Markham, Ontario
Nearly a fifth of Markham belongs to one owner, and it is not a developer: Parks Canada holds 4,162 hectares inside the city as Rouge National Urban Park — 19.7 per cent of Markham's land area, with 361 buildings on it, mostly the farmhouses of expropriated farms. The two largest private assemblies are both single-owner too: The Remington Group's 243-acre Downtown Markham, and Cadillac Fairview's 169-acre former Buttonville airport, for half of which it paid Armadale almost $193 million. Ontario charges $37.10 a parcel to read the register, publishes no assessment roll and no prices, so the city's busiest mall carries a blank.
7 buildings · 5 with an owner established · 15 sources · 6 tier A · 1 tier B · prepared 2026-10-03
Can you find out who owns it?
Ontario's land registry is the official record of ownership and it is public but not open: ServiceOntario states 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", that the services "are only available online", and that on OnLand "You can do a self-search for a fee" — $37.10 per parcel register under the bulletin effective 2 November 2026. There is no bulk extract at any price, and Teraview is restricted to licensed users. MPAC publishes no assessment roll and the 2026 tax year still runs on 1 January 2016 values, and Ontario publishes no price-paid dataset, so a Markham sale price is reachable only on the individual registered transfer. The single most important ownership fact about Markham is nonetheless free, because it is federal: the Directory of Federal Real Property, an Open-Government-Licensed dataset, records every Parks Canada parcel in the Rouge with its hectares and building count, so the fifth of the city the Crown holds can be measured. Everything private is known here only from an owner's own statement or a reported transaction.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rouge National Urban Park — the Markham lands eastern Markham, between the Little Rouge Creek and the Durham boundary 4,162.24 hectares (10,285 acres) — 19.73% of Markham's land area — carrying 361 buildings |
Land | Government of Canada (Parks Canada Agency) The Directory of Federal Real Property records two Parks Canada properties with Markham parcels, both "Crown Owned": "Rouge National Urban Park", whose parcel 01 is 3,423.96 ha in Markham with 257 buildings and 39,540 m² of floor area, and "Rouge NUP - other lands", with 738.28 ha in Markham across two parcels, 104 buildings and 23,643 m². That is 4,162.24 ha, or 19.73 per cent of Markham's 210.93 km². The same park record also holds 2,278.03 ha in Pickering and 555.20 ha in Uxbridge, so this is the Markham portion only. The 361 buildings show how the Crown came to hold a fifth of a GTA city: they are the houses and outbuildings of farms the federal government assembled decades ago. |
Government | —A |
| CF Markville 5000 Highway 7, Markham L3R 4M9 853,058 sq ft GLA (309,817 sq ft CRU), 181 stores, $1,059 sales per sq ft |
Retail | Cadillac Fairview Published on Cadillac Fairview's own property page for CF Markville at 5000 Hwy 7: 853,058 sq ft GLA, 309,817 sq ft CRU, 181 stores, $1,059 sales per square foot and $2,691 food-court sales per square foot, described as "a premium meeting place in one of the GTA's highest-growth areas". The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan's own real estate page states: "Cadillac Fairview (CF), our wholly owned subsidiary ... manages over 35 million square feet of leasable space at 68 properties across the country." RENX reported in 2023 that CF is also redeveloping the CF Markville site. CF's page is a leasing page, not a title, and states no price. |
Pension fund | —B |
| Downtown Markham Highway 7 at Birchmount Road / Enterprise Boulevard, Markham 243 acres, including 72 acres of landscaped green space |
Mixed use | The Remington Group Remington's own project page, read 3 October 2026: "Downtown Markham is where vision meets vitality—a 243-acre, master-planned urban centre designed to inspire. Alive with more than $35 million in thought-provoking public art ... Within its 72 acres of landscaped green space, residents and visitors enjoy a truly unique blend of culture, commerce and convenience." The page is explicit about the assembly: "Once rolling farmland, this 243-acre site was carefully acquired by Founder Rudolph P. Bratty ... Remington transformed the land into a $4 billion urban destination." Bratty is named because the company's own page identifies him as its founder and the assembler of the land. |
Family / private | —A |
| Former Toronto Buttonville Municipal Airport Highway 404 at 16th Avenue, bounded by Renfrew Drive and Valleywood Drive, Markham 169–170 acres; a 2.78 million sq ft industrial development proposed |
