London, Ontario
London is the clearest Canadian case of a downtown held by one private company — City of London staff found 59 per cent of the core's vacant commercial space in a single owner's hands, and named reporting identifies that owner as Farhi Holdings Corporation — yet Ontario charges $37.10 a parcel to look at the register, publishes no assessment roll and no sale prices, so the concentration can be reported but not recounted.
11 buildings · 8 with an owner established · 24 sources · 3 tier B · 8 tier A · prepared 2026-09-27
Can you find out who owns it?
Ontario's land registry is the official record of who owns what: ServiceOntario says it "contains the official records of property ownership and other legal interests such as mortgages, transfers and leases" and "covers more than 7.4 million parcels of land in the province". It is public but not open — the same page states the services "are only available online" and that on OnLand "You can do a self-search for a fee", and the fee bulletin effective 2 November 2026 prices a copy of a parcel register, the document that names the registered owner, at $37.10 per PIN ($9.70 statutory + $24.25 electronic land registration services + $3.15 HST). There is no bulk extract at any price; Teraview, the professional front end, is licensed-users-only. Assessed values sit with MPAC behind three login-only products and are still pegged to 1 January 2016 values for the 2026 tax year, and Ontario publishes no price-paid dataset, so a sale price is reachable only on the individual registered transfer at the same per-parcel fee. For London this matters more than for most cities: the single most important fact about the place — how much of the core one company holds — is in the register, has been counted once by city staff and once by a national newspaper, and cannot be independently recomputed from anything free.
Is ownership public?Public, but one paid search at a time
Cost of one title search$37.10 for a copy of a parcel register incl. first page ($9.70 statutory + $24.25 ELRSA + $3.15 HST), effective 2 November 2026; $13.15 per adjacent parcel register search per PIN (Teraview only)
Bulk ownership dataNone published
Sale pricesAggregates only — no individual sales
1
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CF Masonville Place 1680 Richmond St, London 579,028 sq ft GLA (318,304 sq ft CRU) |
Retail | Cadillac Fairview Published on Cadillac Fairview's own property site as "CF Masonville Place", "one of the most productive shopping centres in Southwestern Ontario", with 153 stores and $1,224 sales per sq ft ($3,158 food-court PSF). Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan states CF is "our wholly owned subsidiary" (second source, s13). CF's page is a leasing page, not a title, and states no price. |
Pension fund | —B |
| White Oaks Mall Wellington Rd S at Bradley Ave, London 700,000 sq ft |
Retail | Westdell Development Corporation Retail Insider, 17 August 2023: "The property has been purchased by London-based Westdell Development Corporation from an institutional vendor." The article describes a "700,000-square-foot enclosed mall" with 180 stores and services, opened 1973. BentallGreenOak is named as the vendor by industry sources in the same piece, with JLL declining to confirm, so the vendor is not asserted here. |
Private company | —A |
| Westmount Commons (formerly Westmount Shopping Centre) Wonderland Road South, London over 500,000 sq ft on 27.5 acres |
Mixed use | Farhi Holdings Corporation FHC's own commercial page: "Farhi holdings is proud to announce our recent acquisition of Westmount Commons... Situated on 27.5 acres along Wonderland Road South in West London... With over 500,000 square feet of space and 3,200 underground parking stalls". Anchor tenants listed as Cineplex Odeon, Superking Supermarket, London Health Sciences Centre and the London Digestive Disease Institute. No price and no closing date are stated. The Globe reported in 2024 that FHC's lawyers had written to council opposing more office conversion at the same centre while it was in other hands. |
Family / private | —A |
| Market Tower Richmond St at Dundas St (southwest corner), London |
Office | Farhi Holdings Corporation The Globe and Mail: "At the southwest corner of the same intersection is a Farhi-owned building called Market Tower. It long housed city staff working for social services, parks and recreation and other departments. But the city moved out in 2016 and the tower has seen few tenants since then." In June 2026 FHC pitched council on selling Market Tower and two adjacent buildings to the city for a new municipal staff complex at a "fair market" price set by a city-approved appraiser; the ward councillor told the London Free Press the proposal arrived too late in the process. |
Family / private | —A |
| Former London central public library Queens Ave, London 90,000 sq ft, with 80 parking spaces |
Office | Farhi Holdings Corporation The Globe and Mail, November 2024: "In 2005, FHC bought the former central library on Queen St. for $1-million – a price that was discounted by $1.4-million, because the building needed asbestos removed... But 19 years later, the 90,000-square-foot building with 80 parking spots on its property remains undeveloped and vacant." The sales contract, obtained by the Globe under freedom-of-information law after CBC London's reporting, had contained a buy-back clause for the city if no significant renovations followed within two years; the clause was struck out in pen and city staff told the Globe they could not explain why. |
