Terrace Heights II, 555 Wilson Heights Blvd: 56 Suites, Five Floors

Terrace Heights II is the kind of building I point to when a buyer tells me they want a condo but hate towers. It has five floors, 56 suites and a rooftop deck, it was finished by Tor-Bel Group in 1999, and the price per square foot sits well below what newer buildings around Sheppard and Allen Road ask. The catch is in the fee, and I will walk you through it. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A low-rise answer to a tower neighbourhood

The blocks around Sheppard West station have filled up with mid-rise and high-rise towers over the past two decades. Terrace Heights II goes the other way: five storeys and 56 suites on Wilson Heights Boulevard, a street that is still mostly houses on its residential stretches.

In practice, a building this size behaves more like a large walk-up community with an elevator than a condo tower. There are roughly ten or eleven suites per floor, the lobby is quiet, and the resident list is short enough that the board is made up of people you will recognise in the hallway.

Condos.ca lists a rooftop deck, a parking garage, visitor parking and a security system. There is no pool, gym or concierge on that list. If you are coming from a full-service tower, that is the trade: less to use, and less to pay for in the long run.

Suites from about 530 to 890 square feet

The suite range on condos.ca runs from about 527 to 894 square feet, and the current listings fall in the one-bedroom and two-bedroom bands. There are no large penthouse plans here. This is a building of compact, practical suites, which is exactly why it suits a first purchase or a downsizer who wants one floor and not much more.

Floor height matters more in a five-storey building than people expect. The lowest floors will face the street or the grounds, and the top floor is the only one that gets real elevation. If light and outlook matter to you, ask which way each suite faces before you book a showing.

For a 1999 building, the original kitchens and bathrooms will be about 25 years old unless an owner has updated them. Ask the seller what has been renovated, when, and whether any changes to plumbing or walls were approved by the corporation.

The sister building on Sheppard

Terrace Heights III sits at 906 Sheppard Avenue West. Condos.ca lists it as a seven-storey, 72-suite building from 2001, registered as MTCC-1378, with suites of about 740 to 1,040 square feet. So the two are a family in name and era, but they are separate corporations with separate budgets and boards.

The comparison is useful. Terrace Heights III averages about $795 per square foot on condos.ca, against about $552 here. Part of that gap is suite size and part is the busier Sheppard frontage, but it also tells you that the market prices these two very differently. If you like the Terrace Heights format, look at both before you decide.

Condos.ca lists the developer of Terrace Heights III as a numbered Ontario company rather than Tor-Bel Group by name. I would not read anything into that; it is common for builders to use a separate company for each project.

What is changing around Sheppard and Allen

The biggest change nearby is the Downsview airport lands to the west. Northcrest and Canada Lands Company are planning a new neighbourhood called id8 Downsview on their 210-hectare portion, inside a 540-hectare secondary plan area that blogTO reports could eventually hold about 60,000 homes over roughly 30 years. The former runway is planned as a long public space.

For an owner here, that is a slow-moving story. Expect construction and more traffic in the area over many years, and expect more shopping and services once it fills in. It does not change the building, but it does change how much activity surrounds it.

Closer to home, the daily reality is a residential street with Sheppard Avenue West close by for buses, groceries and errands. The panel beside this review has the transit, school and park details, so I will not repeat them here. What I will say is that this is a location for someone who values a quiet street over a busy podium full of shops.

Pricing: a low price per foot and a high fee per foot

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $552 per square foot. That is a low number for North York, and it is well below Terrace Heights III at about $795. Small, older low-rise buildings often trade at a discount because they have fewer amenities and fewer buyers searching for them.

The other side is the fee. The two active listings work out to about $1.11 per square foot in monthly fees, and they ranged from about $625 to $810 a month when I checked. That is high for a building with a short amenity list. The likely reason is simple arithmetic: 56 suites share the cost of a roof, an elevator, a garage and insurance that a 300-suite tower would spread much further.

Parking is included, which helps. Heat and hydro are not on the condos.ca inclusion list, so ask how each suite is heated and what the utility bills have run. Active asking prices ranged from $375,000 to $438,000 across the two current listings. For actual trades, use the 12-month data in the panel, or ask me for a building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at Terrace Heights II

The rooftop deck is the one shared space worth asking about, because on a five-storey building it is the best outdoor view you will get. Otherwise this is a building you live in rather than one you use, and that simplicity is part of why the price per foot is low.

Jatin’s honest take on Terrace Heights II

Terrace Heights II — 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.