Site & Market Review
We place your property in the correct London commercial corridor, not a one-size-fits-all city market.
RealEx Inc. London, Ontario
Commercial Real Estate Appraisal & Advisory in London, Ontario
RealEx Inc. offers commercial real estate appraisal and advisory in London, Ontario. London sits at the crossroads of Highways 401 and 402, roughly midway between Toronto and Detroit, and that position has made it one of Southwestern Ontario’s most active mid-sized commercial markets.
London's Commercial Market at a Glance (Q1 2026)
London’s three major asset classes are telling three different stories right now. Downtown office vacancy held essentially flat at 31.5% through Q1 2026, a meaningful number given that downtown accounts for roughly three-quarters of the city’s total office inventory. Industrial tells a more complicated story: availability climbed 220 basis points year-over-year through Q1 2026, the largest increase of any major market CBRE tracks nationally, yet net asking rents for space still leasing grew 3.5% quarter-over-quarter over the same period, the fastest pace CBRE tracks anywhere in the country. Those two numbers aren’t contradictory: older or poorly located space is driving the availability figure up, while well-located industrial product stays genuinely tight, which is exactly why rents keep climbing at the same time. Multi-family, meanwhile, continues to tighten, with vacancy easing to roughly 3.2% as of CMHC’s October 2025 survey and average two-bedroom purpose-built rent near $1,500. Because London’s cap rates aren’t published as systematically as they are in Toronto or Kitchener-Waterloo, RealEx’s valuation work here leans more heavily on direct comparable transactions than on a published benchmark.
London's Real Submarkets
Downtown Core
(Richmond Street, Dundas Place, King Street)
Holds the majority of the city's office inventory and the highest vacancy. It's also where most conversion activity is concentrated, including the planned repositioning of the former Royal Bank building at 383-391 Richmond Street into mixed-use residential and commercial space. Richmond Row's retail has held up better than office space in the same footprint.
Airport Road and the Innovation Park Industrial Corridor
Innovation Park is a four-phase, city-owned industrial park north of Highway 401, with fully serviced land currently priced at roughly $315,000 per acre as of March 2026. Skyway Industrial Park sits adjacent to London International Airport, bordered by Oxford Street East on its south side. Multinational tenants in London's industrial parks include Maple Leaf Foods, Dr. Oetker, and Hanwha L&C Canada.
Old East Village
A designated Ontario Heritage Conservation District running east from downtown. Commercial activity here is organized largely through the Old East Village BIA, and the neighbourhood's heritage designation shapes what renovation and redevelopment options are available on a given property.
Oxford Street East and West
Oxford Street West runs past Hyde Park toward Western University's campus; Oxford Street East borders Skyway Industrial Park near the airport. The same street carries entirely different commercial character depending which end of the city you're on.
Wellington Road and White Oaks
White Oaks Mall, at the corner of Wellington Road and Bradley Avenue just north of Highway 401, has anchored this power centre corridor since 1973 with roughly 698,500 square feet across 145 stores. This stretch of Wellington Road functions as one of London's primary big-box and power centre retail corridors.
Hyde Park
A north London neighbourhood of 12,690 residents as of 2021, bordered by Fanshawe Park Road and Sarnia Road. The intersection of Hyde Park Road and Oxford Street West was specifically redesignated from "Shopping Area" to "Major Shopping Area" under a recent Official Plan Amendment, a direct, mapped policy signal that this corridor is expected to carry more retail density going forward.
Masonville
North London's other major retail node, anchored by CF Masonville Place, drawing on the surrounding residential density and proximity to Western University.
The 401/402 interchange lands
London sits at the junction of Highways 401 and 402, roughly midway between Toronto and Detroit, and land near that interchange carries a logistics premium tied directly to that position.
Demand Drivers, By Name
Western University and Fanshawe College support a combined student population approaching 60,000, and that population drives multi-residential demand specifically in the neighbourhoods surrounding both campuses, including sections of Old North near Western and areas near Fanshawe’s main London campus. London Health Sciences Centre, operating University Hospital, Victoria Hospital, and other facilities as a teaching hospital network serving all of Southwestern Ontario, is the city’s largest single employer and anchors a medical office cluster around both hospital campuses. St. Joseph’s Health Care London adds further institutional demand. Food processing, through Maple Leaf Foods, Dr. Oetker, and The Original Cakerie, and automotive supply, through Arvin Sango, Sodecia, and Canada Tubeform, anchor London’s industrial base, and the city’s five municipally-owned industrial business parks, with Innovation Park’s current land pricing, are a direct signal of where that demand is landing.
