The Short Answer
Markham's height is concentrating in four places: Markham Centre and Downtown Markham, Uptown Markham on Highway 7 at Warden, the Yonge and Steeles corridor in Thornhill, and Langstaff Gateway at Yonge and Highway 7. The tallest completed building in Markham is Riverview III at Uptown Markham, 42 storeys. Under construction, UnionCity beside Unionville GO runs to 42 storeys and roughly 147.7 metres. The largest proposal on the books is the Shoppes on Steeles redevelopment at 5,049 units across 13 buildings up to 59 storeys, which is proposed rather than approved. The City's own planning forecast puts Markham Centre at 56,500 units at full build-out.
Want this applied to your own property? Call the Kaizen Real Estate Team at (647) 370-8885.
Four Nodes, Not One Downtown
Markham does not have a single downtown the way most cities do. It has four growth nodes, each with a different character, a different developer, and a different stage of completion. Understanding which is which explains almost everything about where the cranes are.
Michael John Lau, a REALTORĀ® with the Kaizen Real Estate Team, among the most active real estate teams in Markham and York Region, tracks these files because buyers and sellers ask about them constantly and because the answers change every few months. What follows is a snapshot, with the status of each project stated plainly.
Questions About Your Situation?
Every Markham property and every timeline is different. Call the Kaizen Real Estate Team at (647) 370-8885 and speak to a REALTORĀ® who works this market daily.
Tallest Completed in Markham
Building | Storeys | Height | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|
Riverview III at Uptown Markham | 42 | 126 m | 2023 |
Riverview II at Uptown Markham | 36 | 108 m | 2023 |
Pavilia Towers I | 36 | 108 m | 2023 |
World on Yonge I and II | 31 each | 105.5 m | 2014 |
Gallery Towers I, Downtown Markham | 30 | 102.5 m | 2026 |
Riverside at Uptown Markham | 28 | 89 m | 2018 |
Gallery Towers II | 25 | 87.5 m | 2026 |
Reference databases disagree on some of these heights by several metres, so treat them as approximate. The storey counts are consistent.
Under Construction
UnionCity, Metropia
Enterprise Boulevard and Kennedy Road, directly beside Unionville GO station, on a roughly 12-acre master plan.
- UnionCity A: 42 storeys, approximately 147.7 metres
- UnionCity B: 40 storeys, approximately 140 metres
- UnionCity C: 36 storeys, approximately 108 metres
- Target completion around 2027
UnionCity A would be the tallest building in Markham on completion. Published unit counts for the project vary considerably between sources, so any specific suite total should be confirmed with the builder.
Separately, a UnionCity South proposal trimmed its tallest tower to 45 storeys in January 2026.
Pangea at Uptown Markham
3825 Highway 7 East. Two towers, 45 and 40 storeys, 811 units. Sources disagree on whether construction has physically started. Marketed occupancy is spring or summer 2028.
The Largest Files in the Pipeline
Project | Location | Scale | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Shoppes on Steeles redevelopment | 2880 to 2930 Steeles Ave E, at Don Mills Rd | 13 buildings, 8 to 59 storeys, 5,049 units, 0.93 ha park, 3 phases over roughly 30 years | Proposed, submitted May 2024 |
Markham Woodside, SmartCentres | 3075 to 3175 Highway 7 | 3 to 35 storeys, 3,110 units, 3 new public parks, 4 phases | Approved by Markham |
7115 Yonge St and Grandview Ave, TerraBona | Thornhill, Yonge and Steeles corridor | 49 and 46 storeys, 873 purpose-built rental units | Approved by the Ontario Land Tribunal, November 2025 |
7323 Highway 7 E, Lindwide | Highway 7 at Donald Cousens Pkwy, Cornell | 2,052 units, 6 to 20 storey apartments plus townhouses, 7.2 ha | Complete application, April 2026 |
Ruland Properties, Remington | Verdale Crossing and Birchmount, Markham Centre | 5 towers, 15 to 41 storeys, 2,139 units | In review, PLAN 24 197692 |
3085 Highway 7, Longo's site | South side, east of Woodbine | 4 towers, 30 to 36 storeys, 1,711 units, public park | Public meeting February 2026 |
Langstaff Gateway Central Precinct | Yonge and Highway 7 | 6 buildings, 7 to 49 storeys, 1,668 units | Public meeting June 2021 |
9421 and 9441 Markham Rd, Cham Shan Temple | Markham Rd south of Bur Oak | 3 buildings, 30 to 35 storeys, 1,218 units | Public meeting April 2026 |
8432 to 8500 Leslie St | Southwest corner Leslie and Highway 7 | 4 buildings, 9 to 42 storeys, 1,183 units, 14.8 acres | Public meeting March 2026 |
36 to 48 Steeles Ave E, Zonix | Markham and Toronto border | 40 and 44 storeys, 1,060 units | Approved by the Ontario Land Tribunal, May 2024 |
4080 to 4088 Highway 7 E | East of Warden | 3 buildings, 12 storeys each, 701 units | Public meeting June 2026 |
Two of the largest headline numbers in that table belong to projects at opposite ends of the approval process. Shoppes on Steeles, at 5,049 units, is a proposal. TerraBona's 873-unit rental pair at Yonge and Grandview is approved by the Ontario Land Tribunal. Both get written about in the same tone, and they are not the same thing.
