1715 Kingston Road Condos: A 10-Suite, Self-Managed Birch Cliff Condo

1715 Kingston Road is about as small as a Toronto condominium gets: 10 suites in a three-storey building, run by the owners themselves with no management company. That makes it quiet and personal, and it puts real weight on every owner’s shoulders. If you buy here, you are not just buying a suite. You are joining a board of ten. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Ten suites and no management company

Condos.ca lists this building as self-managed. In practice that means the owners, through their board, hire the contractors, collect the fees, keep the books, arrange insurance and deal with every leak and snowfall. In a 10-suite building, most owners will serve on the board at some point.

Self-management can work very well. Fees stay lean because there is no management contract to pay, and decisions are made by people who live in the building. It can also go the other way, when records are thin, the reserve fund study is out of date, or one or two owners end up doing all the work.

The Condominium Act still applies in full. A self-managed corporation must hold meetings, keep records, maintain a reserve fund and produce a status certificate on request. How well this one does that is the first thing I would look at.

Ask the seller how the board works today. Who is the president, who handles the money and how often does the board meet? In a building this small, one owner moving out can leave a gap, so it helps to know whether the work is shared or carried by one person. Some small corporations hire a bookkeeper for the paperwork while still calling themselves self-managed.

Why the size changes the maths

Every shared cost here is split ten ways. A new roof, a garage repair, a window program or a jump in the insurance premium lands on ten owners, not 200. A project that would add a few dollars a month in a tower can mean a large special assessment or a sharp fee increase in a building this size.

Insurance matters too. Small buildings can find coverage harder to place and deductibles higher, and many Ontario corporations have by-laws that pass the deductible to the owner whose suite caused the damage. Read the insurance certificate in the status package and make sure your own policy covers the deductible.

Resale is the other side of size. With only ten suites, listings are rare. There were none for sale or for rent when I wrote this, which means few comparables and a smaller pool of buyers when you sell. Plan to hold for a while, and price your eventual sale with patience.

A 1998 building on a changing stretch of Kingston Road

The MTCC prefix places the registration in the last months of the old Metropolitan Toronto, just before amalgamation. The building went up more than a decade before the City rezoned most of Kingston Road between Victoria Park and Glen Everest as Commercial Residential in 2010, following the Kingston Road Revitalization Study.

Before that change, the strip was mostly zoned for highway and neighbourhood commercial uses, which is why it still has so many car lots, motels and small plazas. Since the rezoning, mid-rise condominiums have been arriving. To the west, Residences at the Hunt Club was planned as an eight-storey, 75-suite building at 1350 Kingston Road, and Hunt Club Terrace as a 17-suite project next door.

For an owner here, that means more neighbours, more shops and services over time, and some construction disruption along the way. It also means a newer, larger building will often be the alternative a buyer weighs against yours when you sell.

Daily life in Birch Cliff

Birch Cliff is the stretch of south-west Scarborough between the Beaches and the Bluffs. Kingston Road is its main street, with houses on quiet side streets running toward the lake. It appeals to people who want a small-neighbourhood feel with the Bluffs and the lake close by.

A small three-storey building on a main road has trade-offs. Ask whether there is an elevator, which suites face Kingston Road and how much traffic noise reaches the bedrooms. Visit at rush hour before you commit. The 2010 rezoning was meant to mix homes with ground-floor retail, so the strip should gain shops and cafés as new buildings open, and lose some of the car lots. The data panel on this page covers the transit, schools and Walk Score figures.

Pricing with almost no data

I cannot give you an active price range here, because nothing was for sale or rent at the time of writing, and with ten suites there may be no sale for a year or more. The sold-data panel on this page will show what has traded, but expect small samples.

In a building this small, the best comparables are often outside it. Look at other small condominiums and stacked townhouses along Kingston Road in Birch Cliff and Cliffside, and at newer mid-rise suites nearby, then adjust for age, size and parking.

Judge the fee by what it covers: common elements, building insurance, parking and water. Heat and hydro are not on the list, so ask how the suites are heated and get a year of utility bills from the seller. Then ask for the last three budgets to see how the fee has moved.

Building specifications

Amenities at 1715 Kingston Road Condos

There is no gym, pool or party room here, and with ten owners that is the right call. The amenity list covers secure entry and parking, which keeps the fee focused on the building itself.

Jatin’s honest take on 1715 Kingston Road Condos

1715 Kingston 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.