Family / private | CAD $1,000,000 2005 Price discounted by $1.4M because the building needed asbestos removal; the site was rezoned for development the same year. A |
| Wright Lithography Building downtown London (1902 heritage site) |
Office | Farhi Holdings Corporation Described by the Globe and Mail as "another prominent FHC holding, the Wright Lithography Building, a 1902 heritage site", also vacant. FHC told the city in 2012 that a lack of parking and expensive upkeep were barriers to letting it; in 2020 the city found the company had failed to comply with property standards by not heating the building and ordered heating restored, an order FHC appealed citing repeated break-ins and theft of electrical and mechanical equipment. No price or floor area is stated. |
Family / private | —A |
| Former Rexall building (five-storey office) Richmond St at Dundas St (northeast corner), London |
Office | Maas Group The Globe and Mail: "Property records show Mr. Farhi had bought the office building, and an adjacent property, for $600,000 in 2010. In January, he sold the building for $5-million to Mississauga-based developer Maas Group." The building had been empty since 2018 when the ground-floor Rexall pharmacy left. In May 2024 the city provided Maas $415,000 under a new office-to-residential conversion incentive. This is the only downtown London transaction in this record where a document-sourced price appears on both sides of the same asset. |
Developer | CAD $5,000,000 2024-01 Sold by Farhi Holdings, which the Globe reports had bought this building and an adjacent property for $600,000 in 2010. A |
| Centro (South Tower) 100 Fullarton St, London |
Residential | Old Oak Properties Inc. Old Oak's own rentals page lists Centro at 100 Fullarton among its London communities, with suites from 484 to 1,606 sq ft. The Globe and Mail refers to "Old Oak Group's Centro building, which began leasing hundreds of apartments this year" (2024). Wikipedia's list of London's tallest buildings gives the 40-storey, 135.3 m Centro South Tower, completed 2025, as the tallest in the city — floor count and height are from that tier-C source; the owner is from the owner's own listing plus named reporting. |
Family / private | —B |
| One London Place 255 Queens Ave, London over 370,000 sq ft · 24 floors |
Office | Not established a paid title search would answer it London's second-tallest building and, with City Centre, one of the two Class A office towers CBRE and CBC name in the core. No free document opened that names its registered owner. Sifton Properties publishes it among its nine commercial properties and states "a premier 24-storey office tower... With over 370,000 square feet of energy-efficient space", but says only that it leases and manages, never that it owns; GWL Realty Advisors' leasing site also carried the building, and its URL 302s away. Ontario's answer costs $37.10 for the parcel register. The floors and floor area here are Sifton's stated figures. |
Not established | —A |
| City Centre (North and South towers) 275 Dundas St, London |
Office | Not established a paid title search would answer it The twin-tower complex CBC and CBRE name alongside One London Place as London's Class A office stock, in a core where the Class A vacancy rate was 19.8 per cent at the end of 2025 against 31.5 per cent overall. No free document opened names a registered owner, and Ontario publishes neither an assessment roll nor a price-paid file, so the blank is the finding rather than a gap in the search. |
Not established | —A |
| Citi Plaza (formerly Galleria London) 355 Wellington St, London |
Mixed use | Not established a paid title search would answer it RENX reported the transformation of "Citi Plaza in London, Ont. from an underperforming downtown mall to a successful mixed-use commercial and educational complex" had "taken another turn with its recent sale", and that "Canadian Commercial Workers Industry Pension Plan had acquired what was then" the Galleria. The article body is not served to a script, so the buyer is not named here. The property's own site is behind an anti-crawler block; its footer reads "© 2026 Citi Plaza London Inc.", a corporate name rather than an established beneficial owner. |
Not established | —B |
2
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
Ontario publishes no assessment roll, so London has no public "highest assessed parcel" and no assessed total for its core — MPAC's values are login-only and still pegged to 1 January 2016. What the public record does give is the core measured as emptiness: the City's own 2023 study counted the vacant buildings, the vacant ground and the concentration of ownership, and CBRE's quarterly office series has kept London's core at the bottom of the national table ever since. The City's own follow-up report to its Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee, dated 25 March 2025 (s24), confirms the strategy is live policy under the name "Core Area Vacancy Reduction Strategy (CAVRS)" and that a new "Vacant Commercial Space Fit-out Grant" was being built to serve it — but that report quantifies no ownership, and the 67-page 2023 strategy that does could not be retrieved as a document, so the 59 per cent figure reaches this record through CBC London and The Globe and Mail rather than from the City directly.