Land | Cadillac Fairview 100% since acquiring Armadale's 50 per cent RENX, 4 August 2023: "Buttonville Municipal Airport in Markham, Ont., will close at the end of November and a recent proposal from owner Cadillac Fairview plans to replace it with a 2.78-million-square-foot industrial development. ... Cadillac Fairview, which paid almost $193 million to Armadale Properties Ltd. to acquire the 50 per cent interest in the property it didn't already own two years ago, is proposing a multi-phased industrial development" on "the 169-acre site ... at the junction of Highway 404 and 16th Avenue". RENX reported in January 2020, quoting CF's own communications manager, that CF "and our partner, the Sifton Family" were selling their positions. |
Pension fund | CAD $193,000,000 2021 "almost $193 million" paid to Armadale Properties Ltd. for the 50 per cent interest Cadillac Fairview did not already own, reported by RENX in August 2023 as having happened "two years ago". A |
| Pickering Airport Site — the Markham lands northeastern Markham 19.00 hectares (47 acres) in Markham, of a 3,565.90 hectare federal site |
Land | Government of Canada (Transport Canada) The Directory of Federal Real Property records the "Pickering Airport Site" as Transport Canada, interest type "Crown Owned", primary use "Transportation Air", with parcel 01 of 3,546.90 ha in Pickering and parcel 02 of 19.00 ha in Markham. Only the Markham parcel is counted in this record. Transport Canada also holds a separate 0.43 ha Crown-owned property in Markham recorded as "Buttonville (NDB)" — a navigation beacon on part of Lot 30, Concession 5 — the only federal interest left at a site whose airport is privately owned and now closed. |
Government | —A |
| Pacific Mall 4300 Steeles Ave E, Markham L3R 0Y5 over 350 stores and over 2,000 parking spaces |
Retail | Not established a paid title search would answer it The largest Chinese indoor shopping mall in North America, and a blank. Its own site, read 3 October 2026, states that "Pacific Mall has over 16 events all year around, with over 350 stores & over 2000 parking spaces", gives the address as 4300 Steeles Ave. E., and says it opens 365 days a year. Nowhere on it does an owner appear: the footer reads only "Copyright 2026 by Pacific Mall Toronto". No free document opened here names a registered owner. Ontario's answer costs $37.10 — and because Pacific Mall's retail units are widely understood to be individually held, there may be no single answer at that price either. |
Not established | —A |
| Markham's federal office leases — 232 Yorktech Drive, 145 and 140 Renfrew Drive, 5051 Highway 7 East Markham 1,548 m², 603 m², 139 m² and 783 m² respectively |
Office | Not established a paid title search would answer it A representative blank for Markham's office market, and the sharpest illustration of the regime in this record. The Directory of Federal Real Property names Public Services and Procurement Canada as the occupant of all four addresses under interest type "Lease or Licence", the Business Development Bank of Canada as occupant of 326 m² at "Uptown Square", 201-3985 Highway 7 E, and the National Research Council as occupant of 208 m² at 3600 Steeles Avenue E. In every case the open federal dataset names the tenant precisely and the landlord not at all. Nine of Markham's thirteen federal properties are leases of this kind. |
Not established | —A |
2
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
Markham's core ownership fact is a share, not a price: a fifth of the city is a national park the federal government assembled out of farms, and it is countable to the hectare because the federal directory publishes it. The rest of the city's consequential ground is two large private assemblies and one mall, and only one of those has a published price. The Directory of Federal Real Property was downloaded in full and parsed parcel by parcel for this record, with each parcel attributed by the dataset's own Municipality field and cross-checked against its Metro Area field; land-area shares are computed against the 2021 Census.
Largest landowner in MarkhamParks Canada Agency — 4,162.24 ha, 19.73% of the city
Directory of Federal Real Property, dataset dated 21–22 November 2025, parsed 3 October 2026: Rouge National Urban Park parcel 01 (3,423.96 ha, 257 buildings) plus Rouge NUP - other lands parcels 02 and 04 (738.28 ha, 104 buildings), all Crown Owned, against Markham's land area of 210.93 km² from Statistics Canada table 98-10-0002 (2021 Census). No private owner in this record comes within a factor of forty of it.
