Manors of Erskine, 83-99 Erskine Ave: Nine Townhomes Among Midtown Towers

Manors of Erskine is about as rare as midtown gets: nine townhomes, each with its own garage, on a street otherwise dominated by apartment towers. When one comes up, I tell buyers to look quickly and then slow down, because a nine-unit, self-managed condo corporation is a very different thing to own than a suite in a tower. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A house-sized home without the house

What makes Manors of Erskine different is simple: these are full-size homes. At roughly 1,700 to 2,000 sq ft each, they are bigger than almost any condo apartment around Yonge and Eglinton and close to the size of a small semi-detached house.

Each home has a private garage, so you drive in and walk into your own unit rather than taking a parking elevator. The building description also notes 9-foot ceilings and balconies or terraces of up to about 550 sq ft, which is more outdoor space than many backyards in the area.

There is a shared rooftop deck and a recreation room as well, and BBQs are permitted. For a nine-unit building, that is a generous set of shared spaces, and it is the kind of amenity you actually use because it is never crowded.

Townhome living has its own trade-offs. You get your own front door and a layout over several levels, and you also get stairs. For a downsizer planning to stay into their later years, walk the home from the garage to the main bedroom and think honestly about doing that every day.

Nine owners, self-managed

Condos.ca lists the corporation as self-managed. In a building this small, that is common and can work very well: the owners elect a board from among themselves, hire contractors directly and keep overhead low.

It also means the quality of management depends on a handful of neighbours. There is no management company keeping the records, collecting quotes or making sure the reserve fund study is updated on schedule. Before you buy, ask who handles the books, how often the board meets, and when the last reserve fund study was done.

Small corporations also feel every expense more sharply. A roof, a rooftop deck membrane or a garage door repair is split nine ways, not 300 ways. That is not a reason to avoid the building; it is a reason to read the reserve fund study and the budget line by line, and to ask how much is in the fund today.

A practical tip for buyers: ask for the status certificate early and have your lawyer review it as a condition of your offer. In a corporation without a professional manager, assembling the certificate can take longer, so build that time into your offer.

What the fee covers

The fee includes common elements, building insurance, parking and water. Heat, air conditioning and hydro are not on the list, which makes sense for townhomes where each home has its own systems. Budget for your own utilities as you would in a house.

That also means you own more of the maintenance burden for your own furnace or heat pump, water heater and air conditioning unit. Ask the seller for the age of each system and any service records, and confirm in the declaration exactly which parts of the home the corporation maintains and which are yours.

Condos.ca lists pets among the building’s features, but small corporations can have their own rules. If you have a pet, read the declaration and rules before you make an offer rather than relying on a listing.

Erskine Avenue, then and now

Erskine Avenue is a residential street a block or two north of Eglinton. Much of it is lined with older rental apartment buildings, and it is now a growth street. Tridel’s 32-storey 101 Erskine was completed next door in 2018, with a through-block linear park connecting Erskine to Broadway Avenue.

More is coming. A 35-storey condo and rental building is proposed at Redpath and Erskine, a short walk east. That growth brings shops, services and new neighbours, and it also brings construction, more traffic on the street and towers casting shadows on low-rise homes.

Ask which way your townhome and its terrace face, and what is approved or proposed on the lots around it. For a low-rise home surrounded by towers, sunlight and privacy on the terrace are part of what you are paying for. The subway, schools and parks nearby are in the data panel on this page.

Pricing: a market of nine

With only nine homes, Manors of Erskine trades very rarely. There were no active listings when I checked, and with so few homes, long gaps between sales are normal. That makes it hard to say what a home here is worth from in-building comparables alone.

The better approach is to compare across formats. Look at recent sales of large condo apartments of 1,700 to 2,000 sq ft in midtown, and at freehold townhouses and semis in the surrounding streets. A home here should price between the two: more than a comparable-size condo apartment because of the private garage and the townhouse layout, and less than a freehold house because you share the land and the decisions.

The sales and lease figures in the data panel will reflect only a handful of transactions, if any. If you are serious about buying or selling here, book a call and I will pull the comparables across both markets.

Building specifications

Amenities at Manors of Erskine

The shared rooftop deck and recreation room are small-building amenities: quiet, rarely booked and maintained by the nine owners. Most of the value is private, in the garage, the ceilings and the large terraces.

Jatin’s honest take on Manors of Erskine

Manors of Erskine — frequently asked questions

Looking at Yonge & Eglinton, Davisville and North Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.