Pandemic distortions pushed suburban prices beyond their historical relationship with the city and that spread is now narrowing. The great return-to-office recall will continue to reinforce that pattern, pulling value back toward the core.

Toronto is about to stage a drama unlike any other city on the continent. After years of silence in its glass towers, the country’s most powerful employers are summoning workers back, not for a day or two but for four and five days a week. Sixty thousand civil servants, armies of bank employees, the foot soldiers of telecom empires, all called to fill desks that have sat half empty since the world locked down. What looks like a cultural correction is in fact an economic experiment, one that will decide the fate of suburbs, test the strength of downtown real estate, and reveal just how far employers are willing to go in a labour market that has turned against its workers.

 

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