Halton Region is the Place to Live and Invest
Who thought the Halton region would one day be regarded as a great place to live and to invest?
With Milton’s population growing at an incredible rate, and with Oakville’s active commercial industry, it’s no wonder that these two townships in Halton region are seeing healthy amounts of commercial real estate action.
Don Abma, Broker of RE/MAX Aboutowne Realty Corp. Commercial Real Estate Services says while Oakville does not offer a big enough market to conduct commercial real estate business alone, he says the industry has been “pretty dynamic.”
“The downtown has always provided great retail business for any commercial REALTOR® in Oakville,” he said.
“As far as office buildings and office commercial real estate is concerned, it also is thriving.
“There’s lots of new buildings being built, there’s plenty of office space in Oakville for Realtors to help people get into office space… and we’ve got a pretty thriving industrial market as well.”
Oakville has seen a large amount of development in Winston Park, which is the town’s largest and newest market for prestige industrial, Abma said. And a reason for this is because the demographic that live in and around the Oakville area.
“We’ve got a well-educated demographic,” he said.“Lots of highly-trained and highly- skilled people that can work for companies that come into Oakville.”
In Milton, the story is about the same. Only there’s a long-term plan in place, and the population is expected to grow from 84,000 to 228,000 by 2031. “There’s lots of opportunities here,” said Colin Best, sales representative of Royal LePage Meadowtowne, and Milton Local and Regional Councillor of Wards 2, 3, 4 and 5. “The Town is planning in its employment survey up to 9 million square feet [of commercial space] over the next 25 years.”
Best went on to update that the Milton downtown area may see rezoning off the main street for main floor office use.“[It’s] going to be a big boost for downtown.”
According to Best, the Town will also be evaluating how to best use the three acres of parking lot real estate, whether it be underground or multi-level parking lots.
One of the main reasons for the success of commercial real estate in both Oakville and Milton can be summed up in one word: location.
“A lot of companies are looking to Milton because [of] geographically where it’s located,” said Jack McCrudden, sales representative of RE/MAX Real Estate Centre Inc., Brokerage in Milton.“There’s easy access to the airport, easy access to the QEW, and easy access to the west – to Kitchener and Windsor. Oakville is much the same.”
There’s a lot of development in both townships, meaning both places have lots of opportunities for residents in the GTA. Suffice it to say that you’ll find Oakville and Milton to be places suitable to not only live in, but to invest and conduct business in.
