40 Homewood Ave: A 1972 Tower Where the Fee Covers Almost Everything

40 Homewood Avenue is one of the original concrete towers at the edge of St. James Town, and it is still one of the lowest-cost ways to own a suite within walking distance of Yonge and Wellesley. The monthly fee looks high until you notice it pays your hydro, heat, cooling, cable and internet. The real question here is not the price, it is how the building is managing being 50 years old. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A St. James Town-era tower, registered in 1972

This is one of Toronto’s early condominiums: York Condominium Corporation No. 75, registered in October 1972, when the condo form of ownership was still new in Ontario. The developer of record, Rose Park Howard Investments, is one of several Rose Park companies listed against the tower on SkyscraperPage, the same family of names associated with the high-rise wave that produced St. James Town just to the north-east.

At 31 storeys and roughly 90 metres to the roof, it is a big, plain brick-and-concrete slab, built for density rather than architecture. That is not a criticism. Towers of this generation were built with heavy construction and modest suites, and the ones that have been looked after can feel more solid than many glass towers of the 2010s.

With 492 suites, it is also a large corporation, which spreads the cost of major repairs across many owners. That matters a great deal in a building of this age.

Day-to-day staffing is also on a different level from a small older building. condos.ca lists both a concierge and a security guard, and the corporation is large enough to carry staff and a full amenity floor without the cost landing too heavily on any one owner.

Suites, systems and what has been updated

Suites on condos.ca run from about 381 to 857 square feet, mostly one-bedrooms and modest two-bedrooms, some with a small den. Layouts are the boxy, separated rooms typical of the early 1970s, which some buyers prefer to the open-plan suites in newer towers.

Heating is electric radiant and cooling is by through-wall units rather than a central system, according to listing descriptions. Listings also report that all windows were replaced in 2018 and that the electrical service was upgraded to 200 amps. Window replacement is one of the largest projects an older tower faces, so having it behind the building is a real point in its favour, and worth confirming in the reserve fund study.

Laundry is described as coin-operated in the building, so do not assume a suite has a washer and dryer. If in-suite laundry matters to you, ask specifically and ask whether any installation was approved by the corporation.

Listings describe underground parking with plenty of visitor spaces, and one noted an EV charging station planned for the garage but not yet installed. If you drive an electric car, ask the manager where that project stands and whether owners can install their own chargers.

Homewood and Wellesley, day to day

Homewood is a side street between Sherbourne and Jarvis, a few minutes east of Church and Wellesley and about a ten-minute walk to Yonge. You get the shops, restaurants and services of the village and Yonge Street without being on a main road.

Allan Gardens is a short walk south, and listings point to an off-leash dog park within walking distance. This is a dense, mixed part of downtown with a lot of rental towers around it, so the streetscape is busy rather than leafy. The automatic panel on this page covers transit, schools and walkability.

Living in a 492-suite tower also means elevators, mail rooms and the pool are shared with a lot of people. Ask the manager how many elevators serve the building and whether a modernization is planned, because waits at peak times are one of the things residents of large older towers notice most. The automatic elevator record on this page is a useful starting point.

Pricing: low per square foot, and the fee explained

condos.ca puts the building average at about $698 per square foot, well below newer towers a few blocks west. At the time of writing, four suites were for sale: one-bedrooms asking roughly $359,000 to $469,000, and two-bedroom and two-plus-den suites around $489,000 to $530,000. Monthly fees across those listings ran from about $536 to $889.

That works out to around $1.22 per square foot, which looks high against a newer building’s $0.70. The difference is what it covers. Here the fee pays your heat, hydro, air conditioning, water and cable, and listings say Wi-Fi as well. In a newer building, hydro and internet alone are often $120 to $200 a month on top of the fee, so compare total monthly cost, not the fee line.

Put simply, if you compare a one-bedroom here with a similar suite in a newer tower nearby, add hydro, internet and cable to the newer building’s fee before you decide which is cheaper to live in. On that basis, 40 Homewood often comes out ahead even though its fee line is higher.

The trade-off is that an all-inclusive fee moves with the building’s energy costs, and electric heat in a 1972 tower is not cheap. Ask for the last three years of budgets to see how quickly fees have risen. For aggregate recent trades, see my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at 40 Homewood Avenue Condos

An indoor salt-water pool and sauna at this price point is unusual downtown, and it is a genuine reason to choose this building over a newer one with a token gym. Just remember an old pool is also an expensive piece of equipment that the reserve fund has to carry.

Jatin’s honest take on 40 Homewood Avenue Condos

40 Homewood Avenue Condos — frequently asked questions

Looking at Church–Wellesley, Corktown, Moss Park and Cabbagetown more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.