Minto Southshore, Carnation Ave: LEED Gold Stacked Towns in New Toronto

Minto Southshore is what I show buyers who have outgrown a one-bedroom condo but are not ready for a freehold price. It is 148 stacked townhomes, finished in 2014, with two and three bedrooms, low fees and a green certification most townhouse complexes never bothered to chase. The trade-off is stairs, and I will be honest about that. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A stacked townhouse built to a green standard

Most stacked townhouse complexes in south Etobicoke were built to code and nothing more. Southshore is different on paper: Minto says the project earned LEED for Homes Gold in 2015, one of the more demanding third-party certifications for this type of housing.

The features behind that rating are practical rather than showy. Minto lists drain water heat recovery, a heat recovery ventilator, ENERGY STAR appliances, double-pane low-E argon windows, extra exterior wall insulation with airtight construction, and low-VOC paints and adhesives. It also reports water-efficient fixtures that cut potable water use by more than 40% against the Ontario Building Code.

Two smaller details tell you how the place was meant to be lived in. There is an all-off lighting switch at each front door, and there is multi-chute sorting for recycling, organics and garbage. None of this makes a home bigger, but it does tend to show up in lower utility bills, which matters because you pay those yourself here.

Two and three bedrooms, and the stairs that come with them

Southshore was sold as two- and three-bedroom stacked townhomes, and that is still the mix. Condos.ca reports suites of roughly 1,041 to 1,149 square feet, which is more room than most two-bedroom condo apartments on the waterfront at Humber Bay Shores give you. That extra space is the whole reason to consider this format.

Stacked means one home sits above another, usually with the upper unit spread over two floors and the lower unit at or partly below grade. Ask exactly which you are viewing. An upper unit usually means more stairs and more light; a lower unit may give you easier access but less privacy from the walkway outside.

That stair count is the first thing I raise with downsizers. These homes suit young families and couples who want a second bedroom and a real living room, not someone who wants to avoid stairs entirely. If knees are a concern, walk the whole route from parking to bedroom before you book a second showing.

Condos.ca lists BBQs as permitted, and Minto’s materials mention secure bicycle storage for residents and visitors. I could not confirm how parking and lockers are assigned here, so check whether a space comes with the unit, where it is, and whether it is owned or exclusive-use.

Low fees, but read what they cover

The fees on current listings run from about $493 to $543 a month for the two-bedrooms. Against the size range Condos.ca reports, that is roughly $0.45 to $0.52 per square foot, which is well below what most concierge towers in Humber Bay Shores charge per foot.

Part of that gap is simply what is not here. There is no concierge, no pool and no gym in the Condos.ca record, so you are not paying for staff or equipment. The other part is that Minto designed the complex with individual meters for water and electricity, so those bills are yours, not the corporation’s.

Condos.ca does not list the fee inclusions for this complex, so do not assume anything. Get the status certificate and read the budget line by line. In a townhouse corporation the big future costs are roofs, windows, doors, exterior cladding, walkways and, if there is underground parking, the garage membrane. A 2014 complex is now old enough that its reserve fund study should show when those come due.

New Toronto, and Minto’s other bets nearby

Southshore sits in the grid of numbered streets that defines New Toronto, south Etobicoke’s old industrial and working town. Minto describes the setting as close to the waterfront, parks, shopping, schools, the TTC, the QEW and a GO station. The data panel on this page shows the actual transit times and walkability.

Minto clearly believes in this stretch of the lakeshore. Its Longbranch community sits to the west, and its newer Westshore project, a 509-unit townhome community on a 9.8-acre site in Long Branch designed by BDP Quadrangle, was announced in 2023. That kind of repeat investment by the same builder is a reasonable signal that the area’s housing stock is steadily being renewed.

For you, that means more resale competition over time, but also more townhouse comparables to price against. When a Southshore unit comes up, I look at Minto Longbranch and other New Toronto and Long Branch stacked towns, not at waterfront condo towers.

What Southshore asks, and how to read it

Condos.ca does not publish an average price per square foot for Southshore. When I checked, five two-bedroom listings were asking between $685,000 and $739,900, and a three-bedroom was also on the market. If those two-bedrooms fall inside the 1,041 to 1,149 sq ft range, that works out to roughly $600 to $710 per square foot.

Seven active sale listings in a 148-unit complex is a fair amount of supply, and none were for rent at the time. More supply means more negotiating room, so I would not pay a premium for a standard interior unit unless it has a better exposure, a larger terrace or a parking space others lack.

Compare the full monthly cost, not the asking price. Add the fee, property tax and your own hydro and water, and set that against a two-bedroom condo apartment with a higher fee but bundled utilities. For the recorded sales here, see the data panel or ask me for a building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at Minto Southshore

There is no amenity package in the condo-tower sense: no concierge, gym or party room. What you get instead is your own front door, BBQ rights and bike storage, and a fee that is not carrying staff and equipment you may never use.

Jatin’s honest take on Minto Southshore

Minto Southshore — frequently asked questions

Looking at Humber Bay Shores, Mimico, the Queensway and central Etobicoke more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.