Diamond on Yonge, 75 Canterbury Pl: Small Suites, Big Rental Pool

The Diamond on Yonge is a young, efficient tower built for the Yonge corridor’s biggest buyer group: people who want a newer suite near the subway at a price they can carry. The suites are compact, some of the two-bedrooms are very compact, and the building is full of tenants. Go in knowing that, and it can be a sensible buy. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

A tower set back from Yonge, with a garden at its foot

The Diamond sits on the northeast corner of Churchill Avenue and Canterbury Place, one short block west of Yonge. When UrbanToronto covered the launch, the site was a vacant lot beside St. George’s Church, and the plan put a landscaped private garden on the Canterbury Place side, facing the quieter residential streets to the west.

Scott Shields Architects designed the 30-storey tower as a clean, rectilinear form with dark glazing and white accents, with Ferris + Associates on the landscape. The early renderings showed a lobby with marble-patterned finishes, stone walls and warm wood running to the concierge desk, and a ground-floor party room with tall windows over the garden.

Being a block off Yonge is a real advantage. You get the Yonge corridor’s shops and transit without living over a six-lane street, and the west side of the building looks over houses rather than another tower.

The neighbourhood around it is changing quickly. Yonge between Sheppard and Finch has filled in with towers, and more development is planned along the corridor. Expect construction nearby for years, and assume some views today may not be protected.

Layouts: efficient, and in places very tight

Condos.ca lists suites from about 439 to 1,529 square feet, and most of the building is one-bedrooms and one-bedroom-plus-dens. UrbanToronto’s 2016 look at the larger plans showed two-bedrooms starting under 600 square feet, a three-bedroom of about 839 square feet, and one compact two-bedroom whose second bedroom had no window, borrowing light through a translucent sliding door.

That is not a criticism unique to this building. It is how many towers of that sales era were designed to hit price points. It does mean you should read every floor plan carefully. A “two-bedroom” here may have a second room that works better as an office or a child’s room than as a primary bedroom, and that affects both how you live and what it will resell for.

The better plans in the original release had split bedrooms, two full bathrooms and corner exposures. If you need a real two-bedroom, focus on corner suites and check that both bedrooms have windows.

What the fee does and does not cover

The fee includes common elements, building insurance and water. Hydro and heating and cooling are not on the list, which is typical for a 2022 tower, so budget for your own utility bills on top of the fee. Parking and lockers are also not listed as included; check whether a space is deeded with the suite or sold separately.

Across the active listings, fees ran from about $371 to $687 a month, which works out to roughly $0.91 per square foot. For a newer tower, that is on the higher side. Concierge staffing and amenity costs are spread across many small suites, and small suites always carry a higher fee per square foot.

When the building first went to market, UrbanToronto reported plans for about 390 parking spaces, close to one per suite. Ask how many spaces exist now and whether the corporation rents out spare ones.

A building with a lot of tenants

When I checked, there were seven suites for sale and eight for rent. That balance tells you most of what you need to know about ownership here. Compact suites near the Yonge line are popular with investors, and the building has a large rental pool.

For an investor, that is a sign of steady rental demand. For an owner-occupier, it means more move-ins, more turnover in the elevators and a board that may be shaped by investor priorities. Neither is a problem in itself, but you should know which kind of building you are buying into. The owner and renter figures in the data panel on this page show the current mix.

Pricing against the Yonge corridor

Condos.ca puts the building average at about $827 per square foot. The useful comparison is against the other towers completed on Yonge between Sheppard and Finch in the last decade, not against older buildings with larger suites and lower per-foot prices. Small suites always carry a higher price per square foot, so a building made up mostly of one-bedrooms will look expensive on that measure even when the total price is modest.

When I checked, seven suites were listed for sale, with asking prices from about $388,000 to $648,000. That is one of the more accessible ranges for a 2022 tower this close to Yonge, largely because the suites are small. Price per square foot is the fairer comparison, especially between plans of different sizes.

With this many listings and leases at once, buyers have room to negotiate, particularly on the smaller suites that compete directly with each other. The TRREB figures in the panel on this page show what has actually sold. For a building-specific breakdown, my building sold report compares recent sales here with nearby towers.

Building specifications

Amenities at The Diamond Condominiums on Yonge

The amenity list is short compared with some newer towers on Yonge: concierge, gym, party room and guest suites. The garden on the Canterbury Place side is the more distinctive feature, and guest suites are useful in a building where most homes are too small for overnight visitors.

Jatin’s honest take on The Diamond Condominiums on Yonge

The Diamond Condominiums on Yonge — frequently asked questions

Looking at Willowdale, Yonge & Sheppard, Bayview Village and North York Centre more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.