Morning Gloryway Townhouses: Big Condo Towns by Bayview Country Club

Most condo townhouses in North York are a compromise on space. Morning Gloryway is the exception: a quiet 1987 cul-de-sac of brick townhomes near Steeles and Leslie where a single unit can run close to 3,000 square feet with a double garage, and the outside upkeep belongs to the condo corporation. It rarely comes up for sale, so it is worth understanding before one does. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A townhouse enclave that behaves like a street of houses

Morning Gloryway is not a stacked-town complex or a row of narrow units around a parking court. It is a short private street of brick, Tudor-flavoured townhomes under mature trees, laid out so the homes face each other rather than a laneway of garage doors. Walking it, you would take it for a small subdivision before you would take it for a condominium.

That matters for how it lives. Units have front balconies, private fenced rear gardens and finished lower levels that walk out at grade. The condo structure is mostly invisible day to day; what you notice is that the grass is cut and the snow is gone without you touching a shovel.

Its setting is the other half of the appeal. The enclave sits across from the grounds of Bayview Country Club, a private 18-hole course dating from 1960, so the view out the front is green rather than another row of houses. Bayview Woods-Steeles as a whole is cut by branches of the Don River ravine, which keeps the area greener and quieter than its arterial roads suggest.

Layouts: genuinely large, with double garages

The size is the headline. An end unit currently on the market is listed in the 2,750 to 2,999 square foot band, with three bedrooms plus a den or office, four bathrooms, a separate laundry room and a large eat-in kitchen. The primary suite in that plan has an ensuite and two walk-in closets. That is detached-house space, not condo-town space.

Parking is the other thing that sets this complex apart. The same listing reports an attached double garage and room for four cars in total, which is almost unheard of in a North York condo townhouse. Heating is gas forced air with central air, and there is a fireplace in the finished walk-out lower level.

Treat those numbers as one unit, not a rule for the whole complex. End units are usually the largest, and interior units may be narrower. Ask for the floor plan of the specific home and compare it with the declaration’s unit description before assuming every home here is the same size.

What the condo corporation actually does for you

In a freehold house you pay for every roof, every driveway and every snowfall yourself. Here, current listings describe professionally maintained landscaping and snow removal, and the MLS data shows building insurance included in the fee. For a family that wants a large home but not a second job maintaining it, that trade is the reason to buy here instead of a detached house on the next street.

What the fee covers beyond that, and whether roofs, windows, garage doors and decks are the corporation’s or yours, is set out in the declaration. In townhouse corporations this split varies a great deal, and it drives both the fee and your own repair bills. Do not rely on a listing summary; read the declaration and the status certificate.

Because the complex is small, there are few owners to share the cost of big projects. A roof or paving program spread over a handful of homes is a large number per unit. That is not a reason to walk away, but it makes the reserve fund study the single most important document in the deal.

The daily reality at Steeles and Leslie

You are at the northern edge of the city. Steeles Avenue East is the boundary with Thornhill in York Region, so shopping, restaurants and services on both sides of Steeles are in play. Highways 404 and 401 are a short drive, which is why commuters to Markham and the 404 business corridor like this pocket.

Inside the enclave it is quiet. The traffic you hear is on Steeles and Leslie, not on Morning Gloryway itself. The data panel on this page shows the transit, schools and Walk Score; my view is that most households here will own at least one car, and the double garages reflect that.

How pricing works in a complex this small

There is only one active listing as I write this, so I will not quote an asking range; one listing is not a market. What I can tell you is that homes of this size compete with detached and semi-detached houses in Bayview Woods-Steeles and Hillcrest Village more than with condo apartments, and buyers should price them against both.

The fee here is higher than at a typical North York condo townhouse, but so is the floor area. Divide the monthly fee by the square footage before you compare, and remember that a detached house carries its own insurance, landscaping and snow removal costs that do not show up as a fee.

Sales are infrequent, so comparables from this enclave alone will be thin. If you are buying or selling here, I would use the recorded resales on this page together with nearby freehold sales, adjusted for size and garage count. My building sold report can pull those for you.

Building specifications

Amenities at Morning Gloryway Townhouses

There is no gym, pool or party room here, and you would not expect one in a small townhouse enclave. The amenity is the upkeep itself: the grounds, the snow and the shared exterior are looked after, so the large house is the only thing you have to manage.

Jatin’s honest take on Morning Gloryway Townhouses

Morning Gloryway Townhouses — frequently asked questions

Looking at Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.