Line 5 Eglinton, Seven Months In: Commutes, Prices and What to Watch

Last updated 7 September 2026. Written by Jatin Dua, Broker of Record at RE/MAX Quantum Realty, 799 The Queensway, Etobicoke. Updated September 2026 · Toronto · 9 min read

What actually changed on 8 February

For a decade, Eglinton was a construction site people apologised for living near. The line finally opened in February 2026, and the practical effect is easy to state: a crosstown trip that used to mean a bus crawling in mixed traffic now takes roughly half as long, and it connects to Line 1 at two points and Line 2 at Kennedy.

The commute improvement is not evenly distributed, and that is the whole story for anyone thinking about property.

Segment	Before	After Line 5
Mount Dennis to Kennedy, end to end	About 105 minutes by bus	50 – 55 minutes
Mid-line to Yonge and Eglinton	Slow bus in mixed traffic	Direct, grade-separated for much of it
Mid-line to downtown	Bus plus subway, two transfers	One connection to Line 1
Scarborough to midtown	Line 2 plus a bus	Line 2 to Line 5 at Kennedy

How transit premiums actually behave

There is a well-documented pattern in how rapid transit affects nearby home values, and it is not the one most sellers expect. The premium arrives in stages, and a lot of it is already priced in long before the first train runs.

The rough shape of it:

• Announcement. A modest early lift, and heavily discounted for the risk the project never happens — a discount Toronto buyers learned to apply generously during the Crosstown’s delays.
• Construction. Often a drag. Years of hoarding, dust, closed lanes and lost storefront parking suppress values along the corridor itself, even as the eventual benefit becomes more certain.
• Opening. The relief trade. The construction discount unwinds, retail comes back, and the corridor starts to look like the thing it was always going to be.
• Two to ten years after. The real, durable change, and it is less about existing houses than about what gets built. Intensification permissions, new midrise, and the slow shift in who wants to live there.

Walking distance is the whole variable

The one thing the research is consistent about: the effect falls away sharply with distance from the station entrance. A ten-minute walk is a different asset from a three-minute walk, and buyers price it that way.

If you own or are buying near the line, measure the actual walking route — not the straight-line distance on a map. Eglinton has long blocks, a rail corridor, and a few places where the nearest crossing adds several minutes.

• Under 500 metres: genuinely walkable in February. This is where the premium concentrates.
• 500 metres to a kilometre: walkable in good weather, a bus ride in bad. A meaningfully weaker effect.
• Over a kilometre: the station is a convenience, not a feature of the property.
• Directly on Eglinton: a trade-off, not a pure gain. You get the shortest walk and the most noise, traffic and, in some stretches, an aboveground alignment right outside the window.

Where the second wave of change is coming from

The durable effect of a transit line on a neighbourhood is rarely about existing houses. It is about what the city permits next.

Eglinton is now a rapid transit corridor, and provincial and municipal policy pushes density towards exactly that. Major transit station areas, the multiplex permissions across Toronto’s residential zones, and midrise development along avenues all point the same way.

• Midrise on the avenue. Expect a steady pipeline of six to twelve storey buildings along Eglinton itself over the next decade.
• Gentle density on the side streets. Duplex, triplex and fourplex conversions in the low-rise blocks behind the corridor.
• Retail turnover. The independent shops that survived a decade of construction are not all going to survive the rent increases that follow it. This is the part longtime residents feel most sharply.
• Assembly interest. Builders quietly buying adjacent lots near stations. If you own within a couple of hundred metres of a station and you get an unsolicited offer, it is worth understanding why before you answer it.

If you are buying near the line right now

Seven months in is an awkward moment. The construction discount has largely unwound, but the second-wave changes have barely started. A few things worth doing before you commit:

• Check the alignment outside the property. Line 5 runs underground through the central section and at surface level towards the eastern end. Surface running beside your bedroom is a different proposition from a tunnel.
• Look at what is already approved nearby. Your municipality’s development application map will show you what is coming. A pleasant low-rise view can have an approved twelve-storey building behind it.
• Test the actual commute. Ride it at 8am on a weekday to where you actually work, before you make an offer. Frequency and crowding at rush hour are the real experience.
• Do not overpay for the extension. The Renforth extension is targeted for 2031 and Toronto’s record on transit timelines speaks for itself. Buy for the line that runs today.

And if you already own along it

You have absorbed a decade of construction. The question is whether now is the moment to sell into the improvement or hold for the second wave.

There is no universal answer, but the framing that helps: selling now captures the relief trade — the unwinding of the construction discount, which has largely already happened. Holding is a bet on intensification and the neighbourhood’s re-rating over five to ten years, which is a slower and less certain payoff but a considerably larger one if you are near a station.

Common questions

When did the Eglinton Crosstown open?

Line 5 Eglinton opened on 8 February 2026, running 19 kilometres and 25 stations between Mount Dennis and Kennedy after more than a decade of construction and repeated delays.

How much faster is Line 5 than the old bus?

End to end the line runs roughly 50 to 55 minutes, against about 105 minutes for the buses it replaced. The gain is largest for trips that previously required a slow crosstown bus plus a transfer.

How much does a transit station add to a home’s value?

There is no reliable single figure. Published studies span a very wide range and the effect depends heavily on walking distance, housing type and what the corridor looked like beforehand. What is consistent is that the effect concentrates within roughly 500 metres of a station entrance and falls away quickly beyond that.

Which neighbourhoods gained the most from Line 5?

The mid-line areas that previously had no rapid transit at all — around Oakwood, Fairbank and Caledonia — gained the most in practical commute terms. Areas already on a subway line, like Yonge and Eglinton, gained the least because they were already well served.

When will the Eglinton West extension to Renforth open?

The 9.2 kilometre western extension from Mount Dennis to Renforth is under construction and currently targeted for completion around 2031. A further extension towards Pearson has been proposed but remains at the planning stage.

Is it too late to buy on the Eglinton corridor?

The easy part of the trade — the construction discount unwinding — has largely happened. What has not happened yet is the intensification and neighbourhood change that follows a transit line over five to ten years. Whether that is worth buying for depends on how long you intend to hold.

Related reading

• Free AI home value estimator
• Free AI condo value estimator
• More Toronto neighbourhood guides

General commentary on the Eglinton corridor, not investment advice or a valuation of any specific property. Transit effects on home values vary enormously by location, housing type and timing, and no percentage quoted anywhere should be applied to an individual address. Speak to a licensed agent about your own situation.