5937 Bathurst Street Townhouses: A Nine-Home, Self-Managed 1974 Enclave

Nine homes, one corporation and no property manager: 5937 Bathurst is about as small as a Toronto condominium gets. For the right buyer, that means low overhead and neighbours you actually know. For the wrong one, it means joining a board whether you planned to or not. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Nine homes and no property manager

Most condominiums hire a management company to collect fees, call contractors, keep the books and run the annual meeting. At 5937 Bathurst, condos.ca lists the corporation as self-managed. In practice that usually means a few owners on the board do that work themselves, sometimes with an outside bookkeeper or auditor.

Self-management can work very well in a complex this size. There is no management fee to pay, decisions can be quick, and owners tend to look after the place as if it were their own house, because in a sense it is. Listing descriptions here call the complex well managed and well maintained.

The risk is concentration. With nine owners, the knowledge of how the complex runs, where the records are and which contractor fixed the roof can sit with one or two people. If they sell or step back, the corporation has to rebuild that. Ask who does the work now, and how long they have done it.

A 1974 corporation with house-sized homes

YCC-155 registered in July 1974, seven years after Ontario first allowed condominium ownership. The York Condominium Corporation prefix and the low number place it among the early condo corporations in the former North York, at a time when builders were pitching shared-ownership homes to young families and empty nesters as a route into ownership.

The homes are family-sized. One corner home I reviewed was described with three bedrooms, four bathrooms, about 1,732 square feet above grade plus a basement, a balcony, a patio and a backyard large enough for a garden. That one had been fully renovated, with a new kitchen and bathrooms, which tells you what the stock can become rather than what every home looks like.

The complex sits back from Bathurst rather than right on it, which listings describe as quiet. With only nine homes, it reads more like a short row of houses than a condo development, and that is the appeal.

Renovated homes raise one question worth asking. Work that touches exterior walls, windows, decks or shared plumbing usually needs the board’s written approval under the declaration. In a self-managed complex those approvals can be informal, so ask the seller for anything in writing and have your lawyer confirm the work was approved.

When every owner is one ninth of the budget

In a large complex, a new roof is spread across hundreds of owners. Here it is spread across nine. Every major item, whether roofs, windows, paving, the shared garage or the underground services, lands on each home at about one ninth of the cost. The reserve fund is what stands between that cost and a special assessment.

Ontario requires every condominium corporation to have a reserve fund study and to update it on a set schedule, and that applies to a nine-home self-managed corporation exactly as it does to a tower. Ask for the most recent study and the funding plan, and check that the corporation is actually contributing what the plan says.

Also ask for the audited financial statements and the insurance certificate. Small self-managed corporations sometimes keep lighter records than managed ones. That is not a reason to walk away, but if the documents are thin, slow down and let your lawyer review them closely before you firm up.

Bathurst between Finch and Steeles

This stretch of Bathurst runs through Newtonbrook West, a mainly low-rise neighbourhood of houses and older apartment buildings, with Thornhill just across Steeles to the north. Listings for this complex point to parks, community centres and arenas nearby, and to plenty of shops and grocers along Bathurst.

The corridor is starting to grow upward. Greatwise Developments is marketing a 16-storey, 259-suite condo and townhouse project at 5950 Bathurst, and further north, near Steeles, an application at 6200 Bathurst proposes two rental towers of 39 and 43 storeys with 1,021 homes beside an existing apartment building. Neither is built, but the direction is clear.

For a low-rise owner, that usually means more services and more neighbours, plus construction traffic for a few years. If an open outlook matters to you, look at the City’s development applications map for your block before you buy. Transit and school details are in the data panel on this page.

Pricing and fees in a nine-home complex

No homes were listed for sale or lease when I checked, which is normal for a complex this small. In a complex this small, a year can easily pass with no sale. That makes the complex hard to price from its own history, because one sale every year or two, in whatever condition that home happened to be, is not a market.

To value a home here, I would look at the few sales in the complex alongside condo townhouse and semi-detached sales in the surrounding blocks of Newtonbrook West, then adjust for renovation and lot position. A building sold report gives you the aggregate figures for the complex.

On fees, one listing described the fee as covering common elements, building insurance and parking. Heat, hydro and water would then be yours, as in a house. Compare the fee to what the reserve fund study says is needed, not to the fee at a bigger complex down the street, because nine owners cannot share costs the way 100 can.

Building specifications

Amenities at 5937 Bathurst Street Townhouses

There is no gym, pool or party room, and in a nine-home complex there should not be. You get parking, space for guests and permission to barbecue on your own patio or yard, and the fee is not carrying shared rooms that few people use.

Jatin’s honest take on 5937 Bathurst Street Townhouses

5937 Bathurst Street Townhouses — frequently asked questions

Looking at Willowdale, Yonge & Sheppard, Bayview Village and North York Centre more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.