Emmett House, 85 Emmett Ave: Big 1974 Suites, All-In Fees, New Transit

Emmett House is the building I show buyers who need three bedrooms and have a one-bedroom budget. You get a suite the size of a small house for less than a new downtown studio, and the monthly fee covers most of what a house would bill you for separately. The catch is the age of the building, and I will walk you through exactly what that means. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Space is the whole point here

Most buyers who come to me with $350,000 to $450,000 in the City of Toronto are looking at a 450 sq ft studio or a one-bedroom with no parking. At Emmett House, the same money buys a suite that condos.ca lists at roughly 969 to 1,188 sq ft, and at least one current listing sits in the 800s, so treat that range as approximate rather than exact.

These are 1970s plans, built for families moving out of houses, not for investors. Plans of that era typically have a separate dining area, full-size bedroom closets and in-suite storage, and bedrooms that fit a queen bed with room to walk around it. The current listings include two-bedroom-plus-den, three-bedroom and three-bedroom-plus-den plans, which tells you how the floor plates were carved up.

What you will not get is new-build finish. Original kitchens, older windows and older balcony doors are common in buildings of this age, and condition varies widely from suite to suite. Two units on the same floor can be completely different purchases depending on what the owner has renovated.

A fee that looks high until you add it up

Current listings show monthly fees running from about $1,000 to $1,230. That is a number that scares people off, and I understand why. But read what it covers: heat, air conditioning, water, parking, cable TV, building insurance and common elements are all in. Hydro is the main utility not listed, so confirm how your suite is metered before you budget.

Spread across roughly 1,000 sq ft, the fee works out to around a dollar a square foot or a little more. Newer buildings quote a lower per-foot figure, but most bill heat and cooling on your own meter and charge separately for parking. For a large suite in a Toronto winter, that difference is real money.

The fair warning is that an all-inclusive fee in a 1974 building is exposed to energy prices and to the cost of keeping old central systems running. When those costs rise, the whole building feels it in the fee. That is why the reserve fund study matters more here than the fee itself.

Mount Dennis is changing around this building

For years the honest knock on this pocket was transit. That has shifted. Mount Dennis station, at Eglinton between Weston Road and Black Creek Drive, began GO Kitchener line and UP Express service in November 2025, and Line 5 Eglinton opened on 8 February 2026, with Mount Dennis as its western terminus. The station reuses Kodak Building 9 from the old Kodak Heights plant as an entrance.

The next piece is the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension, which Metrolinx is building 9.2 km west toward Renforth. Its station list includes an elevated Jane-Eglinton stop beside the Eglinton Flats parkland. Metrolinx does not publish a firm opening date on its project page, so I would not pay a premium today for a station that is still under construction.

Day to day, this is a residential tower pocket off Jane south of Eglinton, with the Eglinton Flats green space and the Humber valley to the west. It is a quiet place to live rather than a walk-out-for-dinner neighbourhood. The data panel on this page shows the actual transit times and nearby food.

How it compares to The Winston House next door

Emmett House shares the street with The Winston House at 75 Emmett Avenue, a 24-storey, 349-suite tower from 1976. Winston House lists larger suites, roughly 1,170 to 1,456 sq ft, along with an indoor pool, tennis court and concierge, and its active listings ask more.

Emmett House is the cheaper entry of the two and lists an outdoor pool rather than an indoor one. It also has parking named in its fee inclusions, which Winston House’s listed inclusions do not show. If you are choosing between them, compare total monthly cost, including parking and hydro, not just the asking price.

Pricing: aggregates, not anecdotes

The building average on condos.ca sits around $388 per square foot. That is a fraction of what newer condos in the west end ask, and well below new product along the Eglinton line.

Six suites were listed for sale when I reviewed the building, with asking prices ranging from roughly $340,000 to $489,000. Six listings in a 275-suite building is a healthy amount of choice, and it means you can compare condition and renovation level side by side instead of taking the only thing available.

When you weigh asking prices here, put the monthly fee next to them. Fees scale with suite size, so a cheaper suite with a larger fee can cost more to carry each month than a pricier one with a smaller fee, once your mortgage is added. I run that carrying-cost comparison for every buyer I bring here.

Do not read the low per-foot number as a bargain by itself. You are buying an older building, and the price reflects the fee, the age and the work many suites need. The value case only holds if the reserve fund is healthy and the suite you pick does not need a full gut.

Building specifications

Amenities at Emmett House

This is a classic 1970s package: an outdoor pool for summer, a sauna and a gym, with a security guard on site. It is not a lifestyle-amenity building, but it covers the basics, and the bike storage is useful in a pocket where many trips are short.

Jatin’s honest take on Emmett House

Emmett House — frequently asked questions

Looking at Downsview, Weston, York University Heights, Rexdale and northwest Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.