151 Robert Townhomes: A Two-Unit Condo Off Harbord, West of Spadina

151 Robert Street is a condominium in name and a pair of houses in practice. It is a two-unit townhouse corporation, registered at the end of 2016, on a residential street just west of Spadina near Harbord, a few minutes’ walk from the University of Toronto. The location is one of the steadiest in the city; the structure needs more care than buyers usually give it. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

What a two-unit condominium is

Condos.ca lists two units here, of townhouse type, with the corporation registered on 28 December 2016. Small registrations like this usually come from a builder who rebuilt or replaced a house and registered the result as a condominium, so that each home could be sold and financed separately.

The public record does not name a builder or an architect, and I could not find a press or planning record for the project. That is common for small infill on residential streets. The condominium documents and a proper inspection are your best guide to how it was built.

Day to day, owning here is much more like owning a semi-detached house than a condo apartment. There is no lobby or concierge, no amenity floor and no management office. There is a shared structure and two owners responsible for it.

Two owners, one set of decisions

Whatever its size, a condominium corporation has to carry insurance, keep records, pass a budget, contribute to a reserve fund and update its reserve fund study on schedule. In a two-unit corporation, the board is essentially you and your neighbour, and nothing happens unless both of you agree.

That can be the easiest arrangement in the city or the hardest. With two cooperative owners, costs stay low and decisions are quick. With two owners who disagree, there is no majority to settle it. Ask how the corporation has been run since 2016, and whether there is any written agreement between the owners.

No property manager is recorded. Ask who holds the insurance policy and the corporation’s bank account, whether a reserve fund study has been done since registration, and whether contributions have actually been made.

The declaration is the most important document you will read. It defines what is your unit, what is a common element and what is an exclusive-use common element, such as a yard, deck or parking pad, and that decides who pays for a roof, a wall or a basement repair.

How buying it differs from buying a house

Because this is a condominium, your offer should be conditional on reviewing the status certificate. The corporation must provide it on request, and it shows the common expense, the reserve fund, the budget, any special levies and any known issues affecting the corporation.

Insurance is split. The corporation insures the building, and you carry a condominium unit policy for your contents, improvements and liability. Ask what the corporation’s deductible is and whether the documents charge it back to the owner whose unit caused a claim. In a two-unit building, one roof leak or burst pipe can be a large part of the year’s costs.

Renovations that touch the exterior, structure or common elements generally need the corporation’s consent, which here means your neighbour’s agreement, and possibly heritage approval as well. If you plan to change windows, add a deck at the back or finish a basement, find out what the declaration, the bylaws and the City allow before you firm up.

A lawyer with condominium experience is worth the fee here. A house closing checklist will miss most of what matters.

Robert Street and the heritage question

Robert Street runs through Harbord Village, the neighbourhood between Spadina and Bathurst, College and Bloor, just west of the University of Toronto’s St. George campus. It is a street of bay-and-gable semis and Victorian houses, many restored over the last few decades, and Harbord Street is the main street through the area.

Harbord Village has a long history of residents protecting its scale. In the late 1960s the City planned tower redevelopment here, and residents organized and stopped it; smaller towers went up along Spadina instead. That history is why the streets still look the way they do, and why new building on them tends to be modest infill like this one.

The Harbord Village Heritage Conservation District was expanded in 2009 to include Robert Street. Check with the City whether this property falls inside the district boundary, because if it does, exterior changes such as windows, additions or front porches can need heritage approval.

The University of Toronto owns the former Robert Street playing fields and is redeveloping them as an expanded sports field and public park, which is the most significant change close by. Transit, schools and nearby parks are summarised in the data panel on this page.

Pricing two homes with almost no comparables

There were no active listings when I checked, and with two units there is no meaningful building average per square foot. One sale here describes one home, not a market.

The real comparables are freehold semis and row houses on Robert, Major, Brunswick, Borden and the streets around Harbord, and small condominium townhomes elsewhere in the Annex and Harbord Village. Adjust for size, parking, outdoor space and the shared structure, which some buyers see as an advantage and others see as a complication.

No fee inclusions are recorded. Ask for the budget, your unit’s monthly common expense and the utility bills, since most utilities in a building like this are likely to be separately metered. My building sold report can pull aggregate trades for the area.

Building specifications

Jatin’s honest take on 151 Robert Townhomes

151 Robert Townhomes — frequently asked questions

Looking at Queen West, Trinity-Bellwoods, Kensington and Little Italy more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.