85 Harbord St Townhouses: A Four-Unit Condo in Harbord Village

85 Harbord Street is about as small as a Toronto condominium gets: four homes, one corporation, on a stretch of Harbord just west of Spadina. For a buyer who wants Harbord Village and the University of Toronto on their doorstep without the upkeep of a whole Victorian house, it can be a smart compromise. Buying into a four-owner corporation is a different exercise from buying a condo apartment, though, and I want you to go in knowing that. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A small address with a long history

Before it was a condominium, 85 Harbord Street was a storefront. An archival photograph from before 1983 shows the interior of the Toronto Women’s Bookstore at this address, part of the run of bookshops and community spaces that once defined this strip of Harbord. The bookstore later moved and eventually closed in 2012.

The condominium corporation was registered in December 1999. I could not confirm from the records I checked whether the four homes are a new building on the site or a conversion of the earlier structure, so ask the listing agent and look at the building’s permit history before you rely on either story.

Some listing sites treat 85 and 87 Harbord as a single complex called the Harbord Lofts, and homes here carry letter suffixes such as 87B. Confirm which civic address and which corporation the unit you are viewing belongs to.

What four owners means in practice

With four units, every cost the corporation faces is split four ways. A new roof, a masonry repair or an insurance increase that a large building absorbs easily can be a significant amount per home here. That is not a reason to avoid it. It is a reason to read the reserve fund study with real attention.

Comfield Property Management is listed as the manager, which is reassuring in a corporation this size; many four-unit condos are run informally by the owners themselves. Ask what the manager actually does, whether it is full management or bookkeeping and administration only, and who makes day-to-day decisions.

Board governance is personal here. Four owners will usually mean everyone sits on the board or close to it, and a disagreement between two neighbours can stall a decision. Ask the seller how the owners work together, read the recent minutes, and look for signs of long-delayed maintenance.

Insurance deserves its own look. Small corporations can face high deductibles, and the declaration may make an owner responsible for the deductible when a claim starts in their unit. Ask for the insurance certificate, note the deductible, and make sure your own condo policy covers it.

Townhouse layouts and what to verify

The building is recorded at two storeys. In a four-unit townhouse corporation, homes typically have their own entrances, and the split between upper and lower homes or side-by-side units determines light, privacy and noise. Ask how the unit you are viewing is arranged and which walls and floors it shares.

No parking, lockers or amenities are recorded. On Harbord, parking is a real question, so confirm whether a space comes with the unit, whether it is off a laneway, and whether it is owned or exclusive-use. If none is included, ask about on-street permit parking with the City before you buy.

Check the declaration carefully. It sets out what you own, what the corporation owns and what is exclusive-use common element, such as a yard, a deck or a parking pad, and that split decides who pays for repairs. In a small corporation, the wording of those documents matters a great deal.

Harbord Village, day to day

Harbord Village runs from Spadina to Bathurst between Bloor and College. It was a centre of Jewish life in Toronto from the 1920s to the 1960s and a gathering place for University of Toronto students in the decades after, and today it reads as a settled, family-oriented neighbourhood of tree-lined streets and laneways.

Harbord Street itself is a calm strip of bakeries, cafés, bookshops and bike shops, with bike lanes along its length. The University of Toronto’s St. George campus begins just east of Spadina, and Kensington Market and the Annex are both a walk away.

The trade-off is that Harbord is a real street, not a cul-de-sac. Cyclists, students and delivery traffic pass all day, so stand outside on a weekday morning and again in the evening to judge noise and activity for yourself.

Schools, transit, parks and walkability for this address are covered in the data panel on this page.

Pricing a four-unit corporation

There were no active listings when I checked, and no building average per square foot is published. With four homes, sales are rare, and there is no building average worth quoting.

The right comparables are freehold row houses and semis in Harbord Village and condominium townhouses in the Annex and Kensington, adjusted for size, parking and the fact that the corporation shares exterior costs. A well-kept unit should appeal to buyers who want the neighbourhood but not a whole house to maintain.

Talk to your lender early. Some lenders look harder at very small condominium corporations, asking for the status certificate and reserve fund details before they commit, and a few prefer not to lend on them at all. Knowing where your lender stands before you bid saves you from a failed condition later.

Fee inclusions are not published, so ask for the budget and the unit’s utility bills and work out the fee per square foot yourself. Be cautious of an unusually low fee in a tiny corporation; it can mean the reserve fund is underfunded. My building sold report can pull aggregate trades nearby.

Building specifications

Jatin’s honest take on 85 Harbord St Townhouses

85 Harbord St Townhouses — frequently asked questions

Looking at Queen West, Trinity-Bellwoods, Kensington and Little Italy more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.