All federal real property in Markham13 properties, 4,183.36 ha (19.83% of the city), 69,990 m² of floor space in 370 buildings
Same parse: 4 Crown Owned (4,181.67 ha, 63,183 m², 361 buildings — essentially all of it the Rouge) and 9 leases or licences totalling 6,807 m². The 361 Crown-owned buildings on park land, against 9 buildings' worth of leased federal office space, is the whole shape of the federal presence in Markham in two numbers.
Largest private land assemblies243 acres (The Remington Group, Downtown Markham) and 169–170 acres (Cadillac Fairview, former Buttonville airport)
Remington's own project page for the 243-acre master plan, which it calls "a $4 billion urban destination" assembled from "rolling farmland" by its founder, with 72 acres of landscaped green space and more than $35 million of public art. RENX for the airport: 169 acres at Highway 404 and 16th Avenue, with a 2.78-million-square-foot industrial development proposed after a 10-million-square-foot mixed-use plan was shelved in 2020. Together they are 412 acres, 167 hectares, under one per cent of the city — a reminder that in a GTA municipality the private assemblies that shape the skyline are small beside the public land.
Only document-stated price for Markham land"almost $193 million" for a 50 per cent interest in the 169-acre Buttonville site, about 2021
RENX, August 2023: "Cadillac Fairview, which paid almost $193 million to Armadale Properties Ltd. to acquire the 50 per cent interest in the property it didn't already own two years ago". On that figure the whole site implies roughly $2.3 million per acre. Ontario publishes no price-paid file, so this is the only Markham transaction price in this record.
Highest assessed parcel / core assessed totalnot published
MPAC's Assessment Cycle page, read 3 October 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.ca redirects a script to a CAPTCHA. markham.ca's budget pages return the site's 404 template, so no municipal assessment base was obtained either.
Provincial housing target and progress44,000 homes by 2031; 6,492 since 2022; 2,034 in 2024 against a 3,667 target (55.47%)
Ontario's housing supply progress, January–December 2024, data.ontario.ca, Open Government Licence – Ontario. Status: "Not met". Global News reported in 2026, from a provincial briefing note obtained under freedom-of-information law, that Markham reached 49 per cent of its 2025 target and has received no money from the Building Faster Fund since the programme launched. RENX noted in 2023 that the all-industrial Buttonville proposal arrived while "Markham is at just 59 per cent of the pace needed to meet the province's target of 44,000 new homes in the city by 2031".
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.
Markham's housing is built by the York Region condominium and estate-home builders, several of them headquartered within a few kilometres of each other, and the only public count of them is the Home Construction Regulatory Authority's Ontario Builder Directory, which publishes each licensee's "Total Possessions" — the freehold and condominium homes actually occupied by a buyer. The figures below are read from its JSON API. The usual Ontario warnings apply with particular force here: the counts are cumulative and province-wide rather than annual Markham starts, and builders incorporate a company per project, so only the umbrella level is usable — The Remington Group appears as two separate umbrellas at the same Keele Street address, and Aspen Ridge appears as more than thirty single-purpose companies with no umbrella and no possessions recorded against any of them. Purpose-built rental is not warranty-enrolled and so is invisible. For volume the province's own open data is the better series: Markham logged 2,034 units of housing progress in 2024 against a 3,667 target.
