News   Apr 23, 2024
Queen's Cross Food Hall Brings Global Flavours to Toronto Eaton Centre
 353     0 
News   Apr 23, 2024
News Roundup for April 23, 2024
 357     0 
News   Apr 23, 2024
Shimmy
 599     0 

What should be considered a decent sized condo?

yin_yang said:
i'm sorry? you bought a condo in toronto in the 90s for $440k? you got ripped off, man. i got my 1300sqft condo at college and yonge for $200k in 2000. what building did you buy in?
Click to expand...
No I didn't buy a condo for $440000 back then.

I was tempted by a 3-bedroom condo townhouse downtown for around that much. I don't remember the exact square footage now, but it was in the 1400-1600 range depending on the unit. It also had a private attached double garage and a private terrace. However, given that I was single, and that it would have been a really big stretch for my finances at the time, I decided against it.

What I ended up buying was a 1000+ square foot 2-bedroom condo townhouse with private rooftop terrace (including gas line for BBQ) and private entrance from my unit to a shared attached 2-car garage (one spot each for 2 units), for $212000 or thereabouts. It was in the same complex.

South of King, east of Bathurst. Wood construction with brick exterior. Amenities shared with (concrete) condo building next door in the same complex. Stuff like party room and gym, etc. but no pool (which is one reason I bought there, because I didn't want to pay for a pool).
 
W. K. Lis said:
Square footage includes the inside steps or inside hallway. So beware. Bare steps to and the unfinished basement are not included.
Click to expand...
Yep. My 1040 square foot townhouse was probably equivalent to something like a 900 sq. ft. single-floor condo. But then again, it kinda balanced out since the unit had its own private rooftop patio, as well a private and enclosed, locked parking spot that was directly connected to the unit.

This was the view from my patio. If you look across to my neighbour's patio in that pic, you will see what mine looked like. That little hut like thing you see there with the door was the exit to the patio, but it had a small landing inside, enough for a small beer fridge and dish storage, etc.

view_500_zps5dd87825.jpg


Having an attached garage was quite convenient. I had some storage space under the stairs in my unit, but used the garage for further storage. I stored my two bikes and my GF's bike in there, along with my tools, empty boxes, and what not. I owned half the garage. The other half was owned by my neighbour. I did keep the bikes locked, but left everything else in the open. I only had to trust my neighbour, because nobody else had access to our two-car garage. Actually, it was odd. My neighbour I shared with was actually several doors down and thus didn't have direct connected access to the garage. He had to enter the garage through the garage door. (We had security panel installed there for the garage opener so he could just punch in the number for entry.)

garage_500_zpsb8af09c2.jpg


I was one of the few people that had direct connected access to the garage space, because I specified in my contract that it must be directly connected. Other people didn't specify this and ended up getting parking spots elsewhere in the complex. Hugely inconvenient. And one person made the mistake of assuming the townhouse contract automatically included a parking spot, but it didn't and that person didn't pay extra for one either. That person made the mistake of trusting a lawyer who was a family friend to do the paperwork but that lawyer was not a real estate lawyer.

This was the main floor living room/dining area. On the right of the pic was a 2-person breakfast bar, and to the right of that (off the pic) was the kitchen.

livinganddiningrooms_500_zpsa8fe5078.jpg


The doors in the living room were to a french balony. I just put my herb planters on the railing there.

The two bedrooms and bathroom were one floor up. Only one bathroom though. The patio was another level up.

The cost of this place was a little over $200 per square foot (including stairs, etc.), bought pre-con at the end of the 90s. If I could have predicted the future though, I would have probably tried harder to get the cash together to buy that 3-bedroom unit.
 
Eug said:
I owned half the garage. The other half was owned by my neighbour...I only had to trust my neighbour, because nobody else had access to our two-car garage.
Click to expand...

Is this type of arrangement common in this city? I know it's really not much different than sharing an underground parking garage with a bunch of people, but this seems much more personal and intimate. As a relatively private person who values my personal space, not sure this is something I'd be comfortable with (especially at today's loony-tune prices). Seems ripe for potential conflict, when the wrong type of person is involved. Would that type of arrangement turn a lot of buyers off when trying to sell?
 
NorthYorkEd said:
Is this type of arrangement common in this city? I know it's really not much different than sharing an underground parking garage with a bunch of people, but this seems much more personal and intimate. As a relatively private person who values my personal space, not sure this is something I'd be comfortable with (especially at today's loony-tune prices). Seems ripe for potential conflict, when the wrong type of person is involved. Would that type of arrangement turn a lot of buyers off when trying to sell?
Click to expand...
Not a common arrangement from what I've seen. As for risk of crappy neighbours, well, that's always a risk. If anything I'd guess the risk is lower with a garage, although I suppose your neighbour could dent your car or something.

I personally saw it as an advantage:

1) Since it was a condo townhouse, the driveway was always plowed before I got up in the morning, so that wasn't an issue of having my own garage. I think the thing I hate the most about owning a detached home is shoveling my driveway.

2) Since it was an enclosed space, one could store crap in there.

3) Since it was directly attached to my unit, I had nowhere extra to walk. No elevators to take. I just walked straight from the garage into my unit.

