757 Victoria Park Ave: A 1983 Tower Where Hydro and Parking Are in the Fee

757 Victoria Park Avenue is the kind of building most buyers scroll past: an early-1980s brick tower with a monthly fee that looks high at first glance. Read what that fee covers, though, and the picture changes, because hydro, heat, air conditioning, water and parking are all inside it. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

An all-inclusive fee, and why that matters

The single most important fact about this building is the fee structure. Condos.ca lists the fee as covering common elements, heat, hydro, air conditioning, building insurance, parking and water. In most buildings finished after 2005, hydro is on your own meter and parking is either extra or bought separately, so a like-for-like comparison is almost never like for like.

When I compare a building like this against a newer one, I add the newer building’s hydro bill, its heating and cooling cost and any parking charge back onto its fee. Ask a seller in a newer building for twelve months of hydro bills and you will see how quickly that adds up. Once you do that arithmetic, a fee that looked expensive here often lands close to the newer building’s real monthly cost.

The trade-off is that you have less control. In a bulk-metered building, every owner pays for the corporation’s total energy use through the fee, whether you run your air conditioning all summer or not. Owners who are careful with energy are, in effect, sharing costs with neighbours who are not. That is worth understanding before you decide this suits you.

What a 1983 tower gives you, and what it asks of you

Towers of this era were generally planned with more generous rooms than today’s, so compare floor plans by square footage rather than bedroom count. The listings I reviewed describe balconies and in-suite laundry. Listings also describe central air with a heat pump system, a set-up common in towers of this vintage.

The other side of age is maintenance. At more than 40 years old, MTCC-606 has almost certainly been through, or is facing, the big-ticket items that come in a tower’s fourth and fifth decade: windows and balcony doors, the garage membrane, elevator modernisation, roofing, and the mechanical systems that feed in-suite heat pumps. None of that is a reason to avoid the building. It is a reason to read the reserve fund study closely.

Heathcliffe Developments built the tower, and Del Property Management is listed as the manager. Ask how long Del has managed this corporation, because a long tenure tells you something about the board’s satisfaction.

Victoria Park station, and the towers coming next door

The building sits on the east side of Victoria Park Avenue, north of Danforth, close to Victoria Park station on Line 2. The data panel on this page shows the exact walk and transit options. For a commuter, that proximity to the subway is the reason to be here, and it is what will drive change around you over the next decade.

The City has adopted a Major Transit Station Area plan around Victoria Park station, and the proposals are already lining up. UrbanToronto reports a proposal at 777 Victoria Park Avenue, effectively the neighbouring site, at 12 and 35 storeys. Just east of the intersection, Crombie REIT and Northam Realty Advisors have proposed a 36-storey, 483-unit tower at 3130 Danforth Avenue on a site now used by a Beer Store and a parking lot, and further south there are proposals at 507 to 513 Victoria Park Avenue and on Gerrard.

Two things follow from that. Near term, a large construction project next door can mean noise, dust and lane closures for years, so ask the board whether it has been consulted or has reviewed the plans, and look at the views from any suite you are considering. Longer term, new retail, new residents and a denser station area tend to support values in older buildings that already sit on the subway.

Daily life in Oakridge

Oakridge is the Scarborough side of the Victoria Park and Danforth corner, with Crescent Town directly across Victoria Park Avenue in East York. Day to day, this is a practical neighbourhood rather than a destination one: you are close to the Danforth retail strip, close to the Taylor Creek valley, and a short drive from the Don Valley Parkway.

Danforth GO station is in the same part of the city, which matters if your work is downtown near Union. The panel below lists the nearest stations, schools and parks, so I will not repeat them here. What I would tell a buyer is that this is a building you choose for commute and space, not for a café scene on the doorstep.

What 757 Victoria Park Avenue costs

This is a small market. There are only two suites listed for sale as I write, and none for lease, so treat any single number with caution. Current asking prices run from $415,999 to $549,900. Monthly fees on those two listings range from $833 to $1,655.

Do not compare those fees against a newer building’s fee alone. Here the fee includes hydro, heat, air conditioning, water and parking. Add those costs back onto a newer building’s fee before you decide which is cheaper to live in.

With only a handful of sales in a typical year, the sold data on this page will move around. If you want a proper read on value for a specific suite, I would pull every sale in the building over the last two to three years and compare them to similar-age towers near Victoria Park and Warden stations. My building sold report is the quickest way to get that.

Building specifications

Amenities at 757 Victoria Park Avenue

The amenity list is modest and typical of a 1980s tower: a staffed front desk, a sauna, a party room and underground parking. One listing also mentions a pool, gym and library, which condos.ca’s list does not show, so confirm in person what is still operating before you count on it.

Jatin’s honest take on 757 Victoria Park Avenue

757 Victoria Park Avenue — frequently asked questions

Looking at the Junction, Corso Italia, Hillcrest Village and west-central Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.