SoHo Bayview Lofts, 562 Eglinton Ave E: Office Conversion, High Fees

SoHo Bayview Lofts is the cheapest way I know into a loft between Yonge and Leaside, and the fee is the reason. It is a 40-suite office conversion with heat, cooling and parking bundled in, and the monthly number on the current listings is high enough that you have to understand it before you can judge the price. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

An office building turned into 40 lofts

This was an office building before the Starwood Group converted it into loft suites in 2002, according to condos.ca, and the condominium was registered at the start of 2003. Starwood used the same SoHo name at SoHo Lofts, further west at 188 Eglinton Avenue East, and on its downtown loft buildings.

Five storeys and 40 suites makes it one of the smallest condominiums on this stretch of Eglinton. That is the appeal for many buyers: a quiet building, a short elevator ride and neighbours you recognise, on a main street that is otherwise filling with much larger projects.

I could not find the original name or architect of the office building, or the architect of the conversion. If those details matter to you, ask the property manager or look in the corporation’s records.

Layouts: from small studios to two-bedrooms

Suites range from about 453 to 1,171 square feet, which is a wider spread than most small loft buildings. At the bottom you have compact studio and one-bedroom lofts; at the top, two-bedroom suites that can work for a couple who need an office or a room for guests.

In an office conversion, the floor plate is usually deep, so check how far the light from the windows reaches and whether the bedroom has its own window. Smaller lofts here may rely on partial walls or sliding panels to separate the sleeping area, which suits one person better than two.

Look closely at storage too. Loft layouts give you volume but not always closets, so ask whether the suite comes with a locker and where it is. And because the building began life as offices, check how sound travels between suites and from the corridor; conversions vary a lot on this, and it is easier to test in a viewing than to fix later.

The fee is the first thing to understand

The fee includes common elements, heat, air conditioning, water, building insurance and parking. That is a broad list, and it means a buyer here is paying through the fee for things that a newer tower would bill separately. Hydro is not listed, so expect your own electricity bill.

Even so, the numbers on the current listings stand out. When I checked, the two two-bedroom suites for sale both carried fees of roughly $1,760 a month. On suites of this size, that is well above what I would expect even with heat, cooling and parking included.

There may be good reasons, such as a large share of common costs, the age of the systems or a deliberate decision to fund the reserve properly. There may also be costs the building is catching up on. I have not found anything that explains it, so this is a status-certificate question, not a guess: read the budget, the reserve fund study and recent board minutes before you make an offer.

One more practical point: a high fee also affects your mortgage. Lenders count the condo fee when they work out how much you can borrow, so the same purchase price can qualify you for less here than in a lower-fee building. Run the numbers with your lender before you fall for a suite.

Daily life on Eglinton near Bayview

The address puts you on Eglinton Avenue East between Mount Pleasant and Bayview, with Leaside to the east and the shops of Bayview Avenue and Mount Pleasant Road close by. The Line 5 Eglinton corridor runs past the door; the data panel on this page has the transit, school and walkability detail.

Eglinton is a busy road, and years of construction along it have changed the street. Ask which direction a suite faces, and whether the bedroom is on the street side or the back.

The longer-term picture is more development. New mid-rise and tower projects keep appearing along Eglinton East, and more sites will follow now that the corridor has rapid transit. That can mean construction next door, but it also tends to lift the retail and services within walking distance.

Pricing: the lowest price per foot, with the highest fee

Condos.ca puts the building’s average at about $766 per square foot, below SoHo Lofts at 188 Eglinton East at about $817 and well below The Metro on Merton Street at about $903. In this part of midtown, that is a low number for a loft.

When I checked, two two-bedroom suites were for sale, asking about $570,000 to $599,000. That is low for a two-bedroom in this area, and the fee is a large part of why: a buyer weighs the price and the monthly cost together, and a high fee pushes the price down.

So do the arithmetic. Compare the full monthly cost here, mortgage plus fee plus hydro, against a cheaper-fee building where you also pay for heat, cooling and parking. Sometimes the bundled building wins; sometimes it does not. The sold and leased medians in the data panel and my building sold report will show you how the market has priced that trade-off.

Building specifications

Amenities at SoHo Bayview Lofts

The amenities are modest and practical: a gym, a party and meeting room and a business centre with Wi-Fi, which is handy if you work from home. Nobody buys here for the amenities; they buy for the format and the price.

Jatin’s honest take on SoHo Bayview Lofts

SoHo Bayview Lofts — frequently asked questions

Looking at Yonge & Eglinton, Davisville and North Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.