Know your landlord. Know local lease rates.
We are calling for a commercial rent registry in Canada, a public database of landlords and lease rates, so no business owner has to sign their lease blind.
Email your city councilThere is no free market without information
Rent is the single biggest fixed cost most locally owned businesses carry, and owners sign a lease without REALLY knowing what comparable spaces nearby actually rent for. Some don't even know who owns their building.
There is major information asymmetry in lease agreements that benefit landholders. That is not a free market. But governments can fix this information gap and create the transparency that all parties need when writing a lease agreement.
New York already did it
In 2019, New York City passed Local Law 157 and built a public storefront registry, run by the city's Department of Finance. It is searchable, and for every storefront in the city it lists the lease terms that matter: average monthly rent per square foot, when leases start and end, size of the space, and whether it is occupied or sitting empty.
The first data went live that December. For the first time, business owners had a real benchmark. Canadian business owners deserve the same.
Information asymmetry, where one party has information another doesn't, means bad rent deals get signed. This hinders a business's chance of success and ability to create good jobs. Publishing a database with clear market data: average rents by area, standard lease terms, and who owns the property, simply means that business owners are operating on the same information a landlord already has. Opening up this information means everyone negotiates on fairer ground.