175 Trudelle Street Townhouses: 75 Homes Off Eglinton and McCowan

175 Trudelle Street is one of Scarborough’s older condominium townhouse complexes, and that is both its appeal and your homework. You get a house-style home with its own front door near Eglinton and McCowan for well under a detached price, inside a corporation that has been running since 1978. What you need to find out is how well those 48 years have been managed. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

One corporation, two street addresses

Start with the address. The 75 homes in YCC-388 front onto two streets, Torrance Road (numbers 10 to 30) and Trudelle Street (155 to 199), so a listing may show either one. They all belong to the same corporation, the same budget and the same reserve fund.

That matters because Trudelle Street has several condominiums along it. McCowan Place, the 17-storey tower at 121 Trudelle, is a separate 1978 corporation, and Bellamy Place at 321 to 357 Trudelle is another townhouse complex with its own finances. Before you firm up an offer, check that the status certificate in front of you says YCC-388.

The YCC prefix also tells you the age at a glance. It is the older York Condominium Corporation numbering, which gave way to Metropolitan Toronto (MTCC) numbers around 1980 and later to Toronto (TSCC) numbers. A YCC corporation is, by definition, one of the first generation of condominiums in the city.

What a 1978 townhouse complex asks of an owner

A complex this age has already been through at least one full cycle of roofs, windows and paving, and possibly two. The question is not whether that work comes around again but whether it was done on time and paid for from the reserve fund rather than by asking owners for more.

Ask for the most recent reserve fund study and look for the big exterior items: roofing, windows and patio doors, brick and siding, fences, asphalt, and any underground pipes the corporation owns. Then compare what the study says should be collected with what the budget actually collects.

Inside the home, assume the original 1970s systems are there unless the seller shows otherwise. Electrical panels, plumbing, furnaces and air conditioners vary from unit to unit, and in a townhouse condominium they are usually the owner’s job. The declaration sets out exactly where the corporation’s responsibility ends and yours begins.

Condos.ca does not list a property management company for this corporation. That does not mean nobody runs it. Find out who does, whether it is a management firm or a self-managed board, and how quickly they answer an owner’s question.

The fee, and how to confirm what it covers

Condos.ca has no fee inclusion list for YCC-388, and I could not find a reliable one elsewhere, so I am not going to guess. The status certificate and the corporation’s budget are the only documents that settle what your monthly fee pays for.

In townhouse complexes of this era, owners usually pay their own heat and hydro through their own meters, while the corporation pays for the common elements, building insurance and the grounds. Water is the item that varies most, because some older complexes sit on a single bulk meter. Ask which way this one works.

Insurance follows the same split. The corporation insures the buildings, and you insure your contents, any upgrades and your own liability. Ask what deductible the corporation carries, because it is often charged back to the owner when a claim starts inside a unit.

Daily life near Eglinton and McCowan

This is a residential pocket just off Eglinton Avenue East, with houses, townhouse complexes and a few older towers around it. The data panel on this page covers the nearest transit, schools, shops and parks, so I will stick to what is changing.

Two transit projects frame this corridor. The City is planning Scarborough East Rapid Transit, an 18.6-kilometre line from Kennedy Station to Malvern Town Centre with 27 stops, and its concept rendering shows Eglinton Avenue East at McCowan Road. It is still in planning, with no construction or opening date.

The other is being built. The Line 2 East Extension will carry the Bloor-Danforth subway 7.8 kilometres beyond Kennedy, with stations at Lawrence Avenue and McCowan Road, Scarborough Centre, and a new terminus at Sheppard Avenue and McCowan Road. The Lawrence station is north of here along McCowan, and the City has not published an opening date.

For a buyer, that means a 1978 complex on a corridor the City expects to carry many more people over the next decade. That tends to support values over time, but buy for how you live today, not for a station that does not yet have a date.

What 175 Trudelle Street costs

When I checked, there were no homes listed for sale or for lease here, so there is no asking range I can fairly quote, and condos.ca does not publish a price per square foot for the complex.

With 75 homes, sales come up only a handful of times a year. That makes recent sales the best guide, and the panel on this page shows them in aggregate. Ask me for a building sold report if you want the detail before an offer.

Condition does the most to separate one sale from the next in a complex this age. A renovated kitchen and bathrooms, a newer furnace and air conditioner, updated windows where the owner is responsible for them, and a finished lower level can move the price more than a few square feet. Compare like with like.

The fairest comparisons are the other townhouse complexes on Trudelle and Torrance, such as Bellamy Place, and the suites at McCowan Place if you are weighing a tower against a townhouse. Condos.ca shows McCowan Place bundling its utilities into the fee, so its higher monthly figure is not directly comparable with a townhouse that pays its own bills.

Building specifications

Jatin’s honest take on 175 Trudelle Street Townhouses

175 Trudelle Street Townhouses — 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.