| Name | Type | Total possessions (cumulative, Ontario) |
|---|---|---|
| The Remington Group HCRA records two umbrella accounts at 7501 Keele Street: "Remington Homes" (umbrella 3317) with 2,131 freehold + 18 condominium = 2,149, 11 chargeable conciliations and $182,413 in claims; and "The Remington Group" (umbrella 12538591) with 0 freehold + 2,516 condominium, zero chargeable conciliations and no claims. The split is almost perfectly clean between the low-rise and high-rise arms. Remington is also the owner of the 243-acre Downtown Markham assembly. |
Family / private | 4,665 across two umbrellasA |
| Times Group HCRA umbrella 11737292, 3985 Highway 7 East, Markham: 60 freehold + 3,474 condominium, 3 chargeable conciliations and no claims. The largest Markham-headquartered builder umbrella in the directory, and almost entirely condominium. The same address, 3985 Highway 7 E, appears in the federal real property directory as "Uptown Square", where the Business Development Bank of Canada leases 326 m². |
Private company | 3,534A |
| Lindvest HCRA umbrella 12540791, 3625 Dufferin Street: 1,607 freehold + 1,740 condominium, 15 chargeable conciliations and $126,824 in claims. |
Family / private | 3,347A |
| Cachet Estate Homes HCRA umbrella 9947, 361 Connie Crescent, Concord: 2,623 freehold + 354 condominium, 3 chargeable conciliations and $23,313 in claims. One of the principal estate-home builders in Markham's low-rise neighbourhoods. |
Family / private | 2,977A |
| Kylemore Homes HCRA umbrella 10071, 9980 Kennedy Road, Markham: 385 freehold + 192 condominium, 1 chargeable conciliation and no claims. A Markham address at the Angus Glen end of the city. |
Private company | 577A |
| Mattamy Homes HCRA umbrella 3337, 66 Wellington Street West, Toronto: 27,077 freehold + 8,811 condominium, 14 chargeable conciliations. Its Markham single-purpose companies — Mattamy (Berczy Glen) Limited among them, licensed 12 January 2021 with 269 freehold + 26 condominium of its own — sit under this umbrella, which is why the directory cannot be read as a municipal league table. |
Family / private | 35,888 (province-wide)A |
| Tridel HCRA umbrella 796, 4800 Dufferin Street: 0 freehold + 12,101 condominium, zero chargeable conciliations. Included for scale: the largest condominium book in the directory, active across York Region. |
Family / private | 12,101 (province-wide)A |
| Menkes Developments HCRA umbrella 3322, 4711 Yonge Street: 294 freehold + 9,699 condominium, 1 chargeable conciliation and no claims. |
Family / private | 9,993 (province-wide)A |
| City of Markham — all builders Ontario's housing supply progress, January–December 2024: Markham recorded 2,034 units of housing progress against a 2024 target of 3,667 (55.47%, status "Not met"), and 6,492 since 2022 against a ten-year target of 44,000. The province counts housing starts, additional residential units, long-term-care beds, licensed congregate retirement suites and postsecondary student beds. |
Government | 2,034 in 2024A |
6
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
Markham's commercial property has three owners worth naming and a long tail nobody can name. Cadillac Fairview, a pension-plan subsidiary, holds both the city's dominant mall and its largest redevelopment site; The Remington Group holds the downtown; Times Group holds the condominium-and-office cluster on Highway 7. After that the record stops: Markham is one of Canada's largest office markets outside a downtown — Allstate Parkway, Commerce Valley Drive, Renfrew Drive, the Steeles corridor — and no document opened in this research names the owner of a single building in it.
| Name | Type | Floor area / land / assets |
|---|---|---|
| Cadillac Fairview CF's own property page gives CF Markville 853,058 sq ft GLA, 309,817 sq ft CRU, 181 stores and $1,059 sales per square foot. RENX establishes CF as owner of the 169-acre former airport, bought out to 100 per cent for almost $193 million paid to Armadale Properties Ltd., with 2.78 million square feet of industrial proposed. The 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". CF is the largest private landowner in Markham by a wide margin on these two assets alone. |
Pension fund | 853,058 sq ft GLA at CF Markville plus 169 acres at the former Buttonville airport; over 35M sq ft at 68 properties nationallyA |
| The Remington Group Remington's own project page, which states the land was "carefully acquired by Founder Rudolph P. Bratty" out of farmland and developed in partnership with the City of Markham, with more than $35 million of public art and district energy cutting community emissions by 50 per cent. Its own corporate page describes the firm as "not merely a builder of homes and commercial spaces" but "creators of vibrant, sustainable communities". No built floor area is published. |
Family / private | 243 acres at Downtown Markham, including 72 acres of green space; a "$4 billion urban destination"A |
| Times Group HCRA umbrella 11737292: 60 freehold + 3,474 condominium, 3 chargeable conciliations. Listed here as well as under builders because its Highway 7 East address is itself a commercial complex — the federal real property directory records the Business Development Bank of Canada leasing 326 m² at "Uptown Square", 201-3985 Highway 7 E. No floor area for the complex is published and no ownership of it is claimed. |
Private company | 3,534 cumulative possessions from 3985 Highway 7 EastA |
| Parks Canada Agency Not a commercial landlord, and listed because it is the answer to "who owns Markham". Directory of Federal Real Property: Rouge National Urban Park and its associated lands, all Crown Owned, 19.73 per cent of the city's land area, carrying 63,183 m² of floor area in 361 buildings — the inherited farm buildings of the land the Crown assembled. |
Government | 4,162.24 ha and 361 buildings in MarkhamA |
?