4) With the the garage, the door is 2 cars wide, so my car being in the garage didn't impede entry/exit for my neighbour's car, and vice versa.

Given the above, I was more than happy to risk sharing a garage with a neighbour. IMO it's nowhere near as bad as sharing driveway parking like a lot of people do in Toronto in small single family homes.

BTW, for about the first half year, my neighbour didn't even have a car, so I got an extra parking spot free for guests for that period. (I just told my neighbour in advance.) (Our condo building didn't have any guest parking spots. It had several cheap Green P parking spots though.)

However, one of my neighbours down the way was even smarter than I was, and demanded that TWO parking spaces be associated with their unit, and both had to be attached to their unit. I'm not sure if they paid a premium (on top of the usual cost of the parking space) for that but they got it, and so they had the entire 2-car garage to themselves, despite only having a 2-bedroom unit like mine. This of course screwed up the allocation of parking spots for the townhouses for other people who didn't put the clause into their contract. A couple of townhouse owners actually had to park in the main condo building.

IIRC, the cost of the parking ranged from $12000-20000 depending upon what they negotiated with the builder, and for some it was included in the overall cost of the unit, and for others they bought it separately. Wow, things were so "cheap" back in those days.
 
Last edited:
Once November or December comes around, I put up a car shelter on my driveway. Less snow to shovel.

A car shelter is something like this:

11x20_droite_sans_auto.jpg

606.jpg

pierrefonds-tempo.jpg


PS. A car shelter should be at least 2.5 m from the road or 1 m from the sidewalk.
 
ponyboy said:
interesting -- I'm surprised the city allows such a temporary shelter. Do they require a permit?
Click to expand...

They are supposed to be temporary. Like a camping tent or awning. They should be brought down around the time you change from winter tires to summer tires.

However, I've seen a couple keep them up all year. Those would be the ones that could get into trouble.

During last year's ice storm, there was no ice to remove from a car that was under it, nor salt to melt the ice. Except on the sidewalk or ramp, of course.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the suggestion. I'm aware of them, and while I do understand the practicality of them, I don't like their aesthetics, and it seems my neighbours don't either. So I suffer through the shoveling.

---

BTW, In Hong Kong, Li Ka-Shing is building condo that start at 177 square feet. Wowsers.

http://qz.com/238416/asias-richest-...-apartments-barely-bigger-than-a-prison-cell/

They go for about a quarter million bux US.
 
Ex-Montreal Girl said:
Somewhere on this forum there's a thread titled "Family-sized Condos" or something -- where I started saying this years ago.
Click to expand...
@Ex-Montreal Girl - here's the thread:

http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/family-sized-condos.9146/

I'm working through it now. On page 3 so far :) I'll continue the discussion there, as I think this is a topic that has only become more interesting as the price of entry-level "family" houses (3 bdr semi or detached) has continued to climb.
 
Have fun with that. :eek:

Seriously, over the past two years, we have had half a dozen young families move into our building. A total of five kids aged 8-12, one around 4 and two infants. Another baby is on the way.

We are located in a long-established area with one of the best public schools in Toronto so that, along with our spacious older suites (1100-1300 sf), amenities, walkability, bike lanes, TTC access etc. I can see how it makes sense for them. I think it's important that the building is solid, big thick concrete floors and walls, so nobody is disturbed by the "pitter patter" of little feet.

I also notice that these families tend to do things together like go for bike rides down to the beach or the island, hit summer-in-the-city events like the Jazz Fest and Taste of the Danforth, etc. I think it's a richer life than being stuck out in the burbs, exhausted from a daily commute, running to malls etc. But that's just me.

Maybe it's a reflection of having grown up in Montreal where, as in Manhattan and Europe, it was (but is no longer) a flat renter's city.
 
Ex-Montreal Girl said:
I can see how it makes sense for them. I think it's important that the building is solid, big thick concrete floors and walls, so nobody is disturbed by the "pitter patter" of little feet.
Click to expand...
Yes!! This is a hugely under-appreciated aspect of "family-suitable" apartment/condo dwellings. People focus on number of bedrooms and square footage, without taking into account the need for QUIET when you have a family. (When your 25-year-old neighbour is pounding bass and you can hear it in your condo, and you're also 25, it's just annoying -- when you're trying to get an 11-month-old to nap, it's grounds for murder...)

I spent some time in Turin in Italy a few years ago and seeing the flat that my host and his family lived in (he is a university professor) was a game changer for how I think about condo vs. house living. 3 bedrooms, but THICK walls. Not a trace of sound or smell from the other units. Also, a great little park just a half-block away, and lots of other families living in the building.

It was very unlike the "partying 20-somethings" vibe that you got from many Toronto condos 5 years ago.

As for me, I bought one of those over-priced semi-detached's east of the Don this year (except Riverdale and Leslieville are now totally unaffordable... Danforth East is the new spot, and quickly moving further east... still affordable in the Woodbine-Main block although it gets gritty) Further from downtown, but still easy to live with no car, and we couldn't give up the thought of having a small backyard for our daughter to play in and to have friends over for backyard BBQ... the suburban dream, haha
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top