What is the difference between gross rent and net rent in an Ontario commercial lease?

Gross rent is a single, all-inclusive figure the tenant pays that's meant to cover the base rent along with most of the landlord's underlying costs of ownership, such as property tax, building insurance, and common operating costs, which the landlord absorbs and pays out of the rent it collects. Net rent works differently: the tenant pays a base or minimum rent, and then separately pays, or reimburses the landlord for, its proportionate share of property tax, insurance, and common area operating costs on top of that base figure, often billed as "additional rent."

Most Ontario commercial and retail leases, particularly in multi-tenant buildings and plazas, are structured as net leases rather than gross leases, which means the headline base rent figure in a lease listing or proposal doesn't tell you the full cost of occupying the space. A tenant comparing two spaces needs to look at the total occupancy cost, including estimated additional rent, not just the base rent number, to make a fair comparison.

Before signing, ask for a clear breakdown of what's included in "additional rent" and a recent estimate of those costs, since this is where the real cost of a net lease often comes as a surprise to a first-time commercial tenant.