Published 10 September 2026 · By Jatin Dua, Broker of Record, RE/MAX Quantum Realty
The Annex is better if you want a freehold house on the subway and can afford one; Liberty Village is better if you want to own something downtown for under $700,000. In Q1 2026 Liberty Village condo apartments averaged $612K across 111 sales. Annex semi-detached houses averaged $1,671K across nine sales and sold in 20 days; Annex detached went at 104% of list across five sales. The real choice is what kind of risk you are taking on. Liberty Village is a post-2001 condo district buying into a soft new-build market. The Annex is 1886-onward Victorian stock, heavily converted, with everything that implies for maintenance and for what your neighbours may be doing with their houses.
One of these neighbourhoods is 25 years old and the other is 140
Almost every difference between Liberty Village and The Annex traces back to when they were built. The Annex follows Simeon Janes’s 1886 subdivision, “the Toronto Annex”, annexed to the city in 1887 with Seaton Village following in 1888; the housing is 1886 through the 1910s. Liberty Village’s industrial shells date from the 1880s to the 1920s, but nearly all of its residential stock is post-2001 — the BIA itself was founded in 2001.
That gap gives you two genuinely different products. The Annex is large late-Victorian and Edwardian detached and semi-detached houses, very heavily converted to multiplexes, rooming houses and student rentals, with low-rise apartment blocks along Bloor and Spadina and a handful of condo buildings. “Annex style” is a real, named architectural type — a Toronto synthesis of American Richardsonian Romanesque and British Queen Anne Revival, with large rounded arches and Queen Anne details like turrets. The template is E.J. Lennox’s Lewis Lukes residence at 37 Madison Avenue, completed 1887; Lennox also did Old City Hall and Casa Loma.
Liberty Village is mid- and high-rise condominium plus adaptive-reuse lofts in old factories and blocks of condo townhouses. The named heritage buildings are 947 King St W (the former Massey-Harris factory), the Toronto Carpet Factory Building on Mowat Ave, the Liberty Market Building at Liberty and Hanna, and the Irwin Toy Factory, converted to lofts in 2003.
What you are actually choosing between on a map
Liberty Village files under TRREB C01, community Niagara — there has never been a Liberty Village MLS code. It is City neighbourhood #163 Fort York–Liberty Village, bounded by King St W, Dufferin, the Gardiner and rail corridor, and Strachan; roughly 55 hectares.
The Annex files under TRREB C02, community Annex, and is City neighbourhood #95 Annex, which kept its legacy number through the 2022 restructure. Here is the trap: the City’s Annex is much larger than the traditional Annex. It extends east across Avenue Rd to Yonge and absorbs Yorkville entirely. The traditional Annex is Dupont to the north, Bloor St W to the south, Bathurst to the west and Avenue Rd to the east. Any Annex statistic you read may be using either definition, and they are not close to the same thing.
What each one costs
These are TRREB Q1 2026 (January–March 2026) community figures, the most recent quarter TRREB publishes at community level and therefore roughly six months old.
| Q1 2026 | Liberty Village (Niagara) | The Annex |
|---|---|---|
| All types — sales | 134 | 64 |
| All types — average | $655,325 | $1,352,721 |
| All types — median | $599,000 | $948,000 |
| Detached | 0 sales | 5 sales, avg $2,159K, median $2,171K, 104% of list, 34 days |
| Semi-detached | 0 sales | 9 sales, avg $1,671K, median $1,430K, 99% of list, 20 days |
| Condo apartment | 111 sales, avg $612K, median $573K | 48 sales, avg $1,192K, median $818K |
| Condo apartment days on market | 38 | 42 |
| Condo sales-to-new-listings | 33% | 23% |
| New listings, all types | 396 | 264 |
| Days on market, all types | 37 | 38 |
The most useful thing in that table is not the price gap, it is what is happening inside the Annex. Annex semis sold in 20 days and Annex detached sold at 104% of list — over asking — while Annex condos took 42 days at 96% of list and cleared only 23% of new listings. Within one community, the freehold market and the condo market are moving in opposite directions. Five detached sales and nine semi sales are small samples and I would not build a trend on them, but the direction is consistent with what I see on the ground: houses here are scarce and contested, apartments are not.
