45 Verral Avenue Condos: Nine Leslieville Lofthouses Off Queen East

45 Verral Avenue is one of the smallest condominiums I write about: nine brick townhomes on the corner of Verral and Colgate avenues, tucked just behind the Queen Street East retail strip in Leslieville. You get house-like proportions, 9 to 10 foot ceilings and a condo title, with almost nobody to share a building with. That rarity is the appeal and the challenge. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Nine townhomes, not a building with a lobby

Most people searching this address expect a mid-rise. It is not one. The project is nine townhome-style residences that Urban Fabric Development called “lofthouses” when they were being built, finished in 2013 on a corner lot just north of Queen Street East.

That scale changes how you should think about it. There is no concierge, no gym and no party room, and you should not expect any. What you are buying is closer to a modern freehold town in daily life, held under a condominium title, with a small group of neighbours who collectively own and maintain the common elements.

For the right buyer that is the best of both: no shared hallways or elevators, your own front door at grade, but someone else’s budget line for the things a freehold owner handles alone. For the wrong buyer, it is a condo with very few owners to spread costs across, which matters more than people realise.

George Popper’s brick, and why it fits the block

The architect is George Popper, whose practice is known for small infill projects on tight Toronto lots. Here the homes are clad in dark brown brick with glass balcony guards, a deliberately modern design that still reads as housing rather than a commercial block.

UrbanToronto described the massing as a step up from the Victorian and Edwardian houses on Colgate and Verral toward the converted factory buildings across the block. That is a good way to understand the location: on one side, the residential streets of Leslieville; on the other, the Carlaw loft district, with Showcase Lofts and Abode Lofts within a minute’s walk on Colgate.

The homes sit back from the retail corner rather than fronting Queen directly. You trade a little visibility for a quieter front door, which I think is the right trade on this stretch.

Sizes and ceilings: why these feel bigger than the square footage

Reported sizes run from about 1,085 to 1,700 square feet, which puts every home here above what most Leslieville condo apartments offer. Ceilings were built at 9 to 10 feet, and the layouts are vertical, spread over several floors rather than one plate.

Vertical living has real advantages: separation between sleeping and living floors, more natural light from multiple exposures, and a layout that suits a couple working from home. It also means stairs, every day, which rules it out for some downsizers.

Because there are only nine homes, the plans are not all identical. Before you compare one listing here with another, get the floor plan, confirm the number of storeys, and check what outdoor space comes with that particular home, whether a terrace, balcony or roof deck, and whether parking and a locker are owned or exclusive-use.

Daily life around Queen and Carlaw

This corner is about as practical as Leslieville gets. Queen Street East is at the end of the street for coffee, restaurants and the streetcar, and Carlaw’s converted factories bring offices, studios and small retail within a few minutes on foot.

The area keeps changing. The former industrial buildings around Carlaw have been turning into lofts and offices for years, and this project itself was built on that kind of infill lot. For an owner here, that mostly means more amenities nearby and a busier street during construction periods. The transit, school and Walk Score details are in the data panel on this page. My advice is to visit on a weekday evening and a Saturday, because Queen East at this corner feels quite different at each time.

How to price a home in a nine-unit condo

There are no active sale listings here as I write this, and there is no published average price per square foot for the building. In a nine-home corporation that is normal: a home might come up once in a while, and some years nothing trades at all.

That makes the usual condo shortcut, comparing price per square foot with the last sale in the same building, unreliable. I price homes like these against three groups at once: recent townhome condos in Leslieville and Riverside, larger loft units in the Carlaw conversions nearby, and small freehold houses on the surrounding streets. The right number usually sits between the loft comparables and the freehold ones.

Monthly fees and what they include are not published in any source I found, so I won’t guess. In small townhouse corporations, the fee per square foot can look low or high depending on how much of the exterior the corporation maintains and what the reserve fund study asks for. Read the declaration and the status certificate before treating the fee as a bargain. If you own here and want a proper read on value, ask me for a building sold report.

Building specifications

Jatin’s honest take on 45 Verral Avenue Condos (Leslieville Lofthouses)

45 Verral Avenue Condos (Leslieville Lofthouses) — 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.