4001 Don Mills Road: Two-Storey Suites With Hydro in the Fee

4001 Don Mills Road is the building I show to buyers who want the space of a townhouse without the freehold price or the snow shovel. Most suites here are two-storey layouts with the bedrooms upstairs, inside a low four-storey building with an indoor pool and a fee that covers hydro and heat. It is fifty years old, and that is the whole conversation. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A townhouse plan stacked inside a low-rise building

The thing that makes 4001 Don Mills Road different is the floor plan. Recent listings here describe two-storey suites: living room, dining room and kitchen on the entry level, then the bedrooms, main bathroom with ensuite and laundry on the upper level. It is a townhouse layout, but you reach it from an interior corridor and an elevator rather than a front walk.

Sizes are generous by today’s standards. Listings place the larger two-bedroom-plus-den plans in the 1,200 to 1,399 sq ft bracket, which is the floor area of a three-bedroom suite in most new North York towers. Primary bedrooms are described at roughly five metres by three, with walk-in closets and four-piece ensuites, and suites have their own in-suite locker or storage room.

The trade-off is the stairs inside your own suite. For a family with young children that is usually fine, and it separates sleeping space from living space the way a house does. For a buyer with mobility concerns, I would look hard at whether the complex offers any single-level plans before falling for the square footage.

Why the monthly fee looks high, and why that can mislead

The two current sale listings both show a monthly fee of roughly $920. Next to a new one-bedroom at $500 a month, that number scares buyers off. It should not, at least not until you look at what it covers.

According to recent listing remarks, the fee here includes heat, hydro, central air conditioning, water, building insurance and common elements. Hydro inclusion is unusual and it matters: in a 1,200-plus sq ft two-storey suite, separately metered electricity for heating, cooling and appliances can easily run well over $100 a month. One listing also lists parking and cable among the inclusions, so ask the listing agent to confirm the current inclusions in writing, because sources do not line up exactly.

Divide the fee by the floor area and the picture changes. A suite in the 1,200 sq ft range paying about $920 works out to roughly $0.75 per square foot, all utilities except internet largely bundled. That is in line with, or below, many newer North York buildings once you add their hydro meters back in.

Fifty years old: what the age actually means

Condos.ca dates the building to 1975, which puts it among the older condominiums in the former North York. Listing remarks say the lobby and hallways have been renovated recently, and a well-kept common area in a building this age is a good sign that the board is spending money on maintenance rather than putting it off.

Age cuts both ways, though. A fifty-year-old building with an indoor pool, an underground garage and a central mechanical plant has expensive things that wear out: garage membranes, boilers and chillers, plumbing risers, windows and balcony doors, and the pool itself. Those costs come out of the reserve fund, and if the reserve fund is short they come out of owners through higher fees or a special assessment.

Inside the suites, condition varies a lot. Some units have been held by original or long-term owners for decades and still have broadloom and original kitchens, which is often where the value sits for a buyer willing to renovate. Others have been fully redone. Price them as different products.

Daily life at Don Mills and Steeles

The building sits on Don Mills Road just south of Steeles Avenue East, which is the Toronto–Markham boundary. Listing remarks note a shopping plaza across the street, and this stretch of Don Mills and Steeles is lined with plazas, groceries and restaurants serving the large communities on both sides of the city line.

For drivers, Highway 404 and the Don Valley Parkway are close, which makes this a practical base for anyone commuting to Markham, Richmond Hill or downtown by car. Transit access and nearby schools are shown in the data panel on this page.

Next door, 4005 Don Mills Road is a similar four-storey building completed two years later, also described in listings as Tridel-built with two-storey suites and an indoor pool. Condos.ca treats the two as separate buildings with different postal codes and different fee levels, but I could not confirm whether they are one condominium corporation or two. If you are comparing suites across both addresses, confirm which corporation each belongs to and whether recreation facilities are shared.

What 4001 Don Mills Road asks, and how to think about value

At the time of writing there are two suites for sale and none for rent. Asking prices range from about $439,000 to about $540,000. For suites of this size, that is a fraction of what new-construction space costs in North York, where small one-bedrooms routinely ask more per square foot than these two-storey plans.

Low price per square foot in an older building is not automatically a bargain. The discount reflects the building’s age, the internal stairs, older finishes in many suites and the risk that major capital work is coming. The way to separate a real deal from a cheap one is the status certificate and reserve fund study, not the asking price.

Recent sale and lease results for the building are shown in the data panel. If you want a comparison against nearby older buildings in Hillcrest Village and Don Valley Village, my building sold report pulls the aggregates together.

Building specifications

Amenities at 4001 Don Mills Road

An indoor pool and sauna in a low-rise this size is uncommon, and it is a real draw in winter. It is also one of the most expensive things a small corporation maintains, so look for the pool and its equipment in the reserve fund study.

Jatin’s honest take on 4001 Don Mills Road

4001 Don Mills Road — frequently asked questions

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