Neeraj Moolchandani on What This Pipeline Does Not Add
Neeraj Moolchandani, REALTORĀ® at Kaizen Real Estate, reads the whole list together rather than file by file. Nearly all of it is apartment density on arterial corridors and at transit nodes.
The conclusion Neeraj draws matters for anyone who owns a house here. None of it adds ground-related supply in Berczy Village, Wismer Commons, Unionville, Markham Village or Cornell. That scarcity is structural rather than cyclical.
Langstaff Gateway, the Node That Has Not Started
Langstaff Gateway, at Yonge Street and Highway 7 on Markham's western edge, is planned as a major node but has been slow to move.
Phase 1A by Condor Properties, at 5, 9, 11 and 25 Langstaff Road East, is two towers of 50 and 45 storeys on a ten-storey podium. It was approved by Markham Council in February 2021. A site plan extension circulated in March 2026, running to 31 May 2029, indicates construction has not begun.
That is a useful case study for buyers. Approved in 2021, still not built in 2026, with an extension to 2029 on file. Approval is not a construction schedule.
The Numbers Behind the Plan
The City's 2024 tally of secondary plan activity gives the scale the planning framework contemplates.
Area | Forecast units | Units in active applications |
|---|---|---|
Markham Centre | 56,500 | 35,487 across 34 applications |
Langstaff Gateway | 29,773 | 10,415 across 6 applications |
Yonge Steeles Corridor | 23,000 | 3,664 across 6 applications |
Markham Road and Mount Joy | 14,500 | 1,699 active, 2,027 approved |
Markville | 14,200 | 4,340 |
Milliken Centre | 8,000 | 94 |
Cornell Centre | Not stated | 7,072 across 5 applications |
This is 2024 data, the most recent published tally. It is directional rather than current, but the proportions hold: Markham Centre is where the density is going.
Following a Development Near You?
Filed, recommended, approved, appealed and under construction are five different levels of certainty. The Kaizen Real Estate Team will find the file.
One Correction Worth Making
Several very large towers written about as "Yonge and Steeles" are in Toronto, not Markham. The seven-tower, 3,325-unit proposal at Tangreen Court and the 50-storey proposal at Nipigon Avenue are both City of Toronto files.
Yonge and Steeles is a municipal boundary. Which side a project sits on decides which council approves it, which development charges apply, and which municipality the eventual residents pay taxes to. It is worth checking before assuming a nearby tower is a Markham matter.
What This Means for Homeowners
- Ground-related housing is not being added by any of this. Nearly every file above is apartment density on an arterial corridor or at a transit node. Detached homes and freehold townhouses in Berczy Village, Wismer Commons, Unionville, Markham Village and Cornell are not being replaced by it, and that scarcity is structural.
- Check the stage before you price anything on it. Filed, recommended, approved, appealed and under construction are five different levels of certainty, and Langstaff shows that even approved can mean years of nothing.
- Transit nodes are where height concentrates. If a home is near Unionville GO, Highway 7 or Yonge Street, the direction of travel is clear even where the specific file is not.
- View corridors over vacant land are temporary in all four nodes.