138 Homestead Rd: A 22-Suite West Hill Low-Rise That Rarely Lists

138 Homestead Road is one of the smallest condominiums I write about: 22 suites over three storeys on a residential street in West Hill. Buildings this size live or die by their owners, their budget and their reserve fund, so the paperwork matters more here than in a 300-suite tower. If you want a quiet, low-rise home in east Scarborough, it deserves a careful look. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Small on purpose

With 22 suites over three storeys, 138 Homestead Road is closer in scale to a block of townhouses than to a condo tower. Wellform Investment built it in 2002, and it registered as TSCC-1452 on 1 August that year.

Small buildings have real advantages. You know your neighbours, the common areas see little traffic, and there is no long elevator wait because there may be no elevator at all. Ask whether the building has one, since that matters for anyone planning to age in place.

They also have a real weakness: there are only 22 owners to share every bill. A new roof or a garage repair that would barely move the fee in a big tower can mean a noticeable increase or a special assessment here. That is not a reason to avoid it, but it is the reason to read the reserve fund study first.

I could not confirm the suite sizes or the layouts here, and condos.ca does not publish a size range for the building. Ask the listing agent for a floor plan and check the measurements yourself, because in a building this small there may be only a few distinct plans, and each one prices differently.

What the fee covers, and what it does not

Condos.ca lists common elements, building insurance and parking in the fee. Heat, hydro, water and air conditioning are not on that list, so expect to pay most of your own utilities, much as you would in a townhouse.

That usually means a lower fee than an all-inclusive tower, with more of your housing cost moving into your own bills. Ask the seller for a year of utility bills so you can see the real monthly total, and ask the manager how water is metered and billed.

Insurance is in the fee, but that covers the building, not your contents or your improvements. Budget for your own condo unit insurance policy, and check what deductible the corporation’s policy carries, since owners are often responsible for it when damage starts in their suite.

Parking is in the fee, and condos.ca lists visitor parking as well. Confirm on the status certificate which space goes with the suite and whether a locker comes with it.

Pets, barbecues and the small-building rules

Condos.ca lists pets and barbecues as permitted here, which is less common in larger buildings. Even so, read the declaration and rules before you buy. Small corporations sometimes have specific limits on the number or size of pets, and barbecue rules often depend on the type of grill and where it sits.

In a 22-suite corporation, the board is a handful of owners, and it is common for every owner to be asked to help at some point. Read a year or two of board minutes. They will tell you how decisions are made, whether owners get along and whether repairs are being planned or put off.

Guardian Property Management is listed as manager. Ask how often the manager is on site and how quickly service requests are handled, since a small building gets a smaller share of a manager’s week.

Living in West Hill

West Hill takes its name from its position on the west side of the Highland Creek ravine. It was largely rural until after the Second World War, and most of the housing went up from the 1950s through the 1970s, which is why the streets around Homestead Road are mostly detached houses with the odd low-rise block among them.

This location sits near Lawrence Avenue East and Morningside Avenue, with the shops along Kingston Road and the Highland Creek valley both part of daily life in this neighbourhood. The townhouse complex at 152 to 176 Homestead Road, a 1978 corporation, is your nearest condo comparison. The panel on this page lists transit, schools and shops.

Transit is the long-term change. The City and the TTC are planning Scarborough East Rapid Transit, an 18.6-kilometre line from Kennedy Station to Malvern Town Centre by way of the University of Toronto Scarborough campus. It is still in planning, but it would bring rapid transit to a part of Scarborough that has always relied on buses and the GO train.

What 138 Homestead Road costs

This is a hard building to price from listings. When I checked, there were no suites for sale or for lease, and condos.ca did not publish a building average per square foot or a suite size range.

That is normal for a 22-suite building. A handful of sales a year, sometimes none, means the usual per-square-foot comparisons are thin. The better approach is to compare against recent sales here, the townhouses nearby on Homestead Road and other low-rise condominiums in West Hill, adjusted for size and condition.

Use the panel on this page for what has actually sold, or ask me for a building sold report. In a building this size, one sale can move the average a lot, so look at the details of each comparable rather than the headline number.

Building specifications

Amenities at 138 Homestead Road Condos

There is no amenity floor here, and that is the point: you are not paying for a gym or a party room you may never use. What you get is a quiet building, visitor parking and, per condos.ca, permission for pets and barbecues.

Jatin’s honest take on 138 Homestead Road Condos

138 Homestead Road Condos — frequently asked questions

Looking at Scarborough Bluffs, West Hill, Guildwood, Woburn, Malvern and Rouge more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.