Aura at College Park, 386 Yonge St: Living in Canada’s Tallest Condo Tower

Aura is the building everyone knows from the skyline, and for a long time it was the tallest residential tower in Canada. It is a huge building with a lot of suites for sale at any time, which makes it one of the easier places downtown to negotiate. It is also a building where floor, exposure and layout change the value more than almost anywhere else. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A very tall building, and what that means day to day

Aura was the final phase of Canderel’s College Park redevelopment. The original plan was two towers on a ten-storey podium, but it was redesigned as a single tower, and in February 2012 city council approved a three-storey increase to 78 storeys, making it Canada’s tallest residential building at the time. Wikipedia describes it as about 80 floors, and building databases put it at roughly 272 metres.

Condos.ca lists 55 floors for this listing, which likely reflects how its database counts the building or the corporation, not the actual height. When you compare suites, use the floor numbers in the listing and the MLS data, not the headline storey count.

Graziani + Corazza designed the tower, with metal and brick cladding and lighting near the top that is visible across the city. The city later agreed with the developer to turn those lights off late at night during the fall bird migration.

The podium and the IKEA

The base of the building has had a complicated history. It opened as a large retail podium with big-box stores and a food court, and parts of it struggled to fill. Since then, IKEA’s real estate arm took ownership of most of the podium and converted much of it into an urban-format IKEA store, its first permanent store of that kind in Canada.

For residents, that change matters. A busy anchor tenant brings people and activity to the base of the building, and there are restaurants with patios along Gerrard Street. The retail portion is owned separately from the residential corporations, so its operation is not part of your condo fee.

Building descriptions mention a shared patio on the fifth floor above the podium. Ask the corporation which outdoor and amenity spaces belong to residents and which belong to the retail owner.

Suites and floor choice

Condos.ca lists suites from about 500 sq ft to about 2,354 sq ft. Most suites for sale are one-bedroom, one-bedroom-plus-den and two-bedroom plans between about 500 and 900 sq ft, with larger suites and penthouses higher up.

In a building this tall, floor and exposure drive the price. Upper floors with open views over the lake or the city can trade at a large premium over lower floors facing neighbouring towers. Two suites with the same floor plan can be very different buys.

Because Aura has so many suites, there is a deep record of sales for almost every layout. That is a real advantage: you can compare like with like and see what a fair price is for your floor and view.

Living at Yonge and Gerrard

Aura sits at one of the busiest corners on Yonge Street, near the Toronto Metropolitan University campus, the Eaton Centre to the south and College Park to the west. Most residents here do not need a car for daily life. The panel on this page covers transit and nearby services.

That location brings crowds and noise. Suites facing Yonge on lower floors will hear it, while higher floors are much quieter. If you are buying to live in, spend time in the building at night and on a weekend.

With about 995 suites, the building also has a lot of daily traffic in its lobby and elevators. The automatic panel on this page shows elevator records, and I would look at those along with the board minutes before you buy.

How it compares nearby

Near Aura you have the older College Park towers at 761 and 763 Bay, from the same Canderel redevelopment, and a run of 2010s and newer towers along Yonge between Dundas and Wellesley. Most offer similar one-bedroom and two-bedroom plans, so the choice often comes down to price, floor and fee.

Aura’s advantages are its height, its large stock of suites and a fee that works out below $0.90 per square foot. Its disadvantages are the scale of the building, with more people sharing lobbies and elevators, and the complexity of two condominium corporations above a separately owned podium.

If you are choosing between Aura and a smaller building nearby, compare the total monthly cost, the floor you can get for your budget and the status certificate for each. In my experience, a high-floor suite in Aura with a good view is the version of this building that holds its value best.

What Aura costs

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $905 per square foot. That is in line with other towers from the 2010s around Yonge and College, and the high-floor suites pull the average up.

When I checked, there were 14 suites for sale. One-bedroom and one-bedroom-plus-den suites of about 500 to 799 sq ft were asking from about $450,000 to $725,000, and two-bedroom suites of about 700 to 899 sq ft were asking from about $826,000 to $839,000. Across current listings, fees work out to about $0.88 per square foot, ranging from roughly $430 to $980 a month.

With that many listings, buyers have room to negotiate, and sold data matters more than asking prices. I can show you recent results for the same layout and floor range through my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at Aura at College Park

Condos.ca lists a concierge, a gym and a party room, and building descriptions mention a shared patio above the podium. The amenity list is short for a building this size; many residents rely on the shops and services at the base and nearby.

Jatin’s honest take on Aura at College Park

Aura at College Park — frequently asked questions

Looking at St. Lawrence, the Financial District and Downtown Yonge more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.