The Hill Condominiums, 170 Chiltern Hill Rd: Boutique Living, High Fees

The Hill is a small building with a big range. It has 91 suites over nine storeys at the edge of Forest Hill’s Upper Village, and the suites run from compact one-bedrooms to full-floor-scale homes of over 3,500 square feet. The number I want every buyer to look at first is the monthly fee. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

Infill on Eglinton, with a Forest Hill address

UrbanToronto lists the project at 925 Eglinton Avenue West, at the corner of Chiltern Hill Road, with the residential entrance on the side street. When it was announced in 2011, UrbanToronto called it a good piece of infill for a street like Eglinton, and that is still a fair description.

BSaR developed and built it, Core Architects designed it and Mike Niven did the interiors. UrbanToronto’s database lists a height of about 29 metres and three levels of underground parking in the original plans. At nine storeys it sits comfortably against the houses on the streets behind it.

The address matters. Chiltern Hill Road leads into the residential streets of Upper Forest Hill, and the building is marketed around the Upper Village identity rather than as an Eglinton West condo. Condos.ca places it in Humewood-Cedarvale, which tells you it sits right where those neighbourhoods meet.

A suite range from 400 to over 3,500 square feet

Condos.ca puts suites at about 402 to 3,519 square feet. That is an extraordinary spread for a 91-suite building. The small end is a compact one-bedroom or studio, and the large end is closer to a house than to a condo.

It means two very different buyers share the same lobby. Downsizers from Forest Hill houses buy the large suites, and younger buyers and investors buy the compact ones. Each group should compare against its own market: a large suite here competes with semi-detached houses nearby, while a small one competes with newer towers along Eglinton.

With so few large suites, resale comparables at the top end are thin. If you are buying or selling one, expect valuation to lean on nearby buildings as well as this one.

For downsizers, the large suites also raise practical questions that a smaller condo never does: how many parking spaces come with the suite, whether there is a locker big enough for what you are bringing from a house, and how move-ins are booked through a single service elevator. Ask about all three before you fall for a floor plan.

The fee is the main question

Across the current listings, active fees work out to about $1.44 per square foot. That is high for a building registered in 2018. Condos.ca lists common elements, heat, building insurance and water as included, which helps, but parking is not on that list.

Small buildings often carry higher fees because the cost of a concierge, elevators and a full-time manager is shared across fewer owners. A building with 91 suites and staffed service will usually cost more per foot to run than a tower of 400.

Before you commit, read the budget and the reserve fund study and look for any sign of planned increases. On a large suite, the fee alone can be a significant monthly cost.

Daily life at Eglinton and Bathurst

The building sits at the meeting point of three very different streetscapes. Eglinton Avenue West is a commercial arterial, Bathurst Street is a busy north-south route, and Chiltern Hill Road runs into quiet residential streets lined with large houses. Which of those your suite faces shapes how it feels.

Eglinton West has gone through a long period of transit construction, and that has affected businesses and sidewalks along the street for years. Once the street settles, the stretch near Bathurst should feel very different, but I would not buy here expecting a finished high street tomorrow.

The appeal for most buyers is the residential side: tree-lined streets, Cedarvale Ravine to the west and the Forest Hill Village shops to the southeast. The data panel on this page has the transit, schools and nearby parks.

Pricing: two listings, a wide range

Condos.ca does not show a building average per square foot here, and with only two current listings a single number would not mean much anyway. Asking prices across those two listings ranged from $390,000 to $858,800, with monthly fees from about $777 to $1,253.

That gap reflects the suite range rather than any change in the building. For a property like this I would rely on trading history for suites of a similar size and exposure, not on whatever happens to be listed this month.

Per square foot, the compact and the large suites here should be read separately. Small suites usually trade at a higher price per foot than large ones in the same building, and in a building with this range the average can mislead in either direction. Ask for comparisons by size band, not for the whole building, and remember to add the fee into any monthly cost comparison with a house.

Ask me for a building sold report and we can compare suites like the one you want against nearby boutique buildings at Eglinton and Bathurst, with the fee difference factored in.

Building specifications

Amenities at The Hill Condominiums

Condos.ca lists a concierge, a party room, guest suites, a media room and permission for barbecues. There is no gym or pool on that list, so this is a service building rather than a recreation one, and the guest suites matter more to downsizers with family visiting than most buyers expect.

Jatin’s honest take on The Hill Condominiums

The Hill Condominiums — frequently asked questions

Looking at York Mills, Don Mills, Lawrence Park, Bathurst Manor and midtown-north Toronto more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.