414 Dawes Road Townhouses: An 8-Home 1976 Condo in East York

414 Dawes Road Townhouses is about as small as a Toronto condominium gets: eight homes, one corporation, and a board that is effectively your neighbours. That scale can be a real advantage or a real problem, and which one you get depends on paperwork, not paint. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Eight homes, one corporation

Most buyers have never owned in a condominium this small. YCC-260 has eight homes, according to condos.ca, which means eight owners share the cost of every roof, window, fence and paving job, and eight owners elect the board.

The upside is control. In a large corporation, one owner’s voice barely registers. Here, you will know every other owner by name, decisions can be quick, and there is no layer of amenities, staff or management overhead inflating the fee.

The downside is concentration. If one owner falls behind on fees, the corporation loses an eighth of its income. If the roof on the whole block needs replacing, eight households carry a bill that a 100-home complex would spread much more thinly. A single disagreement can also stall decisions.

Insurance is the other place small corporations differ. Ask what the corporation’s insurance deductible is, and whether its by-laws pass that deductible to an owner when damage starts in their home. Then make sure your own condo policy covers that amount, because in an eight-home complex there is little room to absorb it.

Self-managed or professionally managed?

Condos.ca does not list a property manager for 414 Dawes Road. That may mean the information is simply missing, or it may mean the owners run the corporation themselves, which is common in very small complexes. I could not confirm either way.

It matters. A self-managed corporation can be well run and cheap, but you need to see that it has done the legal basics: an annual general meeting, audited or reviewed financial statements, a reserve fund study on the required schedule and proper insurance. Ask who prepares the status certificate and how long it took the last time one was requested.

Under Ontario rules, the corporation must deliver a status certificate within 10 days of a request, for up to $100. In a corporation this size, how smoothly that request is handled tells you a lot about how the place is run.

Two storeys, built in 1976

Condos.ca records the complex at two storeys, so expect conventional two-level townhouse plans. I could not find a published floor plan or a current listing to describe layouts, so walk the home and ask for measurements rather than relying on a listing’s size band.

The year matters more than the plan. A 1976 complex has been through at least one full cycle of roof, window and furnace replacement, and possibly two. Some of that work may have been done by the corporation and some by individual owners, depending on what the declaration says each party is responsible for. Two homes in the same row can be in very different condition.

Ask for receipts for anything an owner says has been replaced, and ask whether the work was approved by the board. In a small complex, informal changes to exteriors, decks or fences are more common, and they can cause problems when you sell.

If you plan to renovate, ask what needs board approval first. Where exteriors are shared, changes to windows, doors, decks and even paint colours usually do. A small board can approve a clear request quickly, so put it in writing.

East York, not Scarborough

This complex is in the former borough of East York, in the area the City calls O’Connor-Parkview, close to Victoria Park Avenue, which forms the boundary with Scarborough. East York became part of Toronto at amalgamation in 1998.

O’Connor-Parkview is a mixed area. It runs from the CMHC-built wartime houses of Topham Park to bungalows, two-storey houses and apartment towers in Woodbine Gardens, and larger homes on the ravine lots of Parkview Hills. Taylor-Massey Creek and its parkland run along the south.

For daily life, that means a residential setting with errands done along Dawes Road, Victoria Park Avenue and O’Connor Drive. The panel on this page shows the nearest transit, schools and Walk Score for this address.

Because Victoria Park Avenue is the line between East York and Scarborough, homes a short walk east are in a different former municipality with a different housing mix. For pricing, comparables from both sides of the road are relevant, and I look at both.

Pricing a home in an eight-home complex

There were no homes listed for sale or lease here when I checked, and with eight homes, sales are rare. Some years there may be none at all, so there is no reliable building average to quote.

That makes comparables the whole game. Look at condominium townhouses of similar age in East York and western Scarborough, then at the freehold semis and row houses nearby, which set the ceiling. Adjust heavily for condition, because in a complex this small the gap between an original home and a renovated one is the biggest price driver.

Lenders sometimes look harder at very small corporations, so speak to your mortgage broker early. If you want the sales history for this address, I can pull it into a building sold report.

Building specifications

Jatin’s honest take on 414 Dawes Road Townhouses

414 Dawes Road Townhouses — frequently asked questions

Looking at Agincourt, L’Amoreaux, Milliken, Dorset Park and Wexford in Scarborough more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.