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 owner of Pacific Mall, 4300 Steeles Ave E. Its own site states its size and names no owner; no free document opened names a registered owner. The retail units there are widely understood to be individually held, so a single $37.10 parcel register may not answer the question either — but nothing was established and nothing is claimed.
- The registered owner of any office building in Markham, including 232 Yorktech Drive, 145 and 140 Renfrew Drive, 5051 Highway 7 East, 3985 Highway 7 East and 3600 Steeles Avenue East — every one of which the Directory of Federal Real Property confirms as leased to a federal body, with the tenant named and the landlord not. Markham is one of the largest suburban office markets in Canada and this record contains no office owner at all.
- Markham's corporate headquarters campuses — IBM Canada at 3600 Steeles Avenue East, Honda Canada, Aviva Canada, AMD — none of which could be attributed to an owner from an opened source. The federal directory does confirm that the National Research Council leases 208 m² at 3600 Steeles Avenue East.
- The exact date Cadillac Fairview bought out Armadale Properties Ltd. RENX reported in August 2023 that it happened "two years ago", which places it in about 2021; no document stating the closing date was opened.
- Whether Cadillac Fairview's 2.78-million-square-foot industrial proposal for the Buttonville site has been approved. RENX describes the application as submitted to the City of Markham in 2023; no decision was found.
- Any assessed value for any Markham parcel, and therefore any 'highest assessed parcel' or core assessed total. MPAC publishes no roll and its lookup is CAPTCHA-gated; markham.ca's budget pages 404.
- Any per-sale price with an address anywhere in Ontario. Consideration appears on the registered transfer instrument only, per parcel, at the fees in s2 — which is why this record carries exactly one Markham transaction price.
- The City of Markham's own land area as the City states it. The 210.93 km² used here is Statistics Canada's 2021 Census figure for the census subdivision; markham.ca's About page states no area, and the Census Profile pages return 403 to a script.
- The City of Markham's own property holdings, including the Markham Civic Centre and the Markham Pan Am Centre. No city-owned property dataset or statement was reachable.
- Whether any sitting member of Markham Council holds property relevant to a council decision. No conflict-of-interest registry was reachable on markham.ca, nothing was established and nothing is claimed.
§
Sources
- Land Registry — "the official records of property ownership", 7.4 million parcels, self-search for a fee — 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
- Directory of Federal Real Property — full XML dataset (custodian, interest type, land area, floor area and building count per parcel) — Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Office of the Comptroller General · openA
- Population and dwelling counts: census subdivisions — land area in square kilometres, 2021 — Statistics Canada, table 98-10-0002-01 · openA
- The Assessment Cycle — 2026 taxes still based on 1 January 2016 values — Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) · openA
- CF Markville — property page (853,058 sq ft GLA, 181 stores, $1,059 sales PSF) — Cadillac Fairview · openA
- Downtown Markham — "a 243-acre, master-planned urban centre"; the land "carefully acquired by Founder Rudolph P. Bratty" — The Remington Group · openA
- All-industrial redevelopment of Buttonville airport proposed; and Toronto Buttonville Airport site going up for sale — Real Estate News Exchange (RENX, Steve McLean) · openA
- Pacific Mall Toronto — "over 350 stores & over 2000 parking spaces", 4300 Steeles Ave. E.; no owner named anywhere on the site — Pacific Mall Toronto · openA
- Real Estate — "Cadillac Fairview (CF), our wholly owned subsidiary... over 35 million square feet of leasable space at 68 properties" — Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan · openA
- Ontario Builder Directory — builder and umbrella summaries (/api/builders, /api/buildersummary, /api/umbrellaSummary) — Home Construction Regulatory Authority (HCRA) · openA
- Ontario's housing supply: January – December 2024 (ten-year target, annual target, progress, status by municipality) — Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Ontario Data Catalogue · openA
- Ontario hit 58% of 2025 housing goal, even after adding long-term care, student beds (provincial briefing note obtained under FOI) — Global News · openA
- Toronto Buttonville Airport site going up for sale — the Cadillac Fairview/Armadale joint venture formed October 2010; 170 acres; "our partner, the Sifton Family" — Real Estate News Exchange (RENX, Steve McLean) · openA
- About The City of Markham — City of Markham · openA