Kilgour Estate, 20 Burkebrook Pl: Mid-Rise Living Off Bayview

Kilgour Estate is what people mean when they ask me for a condo that does not feel like a condo. It is an eight-storey building from 2007 on a short private-feeling street off Bayview Avenue, with a concierge, guest suites and suites that range from compact one-bedrooms to more than 3,000 square feet. The catch is the fee per square foot, and I want you to understand it before you fall for the lobby. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A mid-rise in an estate district

The Bayview corridor between Eglinton and Lawrence is mostly large houses, hospitals and ravine. Kilgour Estate takes its name from that history: the Kilgour family’s Sunnybrook Farm estate is the land that became Sunnybrook Park, and Kilgour Road runs nearby.

The building sits on Burkebrook Place, a short street off Bayview. That matters more than it sounds. You are not living on the arterial. The traffic noise, the buses and the hospital rush stay on Bayview, and the building faces a quiet street.

Across Burkebrook Place is Kilgour Estate 2 at 21 Burkebrook Place, a separate condominium with its own corporation. The two are often confused in listings, so make sure the status certificate you receive is for TSCC-1849 at number 20.

One building, very different suites

Condos.ca lists suites from about 569 to 3,015 square feet. That is an unusually wide range for an eight-storey building. At one end you have one-bedrooms that suit a single professional or a medical resident; at the other you have suites that compete with a house in Leaside.

Every suite listed for sale when I checked was in the 500 to 699 square foot range, which tells you where turnover happens. The large suites come up rarely, and when they do, they tend to go to downsizers who have been waiting for one.

A low-rise building with only eight floors also means fewer suites sharing each elevator and a lobby where staff know residents. If you are coming from a house, that scale is easier to adjust to than a 40-storey tower.

Parking is part of the fee inclusion list, and the building has an underground garage and visitor parking. What the listing will not tell you is how many spaces and lockers come with a given suite, and that varies. Check the status certificate for the parking and locker units actually being transferred, and whether they are owned or exclusive-use. On a large suite, a second space can matter more to resale than the finishes in the kitchen.

The fee per square foot is the real number

Fees on the suites listed for sale ran from about $634 to $770 a month, which condos.ca works out to roughly $1.18 per square foot. That is high. Many buildings of this age sit well under a dollar a foot.

Part of the gap is the inclusion list. The fee covers heat, air conditioning, water, building insurance, parking and the common elements, so you are not paying for heating or cooling separately. Part of it is the building type. Low-rise buildings with full staffing spread the cost of a concierge and amenities over fewer suites than a tower does.

Small suites also show the highest fee per foot, because some costs are shared roughly evenly. So the $1.18 figure is driven by the one-bedrooms on the market. Ask for the fee schedule for the size you want, and ask for the budget and the last two years of fee increases before you assume where it will be in five years.

Daily life off Bayview

This is a car-friendly location first. Bayview gives you a straight run south to Leaside and north to the 401, and the shops on Bayview south of Eglinton and in Leaside are a short drive. Sunnybrook Park and the ravine trail system are your backyard, which is a real draw for walkers, runners and dog owners.

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is nearby on Bayview, which makes the building practical for hospital staff and for owners who want to be close to medical care as they get older. The trade-off is ambulance and visitor traffic on Bayview at busy times.

The panel beside this review covers schools and transit. What I would add is that most of the walkable retail is not right outside your door, so test the walk you would actually make before you buy.

What Kilgour Estate is asking

Four suites were listed for sale when I checked, asking between $649,900 and $739,000, with fees of roughly $634 to $770 a month. One suite was listed for lease.

Those asking prices are for small suites, and they are high for the size. That is the premium for this address: an established building on a quiet street in an estate district, with full staff. Buyers here are not comparing it to a one-bedroom in a tower on Yonge; they are paying for the setting.

Condos.ca did not show a reliable building-wide average price per square foot, which makes sense when suites run from under 600 to over 3,000 square feet. Use the sales panel for what has actually traded, and if you want a number for a specific plan, book a call and I will pull the comparables.

Building specifications

Amenities at Kilgour Estate

Condos.ca lists a concierge, guest suites, a party room, a media room, a meeting room and a BBQ area. It is a hosting package rather than a fitness one, which suits the downsizers who make up much of the market here; confirm with management what else is in the building. If a gym or pool matters to you, ask before you book a showing.

Jatin’s honest take on Kilgour Estate

Kilgour Estate — frequently asked questions

Looking at York Mills, Don Mills, Lawrence Park, Bathurst Manor and midtown-north Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.