The short version of that
If you buy a house in the Annex you are competing. If you buy a condo in the Annex — or in Liberty Village — you are being competed for. Those are two entirely different negotiating positions, and they exist within a few hundred metres of each other.
New-build risk against Victorian risk
This is the part I would want a buyer to think hardest about, because it is where money gets lost quietly.
Liberty Village’s risk is that you are buying into a soft, oversupplied new-condo market. The GTHA-wide picture from Urbanation for Q1 2026 is stark: for the first time in at least 30 years there were no new project launches in the quarter; 246 new condos sold, down 52% annually; a record 4,295 new condos completed and unsold; 92 months of completed unsold supply on the market; and 8,629 unsold units still under construction. Those are region-wide numbers, not Liberty Village numbers, but Liberty Village is exactly the kind of district they describe.
The Annex’s risk is 1886 construction and what has been done to it since. The heavy conversion history is the point: multiplexes, rooming houses and student rentals mean absentee landlords and variable upkeep on some blocks, and it means the house you buy has probably been divided, re-divided and re-serviced several times over. Old stock carries the usual Victorian burdens — knob-and-tube legacies, masonry, roofs, drains — and none of that shows up in an MLS average. Budget for a proper inspection and for the first two years of ownership, not just the purchase.
If you have never bought before and the two risks feel equally opaque, that is a reasonable reaction. I have written a longer walk-through for first-time buyers in Ontario that covers how to price both kinds of unknown.
Getting around: four stations against one road
The Annex is one of the best-served neighbourhoods in the city for subway. Line 1 stops at Spadina, St George and Dupont; Line 2 at Bathurst, Spadina and St George. Four stations serve the neighbourhood, and St George and Spadina are both Line 1 / Line 2 interchanges. Add the 511 Bathurst and 510 Spadina streetcars on the flanks and the 26 Dupont bus. There is no GO station; UP Express Bloor is roughly 2 km west along Line 2. Highway access is poor — famously so, because the Annex is the neighbourhood that stopped the Spadina Expressway, which would have cut it in half. The Ontario Line does not serve the Annex.
Liberty Village is the mirror image. The City’s own material says it “is unique in that there is only one main road to get in and out,” and traffic congestion was the single biggest issue raised in community consultation — with event traffic from BMO Field, Lamport Stadium, the amphitheatre and the CNE on top. The 504 King streetcar does not run through the neighbourhood; branch 504B runs Dufferin Gate Loop to Broadview via Dufferin and King, so residents walk up to King or over to Dufferin. The 511 Bathurst and the 29/929 Dufferin work the edges.
What Liberty Village does have is Exhibition GO on the Lakeshore West line, immediately south across the rail corridor — 966,400 passengers in 2019 — reached through a below-grade pedestrian connection in the station, plus the King–Liberty pedestrian and cycle bridge that opened in April 2021. UP Express does not stop there. And a caution: in December 2024 Toronto city council deferred construction of two SmartTrack stations, King–Liberty among them, for lack of funding. Exhibition is the Ontario Line’s southwestern terminus, but Metrolinx says only “early 2030s” and put the project cost at $34 billion on 11 August 2026, up from $10.9 billion in April 2019.
Schools and families
The Annex has genuine depth here. Huron Street Junior Public School, 541 Huron St, JK–6, has roughly 270 students and an on-site daycare. Jesse Ketchum Junior and Senior Public School, 61 Davenport Rd, JK–8, serves over 500 students. At secondary, Harbord Collegiate Institute, 286 Harbord St, established 1892, has more than 900 students and offers French Immersion and a Math and Science Focus programme, and Central Technical School, 725 Bathurst St, founded 1915, is a composite high school with a dedicated Art Building and a pool. The University of Toronto St George campus borders the neighbourhood to the south-east.
Liberty Village has no public school within its boundaries. The City states plainly that the majority of community services and facilities serving Liberty Village are located outside the neighbourhood boundaries. The nearest TDSB options are Niagara Street Junior Public School, 222 Niagara St, JK–6, and Jean Lumb Public School, 20 Brunel Crt, JK–8, capacity 550, built for the CityPlace and Fort York condo population. The City’s service strategy says needs are “currently met for public schools, community centres and libraries” while residents in consultation reported a strong need for exactly those facilities — that gap is the honest story.
