10 Parkway Forest Dr: Large 1977 Suites With Hydro in the Fee

10 Parkway Forest Drive is the kind of building that looks expensive on the fee line and cheap on the price line, and both impressions are misleading. It is a 1977 tower in Parkway Forest with large suites, an outdoor pool and tennis court, and a fee that includes your hydro. The real question is the age of the building, and that is where I would spend your due diligence. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A 1970s tower in a neighbourhood that has been rebuilt around it

Parkway Forest was planned in the late 1960s as a garden-city mix of towers, low-rise apartments and townhouses, with most of the high-rises built between 1966 and 1972. Number 10 came a few years later. Its corporation, YCC-301, registered at the start of 1977, and the low corporation number reflects how early in Toronto’s condominium history it was created.

Much of what surrounds it is new. ELAD’s Emerald City replaced older rental buildings with condo towers capped at 36 storeys and rebuilt rentals elsewhere in the neighbourhood. As part of that deal, the Parkway Forest Community Centre opened in 2015, designed by Diamond Schmitt, with a full gym, weight room, walking track, teaching kitchen and a YMCA child care centre.

The next change is across Sheppard. Fairview Mall sits directly north of Parkway Forest, and Cadillac Fairview and Shape Properties have filed plans for the first phase of a seven-building masterplan on the mall lands. The current application is a single 48-storey rental tower on a surface parking lot east of Don Mills station. It is still going through City approvals, so treat it as a direction of travel rather than a date.

For an owner at number 10, that means a building with 1970s floor plans and fees in a neighbourhood with new public facilities, new neighbours and new retail. The neighbourhood has improved around it, and you are buying into that at an older-building price.

Suites built for families, not investors

Condos.ca lists suites from about 865 to 1,250 sq ft. There are no studios or small one-bedrooms here. This is two- and three-bedroom stock from an era when condos were sold to families leaving houses, and the rooms are sized accordingly.

That changes who buys. You will mostly compete with owner-occupiers, downsizers and families who want a three-bedroom under the price of a townhouse, rather than with investors chasing small suites. The trade-off is a 1970s layout: rooms are generous, but kitchens in unrenovated suites tend to be closed-in rather than open to the living room.

Ask whether the suite has been updated, and what was done. Kitchens, bathrooms, flooring and electrical panels in a 1977 suite vary widely, and the cost of a full renovation should be in your offer, not your surprise list.

What the fee actually covers

Condos.ca lists common elements, heat, hydro, air conditioning, building insurance, parking and water in the fee. Hydro is the unusual one. In almost every newer building, your electricity is metered and billed to you separately, so the fee here is doing work that the fee at Emerald City is not.

With suites this large, the dollar amount looks high. Before comparing, add hydro, heating, cooling and a parking space back onto a newer building’s fee. The gap usually narrows a lot, and on a large suite it can disappear.

The flip side of bulk utilities is that everyone shares the bill. If energy costs rise, or the heating and cooling plant needs work, it shows up in everyone’s fee. Look at the utilities line in the last two budgets and ask if the board has studied sub-metering or plant replacement.

Amenities from the era

Condos.ca lists an outdoor pool, sauna, tennis court, gym, meeting room, security system and visitor parking. Outdoor pools and tennis courts were standard in 1970s North York towers and are rare in new ones, because they need land and staff to run.

Those amenities have a cost. A pool deck, its mechanical room and a tennis court surface all age, and in a 192-suite building the repair bill is split among fewer owners than in a big new tower. When you read the reserve fund study, find the lines for the pool and the court and see when each is next due for major work.

Condos.ca also flags a pet restriction. I could not find the details, so read the declaration and rules in the status certificate before you buy if you have a pet, or plan to.

What 10 Parkway Forest costs

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $390 per square foot. That is a fraction of what new towers around Don Mills and Sheppard ask, and it is low even for 1970s stock. Two things explain most of it: the fee, which buyers price in, and the age, which brings capital-repair risk.

Listing activity is thin. When I checked there was only one suite for sale and one for lease, so I am not quoting an asking range. With so little on the market, comparables matter more than usual; use the market data on this page or ask me for the building sold report.

Do not judge the price per square foot on its own. Add the monthly fee to your mortgage payment, then compare the total with a smaller new suite nearby that charges hydro, heat and parking separately.

Building specifications

Amenities at 10 Parkway Forest Drive Condos

An outdoor pool and tennis court are a summer amenity you rarely find in new buildings, and the sauna and gym cover the rest of the year. For a bigger gym, the Parkway Forest Community Centre is nearby, with a full gym, weight room and walking track.

Jatin’s honest take on 10 Parkway Forest Drive Condos

10 Parkway Forest Drive Condos — frequently asked questions

Looking at Willowdale, Yonge & Sheppard, Bayview Village and North York Centre more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.