Share of the core's vacant commercial space held by one owner59%
City of London staff, Core Area Land and Building Vacancy Reduction Strategy, released June 2023 on Q3 2022 data, as reported by CBC London: "Across all three classes of commercial space one owner, Farhi Holdings Corporation, owns 59 per cent of the properties. Farhi doesn't own any 'A' rated commercial buildings." The Globe and Mail puts the same finding against "more than one million square feet of empty commercial space in the city at the time".
Vacant land in the core13 parcels totalling 29.32 acres, plus 67 surface parking lots
Same staff report via CBC London: "Combined, these vacant land parcels total 29.32 acres, an amount of territory roughly equal to six city blocks of the size occupied by Budweiser Gardens." The Globe adds that 2023 property records showed at least a dozen of the 67 surface lots with Farhi on title, and that London's 2016 city plan barred any new commercial parking lots.
Downtown office vacancy, Q4 202531.5%
CBRE via CBC News, 11 January 2026: "At least 31.5 per cent of rentable office space in downtown London was vacant in the final quarter of the year, up from 30.6 in the third quarter" — still the highest core office vacancy of the major Canadian cities CBRE tracks. The downtown holds roughly three-quarters of the city's office real estate.
Class A vs suburban office vacancy19.8% Class A core; 10.8% suburban; 26.2% city-wide
Same CBRE figures via CBC, January 2026. Most core vacancy is in Class B and C buildings; the named Class A towers are One London Place and City Centre. The Q4 2025 rise is attributed to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board leaving Fullarton Street for 300 Tartan Dr in east London.
Ground-floor retail vacancy in the core18%
Core Area Land and Building Vacancy Reduction Strategy via CBC London, 2023: London's "sidewalk-facing" retail space had an 18 per cent vacancy rate, rising to 24 per cent in Old East Village, with almost all of those vacancies in B- and C-rated buildings. Overall downtown commercial vacancy in the report was 24.6 per cent.
Highest assessed parcel / core assessed totalnot published
MPAC's Assessment Cycle page, read 27 September 2026: "Property assessments for the 2026 property tax year will continue to be based on fully phased-in January 1, 2016 current values." Values are reachable only through AboutMyProperty, propertyline or Municipal Connect, all login-only, and AboutMyProperty is CAPTCHA-gated. No London parcel value exists in open form at any tier.
Vacant residential land, city-wide1,746 hectares; 127,551 estimated units
City of London Vacant Land Inventory as of 31 March 2025, reported by the Smart Prosperity Institute (July 2025): "The VLI shows that there are 1,746 hectares of vacant residential land in the city" and "the total estimated number of residential units in the city's vacant land inventory is 127,551", of which roughly 56,878 (45 per cent) sit inside the built-area boundary.
3
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
London is a city of roughly 445,000 whose defining property fact is a concentration the public record can describe but will not let you count. In 2023 City of London staff delivered the Core Area Land and Building Vacancy Reduction Strategy, a 67-page report which found "highly concentrated" ownership of the core's empty buildings: across all three classes of commercial space, one owner held 59 per cent of the vacant properties, and held no Class A space at all. The report names no company. CBC London named it — Farhi Holdings Corporation — and The Globe and Mail, after its own search of Ontario land records, wrote that "property records suggest it could be only one: FHC". Both hypotheses this record was asked to test come out broadly true but differently sourced: Farhi's downtown dominance is established by a municipal study plus two national outlets and is about vacant commercial space rather than "the downtown" as a whole (the company owns no Class A building, and the towers now going up downtown are other firms'); Drewlo's scale is established only by its own website, which claims 10,000+ units across six cities, with no London-only figure anywhere. The rest of London's land is held by family firms of the same kind — Old Oak and Tricar in rental towers, Sifton, Wastell, Rembrandt and Ironstone in subdivisions, York Developments in the new highrises, Westdell in the biggest mall. No REIT, pension fund or private-equity platform appears anywhere near the top of this list except Cadillac Fairview, which owns one shopping centre. For scale: CMHC's Rental Market Survey puts London's whole rental universe at 48,558 units in 2024, up from 41,428 in 2010, with the vacancy rate down from 4.80 to 2.70 per cent over the same period — so Drewlo's claimed 10,000+ units, spread across six cities, is a large share of one mid-sized rental market but cannot be pinned to London.
