Buying an existing Subway

What Subway says about existing restaurants

Subway’s FAQs and its growth-opportunities page both address buying open restaurants. The FAQ answer is quoted above. The growth page has a “Buy & Build Opportunities” section: “Take advantage of an established business and a built-in customer base by acquiring existing restaurants”, adding that the buyer can adapt the location with features such as pickup shelves and curbside pickup (as published, read Oct 22, 2026). It also describes packages of 25, 50 and 100+ locations. Neither page names a restaurant or a price, and neither describes buying one restaurant.

Resale or new restaurant?

Subway’s published estimated initial investment of $199,135 - $536,745 is for a Subway restaurant, and Subway says it depends on building size, configuration and location. A listed resale is a restaurant already trading, and its asking price is the advertiser’s figure, not a valuation. Before comparing the two, ask the seller what the price includes — the lease, the equipment, the sales records — and what work the restaurant would need.

Questions to put to the franchisor

Subway states that the franchise term is 20 years and that the remodel standard is every 10 years. For a resale, ask how much of the seller’s term remains, when the next remodel falls due and who pays for it. Ask also whether the franchisor must approve you (who has to approve a franchise resale), whether a transfer fee applies, whether you would repeat Subway’s 3-week training (does a resale require retraining?), and whether the restaurant needs work to meet the current standard (do I have to renovate a franchise resale?).

Disclosure before you sign

In Ontario and British Columbia — the provinces with Subway listings that have a franchise statute — the statute, where its disclosure rule applies, requires that you receive a disclosure document at least 14 days before the earlier of signing the franchise agreement or any other agreement relating to the franchise and paying the franchisor or its associate any consideration relating to the franchise. The statutes contain exemptions, and whether one applies to a resale from a franchisee depends on the facts of the sale; what disclosure a resale buyer gets explains how the rule works when the seller is a franchisee rather than the franchisor. A franchise lawyer can answer it for your sale.