The Richmond, 313 & 323 Richmond St E: Hydro Included at $759 a Foot

The Richmond at 313 and 323 Richmond Street East is the building I bring up when a buyer says every downtown fee is a trap. Its fee looks high per square foot, but it includes hydro as well as heat, air conditioning and water, which almost no newer building does. It is a 2000 building, priced like one, and that is both the appeal and the homework. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

The fee that includes the electricity

The single biggest thing that sets The Richmond apart is the fee inclusion list. condos.ca lists common elements, heat, air conditioning, hydro, building insurance and water. Hydro in the fee is rare in Toronto towers built after the early 2000s, when individual suite metering became the norm.

That changes how you compare it. Fees on current listings work out to roughly $0.95 per square foot, which looks expensive next to a newer tower at $0.60 to $0.70. Add a newer building’s separately billed hydro, heat and cooling back in, and The Richmond often comes out level or ahead.

The flip side is that bundled utilities are a shared cost. When energy prices rise, the whole corporation’s budget rises with them. Ask how the utility line in the budget has moved over the last few years and whether the board has looked at sub-metering.

Bundled hydro also changes renter behaviour. Tenants have no reason to economise on air conditioning or heating, and the cost spreads across every owner. That is one reason some older buildings have moved to sub-meters. Find out whether the board here has discussed it, because a change would alter your monthly cost.

Two towers, a lot of small suites

The building is two 15-storey towers sharing a corporation, with 497 suites between them. Suites run from about 325 square feet, which is studio territory, up to about 1,200 square feet for the largest two-bedroom-plus-den plans.

At this scale and with this many compact suites, the building has a sizeable rental population. condos.ca showed seven suites for rent against two for sale at the time of writing. That is good news for investors and a factor to weigh for owner-occupiers who want a quieter, owner-heavy building.

Listing descriptions mention open and Juliette balconies, so do not assume every suite has a usable outdoor space. Check the suite, not the building.

Smaller suites at the 325 to 500 square foot end are where much of the investor interest sits, while the two-bedroom-plus-den plans near 1,200 square feet suit owner-occupiers who want space without a new-build price. In a building of this age, the condition of each suite varies widely, so budget for updates if a listing is original.

Who built it, and what is on site

condos.ca does not name a developer. One listing portal attributes the building to Tridel; I could not confirm that from a second source, so treat it as unverified. The corporation number also differs between sources, and the status certificate will settle it.

The amenities are what you would expect from a 2000 tower: concierge and 24-hour security, a party room and meeting room, a rooftop patio, a hot tub and sauna, and underground parking. Beanfield Fibre is available in the building, which matters if you work from home.

Pet rules are reported differently too. condos.ca shows a pet restriction, while another portal says cats and dogs are allowed. Read the declaration and rules before you commit.

Those gaps are not unusual for a building of this age, but they are a reason to read the status certificate early, before you firm up, rather than in the final days of a conditional period.

Living on Richmond near Sherbourne

You are a few blocks north of the St. Lawrence Market and near King Street East, with the Distillery District a walk to the southeast. New towers on Front, Adelaide and King, including St. Lawrence Condos and Axiom, have brought new shops and residents to the blocks around you.

Richmond Street is a one-way arterial and the Moss Park area to the north is still changing, with new development planned around it. Visit at different times of day, and ask what is proposed nearby if a view matters.

The building’s neighbours have changed around it. When it went up in 2000, it was one of the first large condos on this stretch. Today it sits among much newer towers, which helps resale because buyers already see the area as a condo neighbourhood.

Transit, schools and walkability are in the data panel on this page.

What The Richmond costs

condos.ca puts the building average at about $759 per square foot. That is the lowest of the nearby condo buildings I have reviewed: One Park Place North in Regent Park sits at about $796, Axiom on Adelaide at about $862 and St. Lawrence Condos on Front at about $894.

Part of that discount is age; this is a 26-year-old building. Part of it is the fee, which buyers see as high until they work out the included utilities. For a buyer who does the full monthly cost comparison, that is where the value sits.

Rental demand is the other half of the story. With seven suites listed for rent at the time of writing and most utilities included, units here are easy to market to tenants. Check the leasing rules in the declaration before you buy as an investor.

At the time of writing there were two suites for sale, asking between $439,900 and $749,000. The data panel shows what has actually sold over the last 12 months.

Building specifications

Amenities at The Richmond

The rooftop patio, hot tub and sauna are the parts of the package residents actually use, and the concierge and 24-hour security matter in a building with this many suites. There is no pool, which helps keep the fee from rising further.

Jatin’s honest take on The Richmond

The Richmond — frequently asked questions

Looking at Church–Wellesley, Corktown, Moss Park and Cabbagetown more broadly? Start with my Toronto community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and how they compare.