Downsview Park Towns, William Duncan Rd: Mattamy’s 176 Park-Side Towns

Downsview Park Towns is where I point buyers who want a new-build townhouse feel in the city for roughly the price of a condo apartment. These are 176 Mattamy homes, registered in 2018, in the new Stanley Greene neighbourhood at the south edge of Downsview Park. The fees are low and the park is the backyard, but you need to understand exactly which type of town you are buying. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Part of the first new neighbourhood in Downsview Park

These homes sit in Stanley Greene, a new neighbourhood on the former Canadian Forces housing lands at the south edge of Downsview Park. Canada Lands Company, the federal Crown corporation that runs the park, chose Mattamy Homes as its building partner. Q4 Architects, the architect of record for the neighbourhood, describes it as the first completed of five planned residential communities on the Downsview lands.

Q4 lists TACT Architecture as the design architect and Brooke McIlroy for urban design. The whole neighbourhood is roughly 580 homes, with detached houses, rear-lane townhouses, stacked townhouses and affordable rental apartments. This condominium is one part of that mix, so not every townhouse you see on these streets belongs to TSCC-2655.

That matters when you search. Freehold rear-lane towns and other condominium phases sit on neighbouring streets, and they carry different fees and different rules. Before you compare prices, confirm that a listing is part of this corporation and not a freehold home a block away.

What kind of townhouse you are actually buying

The address list is long because the complex is spread across several short streets. The homes that come up for sale here are mostly two-bedroom layouts, some with a den, at sizes that point to stacked townhouses, where one home sits above another, rather than full-height rows that run from the ground to the roof.

Stacked towns are a different product from a traditional townhouse. The upper unit usually gets the rooftop terrace and more stairs. The lower unit usually gets easier access and sometimes a patio, but someone lives on top of you. Ask which level a listing is on, how many flights of stairs it has, and whether the terrace is exclusive to that unit.

Condos.ca lists a parking garage, so parking here is likely underground rather than a driveway at your door. Ask whether a space and a locker come with the home, and how far the garage entrance is from the unit. In stacked town complexes, that walk can be longer than buyers expect.

A 2018 complex, past its first warranty years

Registration in 2018 means this complex is now past most of its new-home warranty coverage. The Tarion warranty on major structural defects runs for seven years from the date a home is first occupied, so for most of these homes that window has closed or is closing. Anything that comes up from here is the corporation’s problem, and the owners’ cost.

In stacked town complexes, the expensive shared items are the roofs and roof terraces, the waterproofing over the underground garage, and the garage itself. These are not due for replacement yet, but how the corporation has planned for them is set now. A reserve fund study written in the first few years tells you whether the board expects to fund that work steadily or through larger increases later.

With 176 homes sharing those costs, each owner’s share of a large project is smaller than it would be in a small complex. That is a real advantage of buying in a bigger corporation, and it is one reason the fees here can stay low.

Daily life between the park and the subway

The park is the selling point. Downsview Park has large open lawns, a pond, the Hangar sports complex in a former aircraft hangar, the Scotiabank Pond rinks and Toronto FC’s training ground. For a young family in a townhouse with no yard of its own, that is a very large shared backyard.

Downsview Park station, on Line 1 with a connection to the GO Barrie line, is at the north end of the park. TTC route 101 has served the park directly since 2008. The data panel on this page covers the walking times, which I would check from your specific street.

Stanley Greene is still new, and it feels like it. The streets are quiet and residential, and day-to-day shopping is mostly a drive to Keele and Wilson or a trip to Yorkdale. The large former airport lands around the park are being planned for long-term redevelopment, so expect more construction and, eventually, more services nearby.

Pricing and fees

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $612 per square foot. That is well below the roughly $825 per square foot it shows for WestLine, the new condo tower at Sheppard West, and it is the main reason buyers choose a stacked town over a tower suite here. You get a private entrance and often a terrace for less per foot.

At the time of writing there were two homes for sale and two for lease. The two current listings were asking between roughly $475,000 and $599,000. With only two listings, that range tells you about the market right now, not about every home in the complex.

Fees on the current listings run from roughly $248 to $307 a month. That is low, and it is typical for stacked towns with no concierge, pool or elevators. Condos.ca does not list what the fee includes, so expect to pay your own heat, hydro and probably water, and confirm in the status certificate.

The recorded sales and leases in the data panel on this page are the best starting point for value. If you want to compare these homes with nearby freehold towns and new condo apartments around Downsview, I can pull the numbers through my building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at Downsview Park Towns

There is no gym or party room, and that keeps the fee low. The real amenities are the rooftop terrace on the homes that have one, BBQs being permitted, and a national park a few streets away.

Jatin’s honest take on Downsview Park Towns

Downsview Park Towns — frequently asked questions

Looking at Downsview, Weston, York University Heights, Rexdale and northwest Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.