| Name | Type | Holdings |
|---|---|---|
| Farhi Holdings Corporation City of London staff's Core Area Land and Building Vacancy Reduction Strategy (released June 2023, on data from Q3 2022) found that "[a]cross all three classes of commercial space one owner... owns 59 per cent of the properties" and that this owner held no Class A building. The report identifies no company; CBC London reported the owner as Farhi Holdings Corporation, adding the properties were "all of them older and some needing to be redeveloped to be functional". Downtown commercial vacancy at the time was 24.6 per cent. This is a municipal count reported by a named outlet, not a register extract. |
Family / private | 59% of the core's vacant commercial propertiesA |
| Farhi Holdings Corporation The Globe and Mail, 1 November 2024: "a Globe search of Ontario real estate records as of December, 2023, found more than 200 properties, owned by companies that list Mr. Farhi as a director (sometimes among several), purchased for more than $370-million over the past 30 years – a number that wouldn't account for price appreciation." Its October 2024 map counted 131 properties in Middlesex County (which contains London), plus Oxford 20, Essex 14, Elgin 11, Lambton 3 and Toronto 3. Shmuel Farhi is named because the company's own site and this reporting identify him as its founder and owner. |
Family / private | 200+ properties bought for $370M+ over 30 years; 131 of them in Middlesex CountyA |
| Farhi Holdings Corporation FHC's own site, September 2026: "We own and operate land throughout Ontario, often fronting the 400-series highways to maximize transport access. We're in more than 53 municipalities" and "We have land ranging from 9 acres to 900 contiguous acres and everything in between." Its front page claims "upwards of 20,000 units constructed, under construction, in approvals, or planned across Ontario" and describes "one of Southwestern Ontario's largest family-owned real estate enterprises" spanning "residential, commercial, hospitality, and agricultural properties". The Globe reported the site also claimed "more than fifty million square feet" and "10,000+ acres of land holdings" in October 2024. Owner's own claims, unaudited. |
Family / private | land in more than 53 municipalities; parcels from 9 to 900 contiguous acresA |
| Drewlo Holdings Inc. Drewlo's own About page, September 2026, states "68 years / 10,000+ units / 6 cities" for a family-owned company. Its London page listed 46 separate rental addresses on 27 September 2026, from downtown highrises (310 Dundas St, 405 Waterloo St) to suburban clusters on Capulet Lane, Chelton Road, Agathos Street and Wonderland Road N. The unit figure is company-wide across London, Kitchener, Burlington, Sarnia, Woodstock and Port Colborne; no London-only count is published anywhere free and Ontario's register will not aggregate one. Drewlo is invisible in HCRA's builder directory (7 possessions) because it builds rental, which is not warranty-enrolled — the clearest sign that Ontario's best builder dataset cannot see a city's biggest landlord. |
Family / private | 10,000+ units across 6 cities; 46 London rental addresses listedA |
| Old Oak Properties Inc. Old Oak's own About page: "Since 1955, Old Oak has been designing and delivering London's most coveted high-rise homes", as "a third generation family owned and operated business" and "a leading property manager and residential developer in Southwestern, Ontario". Its rentals page listed ten London communities on 27 September 2026, including Centro at 100 Fullarton, The Saint James, One Richmond Row and Aurora. It publishes no unit total. The Globe and Mail describes "Old Oak Group's Centro building, which began leasing hundreds of apartments" in 2024. |
Family / private | 10 London rental communities listed; builder of the city's tallest buildingA |
| Tricar Group (Tricar Developments Inc. and Tricar Properties Limited) HCRA's Ontario Builder Directory, queried 27 September 2026: umbrella account 12267660 "Tricar", at 3800 Colonel Talbot Road, London, records 1 freehold + 1,695 condominium possessions for Tricar Developments Inc. (licensed 2004) and a further 1 + 1,367 for Tricar Properties Limited (licensed 2015), with zero chargeable conciliations. Tricar's own site says it has spent "almost 40 years" developing and managing highrise apartment rentals and condominiums in London, Guelph and Sarnia. Possessions are cumulative and province-wide, not annual or London-only. |
Family / private | 3,064 possessions across two licensed entities (1,695 + 1,367 condominium units)A |
| Sifton Properties Limited HCRA records Sifton Properties Limited, operating as Riverbend Homes, at 1295 Riverbend Road, London, licensed since 13 July 1976, with 293 freehold and 68 condominium possessions and four chargeable conciliations. Sifton's own commercial site lists nine properties it leases — 171 and 200 Queens Ave, 285 King St, 495 Richmond St, 460 Berkshire Dr, 1305 Riverbend Rd, Helio, The Sifton Centre and One London Place — but says only that it manages and leases them, never that it owns them, which is why no marquee entry here carries Sifton as owner. |
Family / private | 361 possessions (293 freehold + 68 condominium); 9 commercial properties leasedA |
