Wychwood Park Place, 1356 Bathurst St: A 10-Home Townhouse Condo

Wychwood Park Place borrows its name from one of Toronto’s most protected streets, but it is a different thing entirely: ten townhouses from 1988 on Bathurst Street, in a corporation smaller than most apartment floors. Buyers come here for a townhouse with parking in a part of the city where freehold houses rarely trade cheaply. The trade-off is that ten owners carry every repair. I’m Jatin Dua, RE/MAX Quantum Realty.

The name, and the neighbourhood it points to

Wychwood Park itself is a private enclave near Bathurst and Davenport, founded in 1888 by landscape painter Marmaduke Matthews and businessman Alexander Jardine. Much of it was built between 1907 and 1911, many homes in the English Arts and Crafts style by Eden Smith and Sons, and in the 1980s residents sought heritage district protection after a redevelopment threat.

This complex is not inside that enclave. Its address is on Bathurst Street, and it is a separate condominium corporation registered in 1988. What it does share is the neighbourhood: the leafy streets of Wychwood and Hillcrest, the shops of St. Clair West to the north, and the older housing stock that makes this pocket expensive.

That is the point of a building like this. Freehold houses in Wychwood rarely come cheap, and a condominium townhouse with parking is one of the few ways into the neighbourhood with a garage and no roof of your own to manage.

Ten homes and a parking garage

Condos.ca lists a parking garage and visitor parking here. The first thing to establish is what kind of garage it is. If the ten homes share an underground garage, its waterproofing membrane, drainage, ramp and door are among the most expensive things the corporation owns, and the cost is split ten ways.

If each home has its own garage instead, the risk is smaller and more spread out, but you still need to know who owns and maintains the door, the driveway and the roof above it. The declaration and the reserve fund study will answer both questions.

Condos.ca does not publish suite sizes, and I could not verify layouts for this complex. Townhouses of this era in the old city are often two or three storeys with a small private outdoor space. Measure the home you are viewing and confirm the bedroom count in person.

Ask what each owner actually owns. In most townhouse condominiums the land, exterior walls and roofs are common elements, while patios or yards are exclusive-use areas. That split decides who pays for what, and it differs from one declaration to the next, so read it rather than assume.

What a 1988 corporation of ten owners means

At 37 years old, the complex is in the period where original windows, roofs, garage membranes and exterior sealants come due. In a ten-home corporation, every one of those projects is divided among very few owners. There is no large owner base to soften a big year.

A small corporation can work well. Owners tend to know each other, decisions are quick, and costs are visible. It can also mean thin reserves, a board of two or three volunteers and a management contract sized for a very small budget. Read two years of minutes to see how decisions actually get made.

Condos.ca notes that barbecues are permitted. That is a useful detail for anyone who plans to cook outside, but confirm the rules in the declaration and the current rules, along with any rules on pets and leasing.

What is changing on Bathurst

Bathurst between Davenport and St. Clair is mostly low-rise today, but the St. Clair intersection is a growth node. In 2019 UrbanToronto reported a revised KingSett Capital proposal for three rental towers of 36, 30 and 30 storeys, with 866 units designed by Quadrangle, at 1467 Bathurst on the northeast corner of Bathurst and St. Clair.

Check the current status of that site before you buy, because a project of that scale means years of construction traffic. Over time it would also bring more people, shops and services to the corner. Transit, school and walking details are in the panel on this page.

Closer to home, Bathurst carries steady traffic and buses, so ask which homes face the street and which face inward. In a small complex on a main road, that difference shows up in noise, privacy and resale.

Pricing in a ten-home complex

There were no homes for sale or for rent here on condos.ca at the time of writing, and condos.ca did not publish a building price per square foot. With ten homes, a sale may only happen every year or two, and one sale can swing any average.

The recorded sales and leases on this page are the starting point. Beyond that, compare with other townhouse condominiums in Wychwood, Hillcrest and along St. Clair West, and with the small semi-detached houses nearby, adjusting for parking, outdoor space and the fee. A monthly fee in a ten-home corporation can look high because there are so few owners to share the fixed costs; what matters is what it covers and how well the reserve fund is funded.

Insurance is another fixed cost that ten owners share. Look at the insurance line in the budget over the last three years and at the policy deductible, since some declarations make owners responsible for the deductible when a loss starts in their home.

If you own here and are thinking of selling, or want to know when the next home comes up, ask me for the building sold report.

Building specifications

Amenities at Wychwood Park Place

The amenities here are practical rather than social: covered parking, a spot for visitors and permission to barbecue. For a townhouse on Bathurst, the garage is the feature that matters most, both as a daily convenience and as the biggest single cost the corporation has to plan for.

Jatin’s honest take on Wychwood Park Place

Wychwood Park Place — 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.