Elm Davenport Residences, Bartlett Ave N: 20 Condo Towns by Davenport

Elm Davenport Residences is not a condo building in the usual sense. It is a group of 20 townhouses at Bartlett Avenue North and Davenport Road, registered as a condominium in 2007, and it gives you something close to a house for less than a detached home nearby. The catch is that a corporation this small lives or dies on its budget, and that is where I would start. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Townhouses with a condo structure

Most of the buildings I review are towers or mid-rises with a lobby and an elevator. This one is a short run of townhouses split across two street frontages, Bartlett Avenue North and Davenport Road. From the sidewalk, they read as houses. Legally, each one is a unit in a condominium corporation.

That combination is the reason to look here. You get your own front door, multiple floors and no shared hallways, while the corporation looks after the common elements and carries the building insurance. A recent rental listing in the complex described a three-storey brick townhouse with four bedrooms, around 2,500 square feet, a double garage with direct basement access and a south-facing deck. Not every unit will match that, but it gives you a sense of scale.

No developer is listed for the complex in the records I checked, so if the builder matters to you, ask the seller’s agent and look at the declaration, which will name the original declarant.

Why 20 units changes the rules

A 20-unit corporation is a very different thing from a 300-suite tower. Every major cost, from a roof to paving to a garage door system, is shared across only 20 owners. A repair that would barely move the needle in a large building can mean a noticeable fee increase or a special assessment here.

It also means governance is personal. The board is drawn from a small group of neighbours, and the quality of the management and the reserve fund planning depends heavily on a few people. That can work very well. It can also mean decisions get deferred.

Insurance is worth a separate look as well. The corporation carries the building policy, but you will still need your own unit owner’s coverage for contents, improvements and any deductible the corporation passes back to an owner. Ask your insurer to read the corporation’s policy summary before you firm up.

So the paperwork matters more than the finishes. Read the status certificate, the most recent reserve fund study and at least a year of board minutes before you firm up. You are looking for whether the reserve fund is on plan and what the study expects to spend in the next five years.

A lean fee, and what owners carry

The listed fee inclusions are short: common elements and building insurance. Heat, hydro, water and any other utilities are on you, as they would be in a freehold house. Budget for them the same way.

The bigger question in a townhouse condominium is who maintains what. Some declarations make the corporation responsible for roofs, windows and exterior walls; others push parts of the exterior, decks or driveways onto individual owners. Which model applies here will change both your future costs and the value of the reserve fund, so read the declaration and the schedule of maintenance responsibilities closely.

With no active listings at the time of writing, I cannot give you a current fee range from listings. Ask for the current monthly fee for the specific unit and the corporation’s budget for the coming year.

Living at Davenport and Dufferin

Davenport Road follows the line of an ancient lakeshore, which is why the land rises noticeably as you head north toward the Wychwood area. The complex sits just below that rise, on a stretch of Davenport lined with older semis, small businesses and a mix of infill.

To the west, the former industrial lands around Dupont and Lansdowne have been redeveloped into a new neighbourhood of condos and retail, with a grocery store, pharmacy and bank in the base of the Fuse towers, according to UrbanToronto. That has added everyday convenience within reach of this corner.

Davenport is a busy arterial road, so units facing it will hear more traffic than those on Bartlett. If you are choosing between frontages, visit both at rush hour. Also look at how cars get in and out: a garage that backs onto a busy road is a daily consideration, and a shared lane or driveway is a cost the corporation will eventually have to repave. Transit, school and Walk Score details are in the data panel on this page.

Pricing a 20-unit townhouse complex

There were no units for sale at the time of writing, and that is normal for a complex this size. Sales here are infrequent, so there is no reliable building average per square foot to quote, and any single past sale can be a poor guide to the next one.

To price a unit, I compare against other condominium townhouses and freehold semis nearby, adjusting for size, parking and the condition of the corporation. Check the data panel on this page for recorded figures, and ask me for a building sold report before you make an offer.

When you compare against a freehold house, remember to add the monthly fee and subtract the insurance and shared maintenance the corporation covers. When you compare against an apartment condo, add back the utilities that are not in the fee.

Building specifications

Amenities at Elm Davenport Residences

There is no amenity package in the condo sense: no gym, party room or concierge. What you are buying is the house itself, with the corporation looking after shared elements and insurance.

Jatin’s honest take on Elm Davenport Residences

Elm Davenport Residences — 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.