| York Developments York's own About page: "a family operated business with strong ties to London, Ontario", "actively working on 10 new commercial developments and 11 new residential developments". The Globe and Mail reported that in 2023 council approved two York apartment towers of 45 and 53 storeys which "will be the city's tallest buildings once constructed" — the counterweight to the vacant-core story, since the towers going up downtown are not the core's largest owner's. |
Family / private | 10 commercial and 11 residential developments active; approved towers of 45 and 53 storeysA |
| Westdell Development Corporation Retail Insider, 17 August 2023: "The property has been purchased by London-based Westdell Development Corporation from an institutional vendor" — a "700,000-square-foot enclosed mall in London, Ontario" hosting 180 stores and services, opened in 1973 and "one of the largest retail destinations in London". No price is stated. The vendor is attributed to BentallGreenOak by industry sources in the same article, with JLL declining to confirm, so the vendor is not claimed here as fact. |
Private company | White Oaks Mall, a 700,000 sq ft enclosed mall with 180 storesA |
| Cadillac Fairview The only institutional landowner near the top of London's list. Cadillac Fairview's own property page for CF Masonville Place at 1680 Richmond St states 579,028 sq ft GLA, 318,304 sq ft CRU, 153 stores and $1,224 sales per sq ft, and calls it "our shopping centre". Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan states CF is "our wholly owned subsidiary" managing "over 35 million square feet of leasable space at 68 properties across the country". |
Pension fund | CF Masonville Place, 579,028 sq ft GLA, 153 storesB |
| Hazelview Properties, Minto Apartment REIT and Canadian Apartment Properties REIT Smart Prosperity Institute, July 2025: "Many older apartment buildings are owned by Real Estate Invesment Trusts (REITs) like Hazelview Properties, Minto Apartment REIT, Canadian Apartment Properties REIT." The same report names the region's largest developers and builders as Tricar Group, Auburn Developments, Drewlo Holdings, Sifton Properties, York Developments, Old Oak Properties, Bluestone Properties, Esam Group, Medallion Corporation, Westdell Development, Ironstone Building Company and Wastell Homes, adding that "Farhi Holdings Corporation is also major land developer with substantial land holdings in the downtown". No REIT filing opened here states a London unit count, so none is given. |
REIT | owners of "many older apartment buildings" — no London unit counts publishedA |
4
Where property meets office
Recorded only where a public record states it — a disclosure registry, council minutes, a land-use decision. Stated as fact, with nothing inferred from it.
| Holder | Office | Holding |
|---|---|---|
| Farhi Holdings Corporation | Proposal advised by John Fleming, London’s former City Planner (an appointed municipal office) | Market Tower and two adjacent downtown buildings, offered for sale to the City of London The Globe and Mail, November 2024: "In June, as council discussed redeveloping its aging city hall, FHC – with guidance from former London city planner John Fleming – pitched council on redeveloping Market Tower and two adjacent buildings into a new complex for municipal staff. In a proposal sent to council, the company offered to sell all three properties to the city for a 'fair market' price set by a city-approved appraiser", financed through a mix of development-charge credits, cash and a two-year interest-free loan. The ward councillor told the London Free Press the proposal came too late in the process. A |
5
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
London's new homes come from local family firms, and the province's regulator counts them. HCRA's Ontario Builder Directory publishes each licensee's "Total Possessions" — the number of freehold and condominium properties occupied by a homeowner — and the London-registered accounts read as a league table of second- and third-generation Southwestern Ontario builders: Tricar in towers, Ironstone, FoxWood, Millstone, Wastell, Rembrandt and Sifton in subdivisions and low-rise. Two warnings on the figures. They are cumulative and province-wide, not annual London starts, and Ontario builders incorporate a company per project, so the umbrella account is the only usable level. And the directory cannot see rental: Drewlo Holdings, which claims 10,000+ units, records 7 possessions, because purpose-built rental is not warranty-enrolled — so the city's largest apartment owner is effectively absent from Ontario's best builder dataset. For volume, the City of London's own tracker is the better series: it reports 12,161 housing starts between 2022 and August 2026 against a council pledge of 47,000 units by 2031. CMHC's own series, as compiled by the Smart Prosperity Institute in July 2025, gives the longer shape: City of London housing starts rose from under 1,430 in 2011 to a peak of 4,347 in 2021; apartment starts have averaged 1,402 a year over the past nine years, while only 269 single-detached homes and 427 row houses were started in 2024, against 1,097 and 163 in 2010. The rental universe grew from 41,428 units in 2010 to 48,558 in 2024 as the vacancy rate fell from 4.80 to 2.70 per cent.
