Sale of the Week: The $1.9-million Summerhill home that proves living above a podiatrist can be luxurious

Address: 37 Alvin Avenue
Neighbourhood: Summerhill
Agent: Julia Warren, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, Brokerage
Previously sold for: $1,439,881, in 2008
 
 
 

The property

A turreted brick home with a commercial space on the main floor and a two-bedroom apartment up above.

Here’s the living room, with seriously mirrored walls:

The dining room ceiling is beautiful, and also oddly reminiscent of the Windows ’95 startup screen:

And here’s the kitchen, which doubles as a laundry room:

The kitchen has an eating area, with a door to a terrace:

And here is that terrace:

There are two bedrooms on the third floor. This one, with its very fancy bay window, is being used as a family room:

The main third-floor bathroom is very mirrory:

The master bedroom has plenty of space for a little office nook:

Here’s the master ensuite:

And the backyard:

The history

Ever since the late 1970s, when this building was renovated into its current state, one podiatrist or another has leased the main floor. The sellers loved having the second-floor apartment as a pied à terre, but they’ve decided to sell so they can spend more time at their lakefront property.

The fate

The buyer takes possession at the end of the month, and he won’t be making any major changes. The podiatrist’s office will remain as-is:

The sale

In the first 48 hours, there were several offers. The eventual buyer loved the neighbourhood, the building’s classic style, and its potential as an income property. He bid $25,000 over asking, and the sellers accepted.

By the numbers

• $1,950,000
• $18,278.00 in taxes (2015)
• 2750 square feet
• 4 days on MLS
• 2 bedrooms
• 2 parking spaces

The Hunt

City

“I’ve been a family doctor for more than 20 years. Now, I have no choice but to close my practice”

Rising costs, new administrative duties and subsequent burnout have made it impossible for physician Fan-Wah Mang to keep her Mississauga clinic open. Delivering the news to her patients—many of whom have nowhere else to go—broke her heart