300 Balliol St Condos: Davisville Mid-Rise With All-In Fees

300 Balliol Street is the kind of building I show to buyers who are tired of looking at 500-square-foot towers around Yonge and Eglinton. It is a nine-storey, 118-suite building from 1999, the suites are generous for midtown, and the monthly fee covers heat, air conditioning and parking. The trade-off is age, and a big new tower proposed near the corner. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A 1999 mid-rise built for people who planned to stay

At nine storeys and 118 suites, 300 Balliol is small by the standards of the streets around it. Davisville has a long history of rental slabs and, more recently, glass towers of 30 storeys and up. A building of this size feels different day to day: fewer neighbours on each floor, shorter elevator waits, and a board that is more likely to know the owners by name.

The suite sizes tell you who it was built for. Condos.ca records a range of about 527 to 1,020 square feet, and the one-bedroom-plus-den units currently for sale are in the 800 to 899 square foot band. In a new midtown tower, 800 square feet is often a two-bedroom. Here it is a one-bedroom with a den you can actually use as an office or a guest room.

I could not confirm who built the building. Condos.ca does not list a developer, and I did not find one in other sources, so I am not going to guess. What matters more now is how the corporation has been run for the last 25 years, and that is something you can check in the documents.

Expect late-1990s floor plans: more defined rooms, more hallway and closet space, and kitchens that may or may not have been renovated since. Some owners will have updated floors, kitchens and baths and some will not, and that difference should show up in the price. Walk the suite with that in mind rather than comparing it to a model suite in a new tower.

The fee covers almost everything, and that is the point

The maintenance fee at 300 Balliol includes air conditioning, heat, parking, water, building insurance and the common elements. Hydro is not on that list, so plan on paying your own electricity. Compare that to most towers built in the last decade nearby, where the fee usually covers only common elements, insurance and water, and you pay heat, cooling and often parking on top.

Across the three suites currently listed, fees run from about $705 to $786 a month, which works out to roughly $0.83 per square foot. On paper that is higher than many newer buildings. In practice, once you add a winter heating bill, summer cooling and a parking charge back on to a newer building, the gap gets a lot smaller.

This is why I tell buyers to compare total monthly cost, not the fee line alone. Ask the seller for their last 12 months of hydro bills, and compare the whole number with whatever else you are looking at.

Daily life on Balliol, and what is planned near the corner

Balliol is a residential street running between Yonge Street and Bayview Avenue, south of Davisville Avenue. This end of it sits close to Mount Pleasant Road, so you are near the shops and restaurants on Mount Pleasant and a manageable walk from the Yonge strip. The data panel on this page covers transit, schools and walkability.

Change is coming close by. Menkes has a proposal for 289 to 299 Balliol, at the southwest corner of Balliol and Mount Pleasant. UrbanToronto lists it as a pre-construction 31-storey condominium and retirement residence with 344 units, designed by Turner Fleischer, while a broker summary of an earlier version describes 28 storeys and 260 units. Either way, the corner is likely to change over the next several years.

For an owner here, that means a construction period nearby and, eventually, a much taller neighbour. Depending on the suite, it could affect views or light. If outlook matters to you, ask which direction the suite faces and look at the City’s Application Information Centre for the current status of the proposal before you firm up.

What 300 Balliol costs compared with newer midtown towers

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $757 per square foot. For context, the same source shows about $868 per square foot at The Eglinton on Redpath and about $919 at 150 Redpath, both towers completed in the last few years. You are paying less per square foot here, and you are getting larger suites, an older building and a fee that covers more.

The three suites listed when I checked were asking between $629,000 and $849,000, two of them one-bedroom-plus-den plans in the 800 to 899 square foot range and one two-bedroom in the 900s. That spread within the same size band is wide, which usually means the condition of the suite, the floor and the outlook are doing a lot of the work. A renovated suite and an original one should not be priced the same.

With only 118 suites, there are not many sales in a given year, so comparables can be thin. Before making an offer, look at the sold data on this page or ask me for a building sold report so you are working from closed prices, not asking prices.

Building specifications

Amenities at 300 Balliol Street Condos

The amenity list is modest: a gym, a party room, a media room and a recreation room, with no pool or concierge listed. That is normal for a 118-suite building, and it is part of why the fee can cover heat and parking without being much higher than a tower’s.

Jatin’s honest take on 300 Balliol Street Condos

300 Balliol Street Condos — frequently asked questions

Looking at Yonge & Eglinton, Davisville and North Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.