on Muskoka
Offered only a triple net renewal that loaded building taxes, insurance, and maintenance onto the tenant, owner Krista Mansour closed during peak season rather than gamble on costs she could not predict.
Till Death BBQ
Two years into a five-year lease, a clause let the landlord double the rent. Joy and Shannon Warner could not make the numbers work and took their award-winning barbecue back to pop-ups.
People’s Pint Brewery
A 50% hike in 2023, on top of a roof the landlord would not repair. Moving the brewing equipment would have cost $150,000 to $200,000, so they left it behind and shut down.
Station W
After 13 years on Verdun’s Wellington Street in Montreal, owner Simon Defoy could not absorb a 60% increase at renewal. The cafe closed in May 2026, renewing calls for commercial lease reform in Quebec.