| Name | Type | Total possessions (cumulative, Ontario) |
|---|---|---|
| Tricar Group Umbrella account 12267660, 3800 Colonel Talbot Road, London: Tricar Developments Inc. 1 freehold + 1,695 condominium (licensed 2004) and Tricar Properties Limited 1 + 1,367 (licensed 2015), zero chargeable conciliations. Almost entirely condominium — London's high-rise builder. Its own site claims three wins of Tarion's Ontario High-Rise Builder of the Year. |
Family / private | 3,064A |
| The Ironstone Building Company Inc. Account B40981, London, licensed 22 December 2010: 374 freehold + 979 condominium, 2 chargeable conciliations. The largest single London-registered licence after Tricar's two, and the most balanced freehold/condo split near the top of the table. |
Private company | 1,353A |
| FoxWood Building Corporation Account B45394, London, licensed 17 November 2016: 446 freehold + 73 condominium, with 10 chargeable conciliations — the highest conciliation count among the London builders checked. |
Private company | 519A |
| Rembrandt Homes Umbrella account 8875, London: 111 freehold + 311 condominium across Rembrandt Developments (London) 128, (Fanshawe) 212, (Woodstock) 13 and Rembrandt Meadowlilly 69, with further expired project companies. A textbook illustration of why the umbrella is the only usable level in this dataset. |
Family / private | 422A |
| Millstone Homes Inc. Account B37483, London, licensed 23 May 2007: 385 freehold + 33 condominium, 11 chargeable conciliations. |
Private company | 418A |
| Wastell Builders Umbrella account 10650, London: 294 freehold + 69 condominium across Wastell Builders Inc. (licensed 20 December 1979, 70 possessions), Wastell Builders (London) Inc. (83) and Wastell Developments Inc. (210), 1 chargeable conciliation. |
Family / private | 363A |
| Sifton Properties Limited Account B14244, operating as Riverbend Homes, 1295 Riverbend Road, London, licensed 13 July 1976 — the oldest continuous London licence in this set: 293 freehold + 68 condominium, 4 chargeable conciliations totalling $6,300 in claims. |
Family / private | 361A |
| The Auburn Group of Companies Umbrella account 12545452, London: 17 freehold + 338 condominium, zero chargeable conciliations, almost all of it through Auburn Homes Inc. (B26901, licensed 1997). |
Private company | 355A |
| Drewlo Homes Inc. Account B15285, London, licensed 13 July 1988: 7 freehold, 0 condominium. The sister company Drewlo Holdings Inc. (B14969, licensed 5 July 1985, 680 Waterloo Street) is licensed with no possessions recorded at all. Set against Drewlo's own claim of 10,000+ units, this is the dataset's blind spot rather than the company's size: HCRA counts warranty-enrolled homes sold to owners, and Drewlo builds rental. |
Family / private | 7A |
| City of London — housing starts, all builders The City's Increasing Housing Supply Update, last modified 24 September 2026, records housing starts of 2,495 (2022), 1,534 (2023), 3,089 (2024), 2,553 (2025) and 2,490 (2026 to 31 August), plus 2,057 additional residential units and conversions to residential, against "Council's Pledge for 47,000 units by 2031". Building permits issued covered 3,700 units in 2024, 5,462 in 2025 and 2,675 to 31 August 2026. The page notes CMHC's definition of a start and that permits and starts will not match. |
Government | 12,161 starts 2022 to Aug 2026A |
| Largest London builders as named by an independent report Smart Prosperity Institute, July 2025: "Some of the largest developers and builders in the region include Tricar Group, Auburn Developments, Drewlo Holdings, Sifton Properties, York Developments, Old Oak Properties, Bluestone Properties, Esam Group, Medallion Corporation, Westdell Development, Ironstone Building Company and Wastell Homes." Every one is privately held. The same report attributes 703 new homes to the 100 Fullarton St development (Centro) and 694 to the redevelopment of 370 South St, the old Victoria hospital lands, where a non-profit consortium is delivering 370 affordable units. |
Private company | 12 firms namedA |
6
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
London's commercial landlord class is almost entirely private and local, which is why so little of it is quantified: private Ontario companies file nothing, and the only landlords here with a public disclosure obligation are Cadillac Fairview through its pension owner. The largest holder of core commercial space is a family company whose own website is the only source for its size, and the second-largest retail asset in the city changed hands in 2023 from an institution to another London family firm. No REIT filing opened in this research named a London asset.