I am not going to quote school rankings for either neighbourhood, because I do not have figures I can stand behind for these specific schools, and a ranking I cannot source is worse than no ranking. What I will say is that catchments cannot be inferred from a neighbourhood name: use the TDSB “Find Your School” tool with the exact address before an offer depends on it.
Where each one will annoy you
The Annex
- Break and enter runs at double the city rate. 387.1 per 100,000 in 2025 against 189.5 city-wide, with assault at 1,080.9 against 767.9 and auto theft at 116.9. Those are among the higher property-crime numbers in central Toronto.
- A heavy student and transient population. Rooming-house conversions, absentee landlords and variable upkeep are a real feature of some blocks. Walk the specific street on a weekday evening, not just a Sunday afternoon.
- Freehold entry is very expensive. Detached median $2,171K, semi median $1,430K in Q1 2026. There is no cheap way into an Annex house.
- The condo segment is soft. 42 days on market, 96% of list, 23% of new listings clearing. If you buy a condo here, buy it because you want to live in the Annex, not as a trade.
Liberty Village, plainly
- One main road in and out, plus stadium and CNE event traffic. Test it on an event evening before you commit.
- No school, no recreation centre and no library within the boundaries. Everything civic means leaving, on that one road.
- No freehold market at all. The quarter produced zero detached and zero semi sales, so when you outgrow the unit you leave the neighbourhood.
- 337 new condo listings against 111 sales in a single quarter. Excellent while you are buying, sobering when you are the one selling into it.
To be fair to Liberty Village, its 2025 crime rates run below the city average: assault 730.9 against 767.9, break and enter 124.4 against 189.5, auto theft 46.7, robbery 23.3. Against the Annex’s numbers, that is a meaningful difference.
What is being built in each
The Annex’s defining change is Mirvish Village on the former Honest Ed’s site at Bloor and Bathurst, completing this season: roughly 900 purpose-built rental units across seven buildings of 8 to 27 storeys, 200,000 sq ft of commercial space, 127 commercial parking stalls and direct access to Bathurst station. The Kitchen is a 19,000 sq ft food hall, bar and live-music venue; Honest Ed’s Alley holds 25 micro-retail incubator pods of 150 to 300 sq ft; ten restored heritage houses line Markham Street. As of June 2026, 748 Bathurst was roughly 85% leased and the middle complex of 428 units roughly 80% leased or occupied. Peterson Group took full control from Westbank in early 2026, with park handover to the City expected mid-July 2026 and remaining buildings ready late summer to early September 2026. Note what this is: 900 rental units, not 900 condos.
Liberty Village is being rewritten at the plan level. The “Liberty For All” Official Plan Amendment was adopted by City Council on 25 June 2026, redesignating the western half from Core Employment Areas to Regeneration Areas and identifying the area as a cultural heritage landscape, with developments of 80 units or more required to provide a minimum 40% two-or-more-bedroom units. Named applications include 147–151 Liberty St and 54–68 Fraser Ave, 55 storeys and 732 units, appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal; 25–35 Liberty St / 58 Atlantic Ave / 51–65 Jefferson Ave, 50 storeys and 514 purpose-built rental units; 61, 75 and 85 Hanna Ave with 120 Lynn Williams St, three towers of 32, 33 and 36 storeys and 963 units, rezoning approved; 80–86 Lynn Williams St, 44 storeys, 520 rental plus 13 affordable with a public daycare and public park; 1071 King St W, 14 storeys, 227 units; and 68–70 East Liberty St, a heritage restoration as a public art gallery. Liberty New Street, the promised second east-west corridor, comes only after the integrated Exhibition GO and Ontario Line station, targeted 2031.
The short version of that
The Annex is adding rental supply and almost no new ownership stock. Liberty Village is adding thousands of new condominium units on top of an already oversupplied resale market. Over a ten-year hold those two facts pull in opposite directions, and I would weigh them at least as heavily as today’s price.
Who should choose which
- Choose Liberty Village if the budget ceiling is around $700K, you want to own rather than rent downtown, and you can live with a small unit, event traffic and a single road out. It is also the better crime picture of the two.
- Choose The Annex if you want a freehold house you can actually get to work from — four subway stations, two of them interchanges — and you have the $1.4M to $2.2M that a semi or a detached takes. Buy on the street and the building, not the community average.
