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If your focus is to maximize your earnings and your career potential, then I would strongly recommend Toronto over Vancouver.

Several reasons include:

1) Material Pay Cut:

When completing undergrad I received several real estate acquisitions offers in Vancouver and the base salary ranged from 50k - 65k. Comparable roles in Toronto had base salaries from 75k - 85k. People are willing to accept lower salaries in Vancouver to be able to live there (higher amenity city than Toronto) and this delta increases as you advance in your career.

2) Limited Large-Scale Real Estate Companies (excluding development):

Pension Funds with a Real Estate Arm in Toronto include: CPPIB, Oxford Properties, Cadillac Fairview, BentallGreenOak etc. Private Equity Firms: KingSett Capital, Slate Asset Management, Crestpoint, Hullmark, Fiera Properties, Tricon etc. REITs: Vast majority of Canadian REITs headquarters are location in Toronto (RioCan REIT, First Capital REIT etc)

Vancouver headquartered pension funds: QuadReal and Concert Properties. Private Equity: Hungerford and Sandpiper. REITs: American Hotel Income Properties REIT. Vancouver only has an edge in Toronto for development opportunities. Companies include: WestBank, Anthem Properties, Cannacord, Bosa, Grosvenor, Onni, Chard Developments, Bold Properties, Beedie Properties etc.

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