One of the hottest Toronto real estate mar­kets in recent mem­ory has been the Ron­ces­valles Vil­lage neigh­bour­hood located in Toronto’s west end. The fact this mar­ket is boom­ing really comes as no sur­prise, as Ron­ces­valles Vil­lage has been grow­ing steadily in pop­u­lar­ity over the years. This growth has been some­what under the radar until this year as the neigh­bour­hood has recently gar­nered a lot of atten­tion from the media due to the rede­vel­op­ment along Ron­ces­valles Avenue.

Ron­ces­valles Vil­lage is located in the south­west part of Toronto. It is defined as an area between Ron­ces­valles, Mac­donell, Queen and Dun­das. Once part of one of Toronto’s wealth­i­est dis­tricts, it has mature, treed streets, good qual­ity hous­ing stock with numer­ous Vic­to­rian and Edwar­dian homes, good schools, vibrant shop­ping dis­trict, easy access to pub­lic trans­porta­tion and the high­way, and is only a short walk from High Park.

Ron­ces­valles Vil­lage is home to some of Toronto’s most vibrant shop­ping and din­ing dis­tricts. The once-strong Pol­ish flavour has been largely replaced by Ron­ces­valles Avenue’s quaint organic cafés, Thai restau­rants, toy shops and green­gro­cers on every cor­ner. 21 new busi­nesses have opened in the last year.   It is also within walk­ing dis­tance of Toronto’s water­front parks, the West­ern Beaches and Boardwalk.

Ron­ces­valles Vil­lage Real Estate Map

This bustling hood is said to have the largest con­cen­tra­tion of young fam­i­lies in all of Canada. Besides being kid and pet-friendly, this happy hood is a mini-paradise for loca­vores look­ing to nosh on some super fresh foods. The area con­tin­ues to have a strong Pol­ish flavour as well as being bal­anced by a slow but steadily emerg­ing unique retail mix that includes many quaint cof­fee spots, eater­ies, week­end farm­ers mar­ket, book­stores and of course the restored Revue movie theatre.

Pedestrian-friendly Ron­ces­valles Vil­lage has def­i­nitely mor­phed into a des­ti­na­tion loca­tion. So if you’re look­ing to live in a place that allows you to walk to any­thing and every­thing worth­while such as High Park and the lake, this hood is it.

The Ron­ces­valles Avenue rede­vel­op­ment was a long drawn out affair but it appears to have been worth the wait as this com­mer­cial strip has never been more vibrant and is now firmly ensconced as one of Toronto’s land­mark neigh­bour­hood shop­ping des­ti­na­tions. The iconic Toronto street­car still glides up and down Ron­ces­valles Avenue only now it shares the road with new bicy­cle lanes and revamped pedes­trian walk­ways. The streetscape has also been enhanced with places to sit down and native tree plantings.

Ron­ces­valles Avenue Streetscape

Home­buy­ers have taken notice of all the changes in Ron­ces­valles Vil­lage and judg­ing by all the homes sales recorded this year, they like what they see. There are three key ameni­ties Ron­ces­valles home­buy­ers appre­ci­ate: the homes are within walk­ing dis­tance High Park; you can walk or bicy­cle in just a few min­utes to the water­front; and Ron­ces­valles Avenue itself is so con­ve­nient with every­thing you need close by.

As far as hous­ing stock goes you gen­er­ally have a mix­ture of well-maintained Vic­to­ri­ans and Edwar­dians. You have your gen­eral mix­ture of semi-detached, detached, and row homes that dot each unique street. The real estate options in Ron­ces­valles Vil­lage are var­ied and pro­vide many options. East of Ron­ces­valles Avenue the houses are a lit­tle smaller – which suits the first time buyer. Move-up buy­ers can find larger detached homes on the west side of the neigh­bour­hood. Many of these homes are multi-plex with the owner rent­ing out apart­ments. Hav­ing a ten­ant is a great way to help off­set house pay­ments and expenses.

In the last 6–10 years or so some decent condo/ loft stock (Robert Wat­son Lofts, Feather Fac­tory Lofts, High Park Lofts) has emerged. This includes church con­ver­sions (The Abbey Lofts on Sun­ny­side Avenue). As far as new con­dos in the area, Howard Park Avenue east of Ron­ces­valles Avenue will be accom­mo­dat­ing 2 new con­dos along that chunk of Howard up to Dundas.

Robert Wat­son Lofts on Sorau­ren Avenue

Falling in love with Ron­ces­valles Vil­lage is the easy part – find­ing and secur­ing a home is more chal­leng­ing. There is healthy com­pe­ti­tion for houses in this neigh­bour­hood with homes sell­ing over list price and aver­ag­ing only a week-and-a-half on the mar­ket (keep in mind, many houses hold back offers for a week).

Most the houses sell on the day they take offers. You have semi-detached house in Ron­ces­valles sell­ing for around three-quarters-of-a-million. The smaller entry level semis can occa­sion­ally be found in the low $600s, while the larger ren­o­vated homes can get close to a million.

Detached sales make up about a third of the Ron­ces­valles Vil­lage home sales with the aver­age price of a detached home push­ing the mil­lion dol­lar mark. If you are lucky, an entry level detached house can some­times be found in the $700s. But most detached houses in this neigh­bour­hood sell for much higher than that, with some larger detached houses sell­ing for twice as much.

Real Estate in Ron­ces­valles Village

Where park­ing is con­cerned, lane-access park­ing as well as per­mit park­ing are the norm here. Like many older areas in the city, this one boasts many well-renovated homes as well as homes in need of some even­tual TLC.

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Con­tact the Jef­frey Team for more infor­ma­tion – 416−388−1960

Lau­rin & Natalie Jef­frey are Toronto Real­tors with Cen­tury 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these arti­cles, they just repro­duce them here for peo­ple
who are inter­ested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
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