The Annex vs Riverdale: Annex Style or Bay-and-Gable Semis?

Last updated 10 September 2026. Written by Jatin Dua, Broker of Record at RE/MAX Quantum Realty, 799 The Queensway, Etobicoke · Toronto neighbourhood comparison · 9 min read

Two Victorian neighbourhoods, built for opposite people

Most comparisons of these two get stuck on price. The more useful question is what each was built to be, because that is what you are living inside. The Annex was a speculative upscale suburb: Simeon Janes registered his subdivision, marketed as “the Toronto Annex”, in 1886, and the area was annexed to the city in 1887, with Seaton Village following in 1888. The houses date from 1886 to the 1910s and they were large from the start.

Riverdale went up from the 1880s as working-class housing after the 1884 annexation, on narrower lots, in longer runs, with the semi as the default unit rather than the exception. North Riverdale is drawn from the Don River valley east to Jones Ave and from Danforth Ave south to Gerrard St E, and locals split it at Riverdale Ave into Upper and Lower. South Riverdale runs from the DVP east to Jones and from Gerrard down to Lake Shore Blvd.

Annex style against bay-and-gable

“Annex style” is a genuine, named architectural type, not an estate agent’s phrase. It is a Toronto synthesis of American Richardsonian Romanesque and British Queen Anne Revival, recognisable by large rounded Romanesque arches and Queen Anne decorative work such as turrets. The template is E.J. Lennox’s Lewis Lukes residence at 37 Madison Avenue, completed 1887 — the same architect who gave the city Old City Hall and Casa Loma, which tells you the register he was working in and why the streets north of Bloor feel the way they do.

Riverdale’s signature is the bay-and-gable — the tall bay window under a steep gable, repeated down a street in semi-detached pairs — with Second Empire semis in the mix. Simpson Avenue holds the “Six Sisters,” the oldest Victorian row in the area. Lower Riverdale retains more unaltered late-nineteenth-century detail than Upper Riverdale, which has been renovated harder; if original trim, glass and brickwork are what you are after, that distinction is worth more to you than any price statistic.

The address list on the Annex side is unusual for a residential neighbourhood. 69 Albany Ave was Jane Jacobs’s house from 1971 until her death in 2006. Lester B. Pearson was at 12 Admiral Rd between 1925 and 1928 and the poet bpNichol later at number 59; Timothy Eaton was at Lowther and Walmer and Frederick Banting at Lowther and Bedford. Among named current residents are Margaret Atwood, John Ralston Saul and Adrienne Clarkson.

76.9% pre-1960 and 0.8% since 2011

This is the sharpest number in the comparison and it belongs to Riverdale. On 2021 Census figures, City neighbourhood #68 North Riverdale has 4,900 occupied dwellings of which 76.9% were built in 1960 or earlier and just 0.8% since 2011. That is a near-frozen fabric — the lowest recent-build share of any neighbourhood I write about. Its stock is 28.1% semi-detached, 16.4% single-detached, 7.3% row, with 28.4% in apartment buildings under five storeys and 14.0% in buildings of five or more. Owner-occupancy is 58.3%, population 11,290, 2020 median household income $108,000 and the median self-reported dwelling value in 2021 was $1,510,000.

An important nuance that catches out buyers reading census tables: that 28.4% “apartment in a building under five storeys” figure is mostly converted Victorian and Edwardian houses split into flats, not purpose-built walk-ups. The same is true of the 32.0% figure in #70 South Riverdale, which is otherwise a newer picture — 52.2% pre-1960 and 18.0% built 2011 to 2021, driven by Riverside and Leslieville loft and condo conversion.

The Annex’s fabric is old in the same way but altered differently. Its large houses have been very heavily converted into multiplexes, rooming houses and student rentals, alongside low-rise apartment blocks on Bloor and Spadina and a small number of condo buildings. In Riverdale a converted house is usually two or three flats; in the Annex it can be a good deal more, and the conversion quality is the single biggest variable between two houses that look identical from the pavement.

The money, with the sample sizes attached

These are TRREB community figures for Q1 2026 (January to March 2026), the most recent quarter TRREB publishes at community level. North Riverdale’s quarter is very thin and I have flagged it hard, because it is the number most likely to be quoted at you without a caveat.

What the table does show reliably is scarcity on both sides. Six active listings in North Riverdale at the end of a quarter is close to nothing. The Annex’s 175 active listings look healthier until you notice that 207 of its 264 new listings were condo apartments — the freehold market underneath is 5 detached and 9 semi sales in three months.

Freehold and condo have decoupled in both places

This is the most useful thing I can tell a buyer about either neighbourhood. In the Annex, semis sold in an average of 20 days and detached at 104% of list — over ask — while condos took 42 days at 96%, on a 23% sales-to-new-listings ratio. One community, two markets moving in opposite directions.

South Riverdale shows the same split, harder. Semis went at 122% of list in five days; condo apartments went at 96% of list in 33 days, with 23 sales against 75 new listings and only a 31% sales-to-new-listings ratio. North Riverdale recorded no condo apartment and no condo townhouse sales at all that quarter, which tells you how thin that stock is north of Gerrard.

Getting around, and the routes that no longer exist

The Annex has four subway stations — Spadina, St George and Dupont on Line 1; Bathurst, Spadina and St George on Line 2 — with two Line 1/Line 2 interchanges, plus the 511 Bathurst and 510 Spadina streetcars and the 26 Dupont bus. No GO station, and no expressway at all, because the neighbourhood stopped the Spadina Expressway that would have run through it.

