Living in Downtown Markham

The short answer

Downtown Markham is the one part of the city built to be walked. Condo towers, ground floor restaurants, a cinema, public squares and the York University Markham Campus, all laid out on a street grid on the Highway 7 corridor.

If you are moving from downtown Toronto and dreading the suburbs, this is usually the first place we take you.

What homes cost

TRREB does not report Downtown Markham as its own community, so there is no neighbourhood median to quote. The table above uses Markham-wide figures instead. In August 2026 the condo apartment median across the whole City of Markham was $563,800 on 57 sales and the condo townhouse median was $750,000 on 28 sales (TRREB Market Watch). The nearest TRREB communities are Unionville and Village Green-South Unionville, but TRREB does not say which one covers this area.

Condo pricing works differently from house pricing and the difference catches people out. Two units with the same asking price can carry very different monthly costs once maintenance fees are counted and fees are not a fixed feature of a building. Read the status certificate and the reserve fund study every time, without exception.

New supply is also a factor. Buildings continue to be delivered in this area and that affects both resale competition and rents in a way it does not in a finished neighbourhood.

The campus and what it changed

The York University Markham Campus brought students, staff and daytime activity into the centre. For residents it means a more active street level than a purely residential condo district and for investors it means a rental pool that did not exist a decade ago.

Amenities and daily life

Restaurants, a cinema, grocery and services are at street level or a short walk away. Public squares and programmed space give the area a centre, which almost nothing else in Markham has.

The honest trade-off: it is new. The public realm is still maturing, some blocks are still construction sites and the neighbourhood does not yet have the settled feel of Unionville a few minutes away. If you want mature trees and quiet, this is the wrong address.

Transit and the commute

Unionville GO on the Stouffville line is a short distance south and runs into Union Station. Viva bus rapid transit runs along Highway 7, connecting west toward Richmond Hill and Vaughan and east toward Cornell. Highway 404 and Highway 407 are both close.

Scheduled weekday morning trains take 41 minutes from Unionville GO to Union Station (GO Transit timetable, September 2026).

Condos for sale in Downtown Markham

What tends to come up for sale here reflects the building mix: condo apartments in the towers along the Highway 7 corridor, stacked and executive townhomes and occasionally a detached home on the edges of the neighbourhood. TRREB does not track Downtown Markham as its own community, so pricing is best read from the Markham-wide figures. Turnover in the condo towers is generally more frequent than for the smaller pool of edge properties.

In August 2026 the Markham-wide condo apartment median was $563,800 across 57 sales and the condo townhouse median was $750,000 across 28 sales (TRREB Market Watch).

Live listings across these building types are searched through condos for sale in Downtown Markham. Tell us what you are looking for and we will watch for the right unit. Owners can start with a free home valuation before deciding to sell.

Downsizing in Downtown Markham

This is the neighbourhood most downsizers leaving a house elsewhere in Markham end up considering, because it was built to be walked rather than driven. The property mix is overwhelmingly condo apartments and stacked or executive townhomes, with only a small number of detached homes on the edges, so a downsizer here is typically trading a house for a condo rather than for another smaller house.

TRREB does not report Downtown Markham as its own community, so use the Markham-wide figures as a guide: in August 2026 the condo apartment median was $563,800 and the condo townhouse median was $750,000. Maintenance fees replace yard work and exterior upkeep as the main ongoing cost, so read the status certificate and reserve fund study before you commit to a specific building. Restaurants, a cinema and the university campus are all within walking distance, which suits downsizers who want to stay in Markham without keeping a car for every errand. Our downsizing in Markham guide covers the move in more detail.

What Downtown Markham offers

Downtown Markham offers condo apartments and townhomes within walking distance of shops, restaurants, the university campus and Viva bus rapid transit on Highway 7, with Unionville GO a short distance south.

It offers few yards, no mature streets and almost no detached houses. For those, look at Unionville or Markham Village.