Real Estate Guide › Central

Yorkville

Median 2007 sale price:: $1,387,450
Property crime:: average
Crime against people:: very low
Neighbourhood map:: See map

Its hippie days long gone (remember The Riverboat?), the film festival’s epicentre is now happily established as the perfect upscale shopping paradise, close to the subway, food stores (Whole Foods in Hazelton Lanes and the Five Thieves strip south of Summerhill) and, of course, the designer dreams of Bloor Street. Incorporated as a village in 1853 and annexed by the City of Toronto in 1883, the area still maintains several important historic landmarks, including the Yorkville Public Library and Heliconian Hall, built in 1875 in the unusual Carpenter’s Gothic style. It even retains a bit of an old-time village feel, especially south of Davenport, where many of the now very expensive, mostly attached homes date from as early as the 1870s and feature styles as diverse as Queen Anne and Gothic Revival. Houses are larger north of Davenport and beautiful Ramsden Park, which stretches from Avenue Road to Rosedale station. A typical three-bedroom semi-detached on a desirable side street (such as Roxborough or Macpherson) can go for $1.3 million.

HOUSING STOCK: The famed heritage homes of the nabe—largely thin, deep and Victorian—remain in good, unmolested order. However, the real story is the luxury condos (new examples of which sprout up almost monthly), particularly along Bloor, Avenue and especially Bay, where suites in the two-tower Four Seasons complex go for $1.2 million to $16 million.

BARGAIN ZONES: If you need to ask, chances are you can’t afford to live here.

THE VERDICT: The neighbourhood keeps getting better and better (or more and more exclusive, depending on your point of view). With a Yabu Pushelberg–designed interior, the new Hazelton Hotel restored some badly needed glamour to the nightlife (while also obliterating several blocks of classic Victorians). The nearby ROM Crystal and the soon-to-be-complete Royal Conservatory of Music and condo towers across Bloor are hastening the transformation of the neighbourhood’s southwest edge from fast-food ghetto to so-called Yorkville Museum District. And with the film festival moving gradually southward, paparazzi won’t be trampling your flower beds every September for much longer.

NEIGHBOURHOOD HOT SPOTS:
C5 The ROM’s fifth-floor resto serves upscale Japanese-influenced cuisine in a light-filled room. 100 Queen’s Park, 416-586-7928.
Hazel The wealthiest of Toronto’s women are drawn to this über-chic new boutique, stocked with luxurious furs and frocks from European designers. 118 Yorkville Ave., 416-513-0333.
Mira Godard Gallery One of the city’s largest and most established galleries represents such notables as Christopher Pratt and Alex Colville. 22 Hazelton Ave., 416-964-8197.
One Mark McEwan’s latest success serves pricey, delectable comfort food in an atypical family-style setting. 116 Yorkville Ave., 416-961-9600.