South Kingsway Village I, 20 Southport St: The Low-Rise With the Patios

South Kingsway Village I is the first and lowest of the three buildings behind the gatehouse on Southport Street, and it is the one I think of as closest to a townhouse in a condo. At seven storeys, with sunrooms, terraces and ground-floor patios, it feels more like a garden complex than a tower. It also turned 38 this year, and almost everything about whether it is a good buy comes down to how it has been looked after. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

How South Kingsway Village works

South Kingsway Village is three separate condominium corporations sharing one gated site: Village I at 20 Southport, Village II at 22 and Village III at 24. Each has its own board, budget and reserve fund. A 24-hour gatehouse controls vehicle entry for the whole complex, and the three buildings are linked by landscaped grounds.

The recreation facilities, including the pool and squash court, are described as shared by the three buildings. That is a real benefit, because a 129-suite building could not support a full-length pool on its own. It also means part of what you pay depends on how the three corporations split those costs, which I come back to below.

Strata.ca credits Tridel as the developer of all three phases. I have not been able to confirm that from a Tridel source, and condos.ca does not list a developer, so treat it as likely rather than certain.

Patios, sunrooms and separate kitchens

Village I is the building where outdoor space is easiest to find. Strata.ca notes that sunrooms and terraces are common across the building and that ground-level suites have sizeable patios. Condos.ca describes large greenhouse-style windows in the main rooms, which is the feature that most clearly dates the design to the late 1980s.

Layouts are also of their era, in a good way. Most suites have a separate kitchen, some with room for a table and some with a pass-through window to the living room, rather than a kitchen strung along one wall. For buyers who cook, that is a meaningful difference from most new product.

The mix is more varied than its siblings. Strata.ca puts it at about 44% one-plus-dens, 22% two-bedrooms and 28% two-plus-dens, with a few one-bedrooms and three-bedrooms. So Village I has more one-plus-dens than Village II and more two-bedrooms than Village III. The exterior is red and yellow brick, and at seven storeys it is the lowest of the three.

Choosing the right suite in a seven-storey building

In a low building the floor you choose changes the experience more than it does in a tower. A ground-floor suite with a patio gives you the closest thing to a garden, which is ideal for someone downsizing from a house, but it also means passers-by on the grounds and a little less privacy. Look at what the patio faces before you fall for it.

Upper floors trade the patio for a terrace or sunroom and more light. At seven storeys, views are limited compared with a tower, so judge suites on exposure and outlook over the grounds.

Sunrooms deserve a closer look in any building of this age. They are often the room that runs hottest in summer and coolest in winter, and in older buildings owners sometimes alter them over the years. Ask whether any changes to the suite were approved by the board, because unapproved alterations become the buyer’s problem.

Life behind the gate in Swansea

The appeal here is quiet. You turn off The Queensway, pass the gatehouse and you are in a landscaped compound of low brick buildings, a short walk from the Martin Goodman Trail, Sunnyside and South Humber Park, with High Park about a fifteen-minute walk north according to condos.ca. Bloor West Village and the shops on The Queensway are close. Transit information is in the panel on this page.

Driving is simple: the Gardiner is a few minutes away and the airport roughly a quarter-hour by car. That, combined with parking included in the fee, is why this complex has long appealed to people who still drive daily.

The thing that may change the setting is on the same street. State Building Group has proposed two towers of 26 and 29 storeys, joined by a podium, on a former plaza site at 34 Southport Street. UrbanToronto still listed it as pre-construction when I checked. If it proceeds, Southport will see years of construction traffic and a much denser neighbour, and owners here should follow the planning file.

Pricing, and why I am not quoting a fee

Condos.ca puts Village I’s average at about $631 per square foot. Strata.ca’s recent sales show one-plus-dens averaging about $758 per square foot and two-plus-dens about $668, which follows the usual pattern: larger suites trade for less per foot. Either way, this is well below new construction in the west end.

At the time of writing only one suite was for sale and none for lease. With a single listing I will not quote its price or fee, and you should not read a building’s value off one ask anyway. Low supply is normal here; strata.ca’s availability data suggests some suite types appear only a few times a year.

On fees, read the inclusions before the number. Hydro, heat, air conditioning, cable, water and parking are all in. Across the village, the figures I have run from about $0.94 per square foot (strata.ca’s figure for Village II) to about $1.62 (the average on Village III’s current listings), highest on the smallest suites. Once you remove the utility bills you would pay separately in a newer building, the comparison is much closer than it first looks.

Building specifications

Amenities at South Kingsway Village I

A full-length indoor pool, a squash court and a gated, landscaped site are the kind of amenities people move here for, and a 129-suite building only gets them because they are shared across the complex. The billiards room and library give it the feel of a club rather than a fitness centre.

Jatin’s honest take on South Kingsway Village I

South Kingsway Village I — frequently asked questions

Looking at High Park-Swansea more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.