| Name | Type | Floor area / assets |
|---|---|---|
| Farhi Holdings Corporation The city's 2023 core vacancy study found one owner holding 59 per cent of vacant commercial properties across all three classes and no Class A space; CBC London named FHC. The Globe reported FHC's own site claiming, in October 2024, "more than fifty million square feet of office, retail, residential, and hospitality space in communities across Ontario, as well as 10,000+ acres of land holdings". The 59 per cent is a municipal count; the 50M sq ft is the owner's own claim. |
Family / private | 59% of the core's vacant commercial properties; 50M+ sq ft claimed province-wideA |
| Cadillac Fairview Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan states CF is "our wholly owned subsidiary" and "manages over 35 million square feet of leasable space at 68 properties across the country". Its single London asset, CF Masonville Place, carries 579,028 sq ft GLA and 153 stores on CF's own property page. |
Pension fund | 35M+ sq ft, 68 properties nationally; 579,028 sq ft in LondonA |
| Westdell Development Corporation Retail Insider, August 2023: White Oaks Mall "has been purchased by London-based Westdell Development Corporation from an institutional vendor", a 700,000 sq ft enclosed mall with 180 stores and services opened in 1973. Its own site is behind bot protection, so no portfolio total is claimed. |
Private company | 700,000 sq ft (White Oaks Mall), 180 storesA |
| Sifton Properties Limited Sifton's own commercial site lists 171 Queens Ave, 200 Queens Ave, 285 King St, 495 Richmond St, 460 Berkshire Dr, 1305 Riverbend Rd, Helio, The Sifton Centre and One London Place, in downtown and west London. The site describes "decades of proven property management experience" and never states ownership of any of them, so this is a managed/leased count, not a holdings count. |
Family / private | 9 commercial properties leased in LondonA |
| York Developments York's About page states it is "actively working on 10 new commercial developments and 11 new residential developments; from luxury high-rise rentals, boutique condominiums, building revitalization, big box retail, and mixed-use office and retail space". No floor area is published. Its awards list names The Cube on Talbot Street (2017) and West Rock Building 9 (2021). |
Family / private | 10 commercial developments activeA |
?
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- The registered owner of One London Place, London's second-tallest building. Sifton Properties publishes it among its commercial properties and states its 24 storeys and 370,000+ sq ft, but claims only management and leasing; GWL Realty Advisors' leasing site also carried it and the URL 302s away. The parcel register costs $37.10.
- The registered owner of City Centre (275 Dundas St), the other Class A office complex in the core.
- The buyer of Citi Plaza. RENX reported the Canadian Commercial Workers Industry Pension Plan had acquired the former Galleria London and that the property had recently sold, but the article body is not served to a script and the mall's own site is behind an anti-crawler block.
- Whether KingSett Capital holds a 50 per cent interest in CF Masonville Place. Search results asserted a 2025 half-stake sale by Cadillac Fairview; no filing, press release or CF page opened states it, so the record carries CF alone.
- The owner of Canada Life Place (formerly John Labatt Centre, then Budweiser Gardens), London's arena. It is commonly understood to be City-owned, but canadalifeplace.com returns HTTP 406 or 404 to every path tried and no City of London page opened states ownership, so no marquee entry was written for it.
- BentallGreenOak as the vendor of White Oaks Mall — attributed to industry sources by Retail Insider, with JLL declining to confirm, so only the buyer is stated as fact.
- London-only unit counts for Drewlo Holdings, Old Oak Properties and Tricar. All three publish either a company-wide total or none at all, and Ontario's register will not aggregate by owner at any price.
- A London-city-only property count for Farhi Holdings. The Globe's figures are 131 properties in Middlesex County (as of October 2024) and 200+ province-wide (as of December 2023); neither is a London boundary count, and the city's 59 per cent is a share of vacant commercial space, not of the downtown.
- The Core Area Land and Building Vacancy Reduction Strategy itself. The 67-page staff report is cited here through CBC London and The Globe and Mail; it could not be located as a document on london.ca, whose site search returned HTTP 000 to a script.
- Any assessed value for any London parcel, and therefore any 'highest assessed parcel' or core assessed total. Ontario publishes no assessment roll and MPAC's lookup is CAPTCHA-gated.
- Per-sale prices with addresses anywhere in Ontario. Consideration appears on the registered transfer instrument only, per parcel, at the fees in s2 — which is why the two priced London transactions in this record ($1M in 2005, $600,000 in 2010, $5M in 2024) all come from a newspaper that paid for the searches.
