92 Twenty Ninth Street Townhouses: A 10-Home 1978 Condo in Long Branch

92 Twenty Ninth Street is one of the smallest condominium corporations you will find in south Etobicoke: ten townhomes from 1978 on a residential street in Long Branch, a few blocks from Lake Shore Boulevard and the city’s western edge. It almost never comes up for sale, and very little is published about it. If you are looking at a unit here, you are buying a corporation of ten neighbours as much as a home. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Ten homes, one corporation

York Condominium Corporation 401 was registered in July 1978 and covers ten townhomes at a single street address. That is a very small corporation. For comparison, most of the condo townhouse complexes in south Etobicoke run from a few dozen to more than a hundred homes.

Condos.ca lists no developer, no property manager and no amenities. A blank manager field can mean the corporation is self-managed by its owners, or simply that the listing sites do not have the information. Ask the listing agent directly, because who runs the corporation shapes how repairs, insurance and the reserve fund are handled.

Self-management is not a bad thing in a ten-unit complex. It can keep fees low and decisions quick. It also means a lot depends on a few volunteers, and the paperwork you get with a status certificate may be thinner than at a professionally managed building.

What I could not confirm, and how to find out

I could not find a published source for the floor plans, the number of levels, bedroom counts, unit sizes, parking arrangements or what the monthly fee covers. There were no active listings when I checked to read from.

So the work falls on the buyer. Ask for a floor plan or measure the unit. Confirm how parking works, whether each home has a driveway, a garage or an assigned outdoor space, and whether it is part of your unit or exclusive-use common element. Find out whether the backyard, if there is one, is yours to change.

Also confirm the split of responsibility. In many Ontario townhouse condos, owners look after their own furnace, air conditioning, water heater and interior, while the corporation handles roofs, exterior walls and shared grounds. Windows, doors and fences vary. The declaration sets it out.

The arithmetic of a tiny corporation

In a ten-home complex, every shared cost is split ten ways. A new roof, a repaved driveway or a drainage repair is one project, but each owner carries roughly a tenth of it. In a 100-home complex, the same kind of project is spread far thinner.

That makes the reserve fund the single most important document. The complex is more than 45 years old, so many original components should already have been replaced at least once. The reserve fund study will tell you which ones have been done, what is coming next and whether the fund can cover it. If the study is old or missing, treat that as a question to resolve before you firm up.

Insurance is the other number to check. Small corporations can see bigger swings in their building insurance premium and deductible, and the deductible can pass to an owner in some cases. The status certificate will show the current policy.

Governance works differently too. With ten owners, a board may be three or even fewer people, and a single owner who stops paying fees or blocks a vote has a real effect. Ask whether any owners are in arrears, when the last annual meeting was held and whether the board has been stable. Those answers tell you how the corporation actually runs day to day.

Long Branch, and what is changing around it

Long Branch began in the late 1800s as a lakeside cottage getaway for Torontonians and took its name from a summer resort town in New Jersey. Today it is a mostly residential area of side streets running down towards the lake, with shops and restaurants along Lake Shore Boulevard West and Long Branch GO station in the neighbourhood.

The area is adding a lot of new townhomes. Minto’s Westshore, launched in October 2023, is planned as a multi-phase community of more than 500 townhome units in Long Branch, and smaller boutique projects such as Longhaven on Long Branch Avenue have already been completed. That brings more neighbours and more choice for buyers, but it also means new stock that competes with older complexes like this one.

Twenty Ninth Street is one of the numbered streets close to Browns Line, at the western edge of the city. The data panel on this page shows transit, schools and the nearest parks.

Pricing a home that rarely trades

Condos.ca does not publish an average price per square foot here, and with ten homes, sales are rare. There was nothing listed for sale or rent when I checked, so I cannot give you an asking range.

In practice, I price a home here against older condo townhomes in Long Branch and New Toronto, the newer stacked towns going up nearby, and freehold homes on the same streets. The older complexes usually win on space per dollar. The new stacked towns win on finishes, warranties and modern systems. Freeholds win on control, but they come without a fee because the owner pays for everything.

For any recorded sales here, check the data panel or ask me for a building sold report. With so few sales, I would lean on comparable homes nearby more than on this complex’s own history.

One practical point: talk to your lender early. Some lenders look harder at very small or self-managed corporations and may ask for the status certificate before they approve the mortgage.

Building specifications

Jatin’s honest take on 92 Twenty Ninth Street Townhouses

92 Twenty Ninth Street Townhouses — frequently asked questions

Looking at Humber Bay Shores, Mimico, the Queensway and central Etobicoke more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.