Riverdale has Line 2 along its northern edge — Broadview, Chester, Pape, Donlands and Greenwood — and a dense streetcar grid below it: the 501 Queen, 504 King, 505 Dundas and 506 Carlton, with night service on the 300, 301, 304, 305 and 306. Buses include the 8 Broadview, 22 Coxwell, 31 Greenwood, 62 Mortimer, 72 Pape, 83 Jones and 135 Gerrard. Danforth GO at 213 Main St on the Lakeshore East line serves the northeast edge. The DVP runs along the western edge, and the Gardiner and Lake Shore along the southern edge of South Riverdale — so unlike the Annex, this is a drivable neighbourhood.

Two corrections worth having. The 502 Downtowner does not exist — it was folded into the 503 Kingston Rd in September 2019 and delisted by January 2020, though generic neighbourhood copy still lists it. And 2026 brought real disruption: the 501 Queen was suspended from February 2026 for track renewal on Queen St E between Broadview and Davies and replaced by buses, with streetcars resuming 27 April 2026 between Broadview and Parliament, the 504 King cut back to Distillery Loop and a 504D bus replacement running through 3 May 2026.

Break-and-enter: both are above the city, in different ways

Against city-wide 2025 rates per 100,000 of assault 767.9, break-and-enter 189.5, auto theft 225, theft from motor vehicle 212, robbery 79 and bike theft 66, the Annex records break-and-enter at 387.1 — roughly double the city — with assault at 1,080.9 and auto theft at 116.9. Note that those figures use the City’s #95 Annex boundary, which is larger than the traditional neighbourhood and includes Yorkville.

North Riverdale records assault 663, break-and-enter 295 — 55% above the city figure — auto theft 106, theft from motor vehicle 270, robbery 82 and bike theft 106. South Riverdale records assault 829, break-and-enter 265, auto theft 217 and theft from motor vehicle 350. Both Riverdale halves run materially above the city on break-and-enter, theft-from-vehicle and bike theft: the classic old-Toronto-laneway pattern, and a direct consequence of the rear access that comes with this housing stock. The Annex is worse on burglary; Riverdale is worse on vehicle and bike theft. Neither is a reason not to buy. Both are a reason to spend money on locks, lighting and a proper garage door.

The drawbacks I would flag in each

• Riverdale: 181 construction trucks a day. Truck traffic at the Gerrard Portal, Gerrard and Carlaw, rises from 56 trucks a day to 155 in summer 2026 and 181 by late 2026 into 2027, with paid-duty officers on Carlaw and crossing guards at Gerrard and Carlaw. The Gerrard-Carlaw Parkette off-leash dog area closed in November 2025 with a temporary facility until 2030 or 2031, and 477 trees were removed in the Don Valley and Minton Place.
• Riverdale: the treatment plant. The Ashbridges Bay Treatment Plant sits inside City neighbourhood #70 South Riverdale and odour is a live, ongoing issue. If you are looking in the southern reaches, go and stand on the street on a warm evening before you decide.
• Riverdale: a near-frozen supply. Eleven North Riverdale sales and six active listings in a quarter means you will wait, and when the right house appears you will be bidding against people who have also been waiting. Semis went at 113% and 122% of list in Q1 2026.
• The Annex: burglary at double the city rate. 387.1 break-and-enters per 100,000 in 2025 against 189.5 city-wide, with assault at 1,080.9 against 767.9.
• The Annex: conversion quality is a lottery. Heavy student and transient demand has produced rooming-house conversions, absentee landlords and upkeep that varies house by house on stock built between 1886 and the 1910s. Budget for a serious inspection and expect to find surprises behind the plaster.
• The Annex: no highway, and a very expensive entry. No expressway access at all, a detached median of $2,171K and a semi median of $1,430K in Q1 2026, and a condo segment sitting at 96% of list in 42 days if you were hoping the units would be the easy way in.

Which one suits which buyer

Choose the Annex if you want a large, individually designed Victorian in a named architectural style, if a four-station walk and the Bloor Street Culture Corridor are worth a premium to you, if you work at or around the University of Toronto, and if you have the budget and the patience for a converted house and a thin market. It is the better neighbourhood for someone who wants the building itself to be the point.

Choose Riverdale if you want an intact Victorian streetscape rather than a set of landmark houses, if the bay-and-gable semi is the form you actually love, if you want Riverdale Park — established 1880, 104 acres straddling the Lower Don, and 162 acres before the DVP took a bite in the 1960s — as your back garden, and if you can live with a decade of Ontario Line work at Gerrard and Carlaw. Look in Lower Riverdale specifically if unaltered detail matters more to you than a finished kitchen.

And one correction to carry with you: Riverdale Farm is not in Riverdale. It is in Cabbagetown, on the west bank of the Don adjacent to Riverdale Park. It is 3 ha, was the Riverdale Zoo from 1888 until 1974 — the animals moved to Scarborough to become the Toronto Zoo — and reopened as a farm in 1978, with the 1858 barn moved from Markham and rebuilt on site in 1977. If a listing sells you the farm as a Riverdale amenity, they have not checked. You can see how I think about that sort of thing across the rest of the neighbourhood series.

Common questions

Related reading

• The Annex vs Davisville Village: Which Is Better?
• Yorkville vs The Annex: Which Is Better?
• Danforth & Greektown vs Riverdale: Which Is Better?
• Leaside vs Riverdale: Which Is Better?
• Free AI home value estimator
• Free AI condo value estimator
• This month’s Toronto and GTA market report

North Riverdale’s Q1 2026 figures rest on 11 sales in total and the Annex’s freehold figures on fewer than ten each, so treat both as directional rather than as valuations. Community figures are Q1 2026, the most recent quarter TRREB publishes at that level. General commentary on two Toronto neighbourhoods, not investment advice and not a valuation of any specific property. Market statistics are as published by TRREB for the periods stated and change every month. School boundaries, transit service and development approvals all change — verify anything you are relying on before you make an offer.