Policy Context Appraisers Need to Know
London’s growth is being steered by policy as much as by market forces. The London Plan, adopted by City Council in June 2016 and approved by the Province that December, replaced the city’s 1989 Official Plan and directs growth “inward and upward”. This concentrates intensification into Transit Village, Rapid Transit Corridor, and Downtown Place Types near higher-order transit stations, with Official Plan Amendment 30 setting the minimum and maximum building heights and density targets that make that concentration enforceable. The city’s ongoing Official Plan review, through its current Land Needs Assessment, has already concluded that London will need more land for both residential and industrial development to meet 30-year growth projections, supporting the province’s target of 47,000 new housing units for the city.
The Hyde Park Road and Oxford Street West redesignation to Major Shopping Area, discussed above, shows that intensification push landing on an actual corridor rather than staying on paper. None of this happens in a vacuum: development charges apply to new construction citywide and factor directly into feasibility for ground-up projects, and MPAC’s current assessment cycle, still built on a 2016 base valuation date province-wide, means assessed value and current market value can diverge meaningfully in a fast-moving submarket like Innovation Park. RealEx accounts for that gap directly in reports intended for financing or dispute purposes.
Key factors currently influencing property value in London include:
Multi-family demand
Demand around Western University and Fanshawe College remains an important local driver even as overall rental vacancy has loosened.
Retail divergence
Established retail corridors and newer suburban centres can experience very different tenant demand and performance.
Institutional demand
Major healthcare and education institutions support demand for surrounding service businesses, housing, medical office and ancillary commercial uses.
Downtown office repositioning
Historically high office vacancy is putting pressure on older Class B buildings and increasing interest in residential conversion and alternative uses.
Industrial quality and location
Rising availability and rising rents occurring simultaneously make building quality, functionality and access to major transportation routes increasingly important.
Why Choose RealEx Inc. for London Ontario Appraisals
Alex Rance was born in London and built his career here before founding RealEx, so this isn’t a market he flies into for assignments, it’s the one he knows from the ground up. He holds the AACI and P.App designations, the Personal Level Endorsement, and currently chairs the Appraisal Institute of Canada’s London Chapter, a peer-elected role for 2024 and 2025. He also owns and manages a property portfolio of his own in Southwestern Ontario, so the leasing, renovation, and development-approval questions clients bring him are ones he’s worked through firsthand.
Our Appraisal Process
Valuing commercial property in London means treating it as the collection of distinct corridors it actually is, not a single, uniform market. Our process starts with placing your property correctly within its submarket, then builds a valuation using the data and method that fit the asset, resulting in a report that holds up under scrutiny from lenders, buyers, insurers, or the courts.
Who We Work With
RealEx Inc.’s London clients typically fall into a few categories, each with different reporting needs:
Our approach is built on detailed market analysis and property-specific evaluation. Each assignment includes data collection, comparable review, and the application of appropriate valuation methods to ensure accurate and defensible reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions For Commercial Appraisals in London
Why does London's downtown office vacancy stay so high while industrial rents keep climbing at the same time?
The two sectors are responding to different pressures. Downtown offices carry a large inventory built for a work pattern that’s shifted, while well-located industrial space near Highway 401 remains genuinely scarce.
How does the Hyde Park Road and Oxford Street West redesignation affect nearby property values?
Land re-designated from Shopping Area to Major Shopping Area under the Official Plan Amendment can support greater retail density, which typically supports higher land value for redevelopment-stage sites in that specific corridor.
Why is Innovation Park land priced so differently from older industrial stock elsewhere in the city?
Innovation Park is fully serviced, city-owned, and positioned directly off Highway 401, which puts its current per-acre pricing well ahead of older, less accessible industrial parcels that need more work to bring to the same standard.
Does Old East Village's heritage designation limit what an owner can do with a commercial building there?
It shapes renovation and redevelopment options rather than blocking them outright. Any exterior work typically needs to respect the district’s heritage character, which factors into both cost and feasibility for a given project.
Why does RealEx rely on comparable transactions instead of published cap rates for London work?
London’s cap rates simply aren’t tracked and published as systematically as they are in Toronto or Kitchener-Waterloo, so direct comparable sales and lease transactions specific to the submarket carry more weight in our reports here.
Is London's office vacancy problem affecting retail and industrial property too?
No. Retail nodes like Masonville and White Oaks, and the city’s industrial parks, are performing on entirely different terms than the downtown office sector.
What does a commercial appraisal in London typically cost?
It depends on property type, size, and intended use, a small retail unit costs meaningfully less than a multi-tenant industrial building or a complex mixed-use conversion. Contact RealEx directly for a quote specific to your property.
What documentation should I have on hand before the site inspection?
A current site plan or survey, your most recent property tax assessment, existing leases or rent rolls for income-producing property, and recent capital improvement records. Your lender may specify additional requirements for a financing appraisal.
Request a Commercial Appraisal in London, Ontario
If you need a commercial real estate appraisal or advisory support in London, Ontario, RealEx Inc. is ready to assist. Contact our team to discuss your property, its location and corridor, your timeline, and your reporting requirements.