The Annex housing market

The Annex runs along Bloor Street West from Bathurst to Avenue Road, north to Dupont Street and Davenport Road, with Spadina Road, Madison Avenue and Brunswick Avenue as the residential spine. The University of Toronto's St George campus sits immediately south, the Royal Conservatory of Music and the Bata Shoe Museum are on Bloor, and Casa Loma stands above Davenport at Spadina.

Resale first here, because that is what the area is: Victorian and Edwardian houses, converted multiplexes, and low-rise apartment stock, with relatively little new condominium supply. We handle assignments and pre-construction where they exist, but most Annex files are resale purchases and listings.

Why the Annex prices differently

Two subway lines, a university next door and a nearly fixed housing stock mean this area behaves less like the condominium market and more like the low-rise market. We price Annex property against Annex sales, and we say so when a client is comparing a house here to a condominium downtown as though the two markets moved together.

What we check on a conversion

Whether the current use is legal, whether it is legal non-conforming, or whether it is neither; whether there is a retrofit status letter for fire safety; whether rents are documented and whether tenancies are governed by the Residential Tenancies Act in a way that affects your plans. A rental income figure with no paperwork behind it is a number, not a fact.

What's active here

Bathurst and Bloor redevelopment — Built and operating as rental. The large mixed-use redevelopment at Bathurst and Bloor on the former Honest Ed's site was delivered as purpose-built rental rather than condominium. Worth knowing precisely because it does not add resale supply, though it does change the retail and rental picture around it.

Low-rise conversions and multiplexes — Registered and freehold. Much of what trades here is a house divided into units, or a small apartment building. Legal non-conforming use, fire-code compliance and whether income is documented are the decisive questions, not finishes.

Assignment supply — Minimal. Very little investor-held pre-construction stock, so assignments are rare in the Annex proper. Where clients want assignment exposure nearby, the Yonge corridor and downtown are the realistic markets.