- Any REIT's London holdings. No REIT filing opened in this research named a London, Ontario asset; RioCan, Choice Properties and First Capital all hold Ontario retail but none was confirmed here for London.
- Whether any sitting member of London City Council holds property relevant to a council decision. London's registry policy CPOL.-386(a)-208, amended 25 July 2023, requires the City Clerk to keep a registry of every written statement of interest filed under the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act and every declaration recorded in open-meeting minutes, and clause 4.3 makes it "available for public inspection in hard copy format in the City Clerks Office, 300 Dufferin Ave, London". Clause 4.5 says an electronic copy will also be uploaded to the City's website; none was found online on 27 September 2026. Nothing was therefore established here about any member's holdings, and nothing is claimed.
- Farmland acreage held in or around London by any named company. FHC states parcels of 9 to 900 acres across 53 municipalities and the Globe's map records 9 farm properties with unknown addresses among the holdings it mapped, but no acreage figure for London or Middlesex specifically could be sourced.
- Per-REIT London unit counts. The Smart Prosperity Institute names Hazelview, Minto Apartment REIT and CAPREIT as owners of many older London apartment buildings, but publishes no counts, and no REIT filing opened here itemises a London asset.
- Whether Centro's 40-storey South Tower is itself the 703-home 100 Fullarton St development the Smart Prosperity Institute counts, or one phase of it. The report gives the site's unit total; Old Oak publishes no per-tower count.
- A primary City of London document stating the 59 per cent concentration. The strategy is confirmed as live policy by the City's own 25 March 2025 staff report, which names it the Core Area Vacancy Reduction Strategy (CAVRS) but publishes no ownership share; the 2023 report itself was not retrievable, and london.ca's site search returned HTTP 000 to a script.
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Sources
- Land Registry — overview — ServiceOntario · openA
- Bulletin No. 2026-04 — Land Services Fee Changes effective November 2, 2026 (Schedules I–III) — Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement, ServiceOntario, Land Registry Services Branch · openA
- The Assessment Cycle — 2026 taxes still on 1 January 2016 values — Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) · openA
- London's landlord: How one developer landed at the centre of a fight over the Southwestern Ontario city's core — The Globe and Mail (Irene Galea and Chris Hannay) · openA
- Downtown London's commercial vacancy is 25 per cent, with few easy or cheap solutions, report says — CBC News London (Andrew Lupton) · openA
- London's downtown office vacancy rate is still the highest in Canada. Here's what could turn it around — CBC News London (Matthew Trevithick) · openA
- Land — "more than 53 municipalities", 9 to 900 contiguous acres (and the company's front page) — Farhi Holdings Corporation · openA
- Commercial — featured property: Westmount Commons — Farhi Holdings Corporation · openA
- About Drewlo Holdings — "68 years / 10,000+ units / 6 cities" — Drewlo Holdings Inc. · openA
- Apartments for rent in London — property list (46 addresses) — Drewlo Holdings Inc. · openA
- Ontario Builder Directory — builder and umbrella summaries (/api/buildersummary, /api/umbrellaSummary, /api/builders) — Home Construction Regulatory Authority (HCRA) · openA
- CF Masonville Place — property page (579,028 sq ft GLA, 153 stores) — Cadillac Fairview · openA
- Real Estate — our investments ("Cadillac Fairview... our wholly owned subsidiary") — Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan · openA
- One London Place and the commercial property list — Sifton Properties Limited · openA
- About Old Oak, and the London apartment rentals list (Centro, 100 Fullarton) — Old Oak Properties Inc. · openA
- About York Developments — York Developments · openA
- About Tricar — The Tricar Group · openA
- London's rejuvenated, repositioned Citi Plaza sold — Real Estate News Exchange (RENX) · openB
- List of tallest buildings in London, Ontario — Wikipedia · openC
- Westdell Developments Acquires White Oaks Mall in London, Ontario, with Ambitious Plans for Revitalization and Mixed-Use Transformation — Retail Insider · openA
- Increasing Housing Supply Update — starts, permits and the 47,000-unit pledge — City of London · openA
- Members of Council Public Registry Declaration of Interest (CPOL.-386(a)-208) — City of London · openA
- Strengthening the Core: Increasing social license for healthy infill development in London, Ontario — Smart Prosperity Institute (J. Helmer), University of Ottawa · openA
- Report to Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee — Downtown Master Plan: Quick-Start Actions — City of London (Scott Mathers, Deputy City Manager, Housing and Community Growth), hosted by Downtown London · openA