- Choose The Annex for architecture and culture if that is what moves you: Annex-style houses, the Bloor Street Culture Corridor with its 24 partner organisations from the ROM to Koerner Hall, and U of T on the doorstep. Nothing in Liberty Village competes with that and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.
- Do not buy an Annex condo as an investment trade. At 23% sales-to-new-listings and 96% of list, the numbers do not support it. If you want central Toronto condo exposure, Liberty Village gives you more of it for less money.
- If you already own in one and are considering the other, get a proper read on what you hold first — my home valuation page is the starting point, and I would rather tell you to stay put than sell you a move.
Common questions
Is The Annex more expensive than Liberty Village?
Substantially. In Q1 2026 all property types in the Annex averaged $1,352,721 across 64 sales with a $948,000 median, against $655,325 across 134 sales and a $599,000 median in Liberty Village. On condo apartments alone the gap narrows but remains large: $1,192K average in the Annex against $612K in Liberty Village.
Can you buy a house in Liberty Village?
Not realistically. Liberty Village recorded zero detached and zero semi-detached sales in Q1 2026. There were 19 condo townhouse sales averaging $776K and four attached or row sales averaging $1,295K, but four sales is too small a sample to read as a market rate. The Annex, by contrast, recorded detached and semi sales in the same quarter.
Why do Annex houses sell faster than Annex condos?
Because they are two different markets sharing one community code. In Q1 2026 Annex semis sold in 20 days at 99% of list and detached at 104% of list, while Annex condo apartments took 42 days at 96% of list and cleared only 23% of new listings. Freehold supply is scarce and contested; apartment supply is not.
What is Annex style architecture?
It is a genuine named type: a Toronto synthesis of American Richardsonian Romanesque and British Queen Anne Revival, characterised by large rounded Romanesque arches and Queen Anne decorative elements such as turrets. The template is E.J. Lennox’s Lewis Lukes residence at 37 Madison Avenue, completed in 1887. Lennox also designed Old City Hall and Casa Loma.
Is buying a new condo riskier than buying an old house?
They are different risks. Urbanation’s Q1 2026 GTHA figures record a record 4,295 completed and unsold new condos, 92 months of completed unsold supply, and a record 38% gap between developer asking at $1,189 per square foot and $859 resale in recently registered buildings. Victorian houses carry maintenance and conversion risk instead. Price both honestly.
Does the Ontario Line serve The Annex or Liberty Village?
Not the Annex — the line does not go there. Liberty Village sits beside Exhibition, which is the Ontario Line’s southwestern terminus. Tunnelling began 20 April 2026, but Metrolinx says only early 2030s and will not commit to a firm date, and on 11 August 2026 put the project cost at $34 billion, up from $10.9 billion in April 2019.
Annex house or Liberty Village condo?
These are different purchases with different risks, and the right answer usually falls out of your five-year plan rather than the price. Send me both addresses and I will give you a straight read on each, including the one I would tell you to walk away from.
Book a 15-minute call or call or text 833-330-1925.
No pressure, no drip campaign. If the answer is “neither, wait six months”, I will tell you that.
Related reading
- Liberty Village vs Leaside: Which Is Better?
- Islington–City Centre West vs Liberty Village: Which Is Better?
- The Annex vs Leaside: Which Is Better?
- The Annex vs Davisville Village: Which Is Better?
- Free AI home value estimator
- Free AI condo value estimator
- This month’s Toronto and GTA market report
- TRREB Community Housing Market Report, Toronto C01 and C02, Q1 2026
- TRREB Market Watch, August 2026
- Urbanation GTHA condominium market survey, Q1 2026, released 16 April 2026
- City of Toronto, Liberty For All Official Plan Amendment, adopted 25 June 2026
- City of Toronto neighbourhood profiles, 2021 Census
- Toronto Police Service Neighbourhood Crime Rates, 2025
- Metrolinx Ontario Line project updates, 2026
Jatin Dua is Broker of Record and co-founder of RE/MAX Quantum Realty, Brokerage, Unit 101, 799 The Queensway, Etobicoke. Four-plus years in the GTA and more than $100M in sales volume.
Annex and Liberty Village figures are TRREB Q1 2026 community data, the most recent quarter published at community level. Small-sample figures are labelled with their sample size and should not be read as neighbourhood price levels or as year-over-year appreciation. Price-per-square-foot figures quoted are GTHA-wide, not neighbourhood-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.