With the city core just a quick street­car ride way, and the prices of homes still quite rea­son­able given the local ameni­ties and prox­im­ity to down­town, Lit­tle Italy is a great choice for home buy­ers look­ing to live in a down­town Toronto neigh­bour­hood that is alive with activity.

Don’t let the name deceive you – the days are long gone where the neigh­bour­hood was the pri­mary land­ing point for Ital­ian immi­grants com­ing to Canada. The afford­able homes in Lit­tle Italy have been attract­ing a diver­sity of cul­tures for many years. More recently how­ever, Lit­tle Italy’s Edwar­dian and Vic­to­rian row houses and semi-detached homes have been entic­ing urban pro­fes­sion­als and young hip­sters want­ing to live near what is now a hub of Toronto nightlife and shopping.

Lit­tle Italy is a lively, inter­na­tion­ally diverse neigh­bour­hood, reach­ing south from Col­lege Street to Dun­das Street West, and west from Bathurst to Oss­ing­ton. Once the land­ing point for waves of Ital­ian immi­gra­tion fol­low­ing World War Two, the area still holds a dis­tinct Ital­ian influ­ence – but now with a strong Por­tuguese pres­ence, as well as a mix of young peo­ple and urban pro­fes­sion­als want­ing a loca­tion within easy reach of the city’s centre.

Lit­tle Italy Real Estate Map

Lit­tle Italy homes offer an eclec­tic mix of types and styles, but the most com­mon are typ­i­cal Edwar­dian and Vic­to­rian row or semi-detached houses, some with whim­si­cal touches such as round win­dows. Multi-unit res­i­dences are more promi­nent here than in the Trinity-Bellwoods neigh­bour­hood directly to the south. Homes remain rea­son­ably afford­able for a prime inner city location.

With the city core a quick street­car ride away, and the prices of homes still quite rea­son­able given the loca­tion, Lit­tle Italy homes and real estate offer a great choice for home buy­ers look­ing to live in a down­town neigh­bour­hood with won­der­ful char­ac­ter and activity.

The heart of Lit­tle Italy is the shop­ping, din­ing and enter­tain­ment strip along Col­lege street, cen­tred on the inter­sec­tion of Col­lege and Clin­ton. As might be expected, some of the city’s best-loved Ital­ian restau­rants are here, includ­ing many of the orig­i­nal eater­ies, lunch coun­ters and cafés that hark back to the neighbourhood’s roots.

Food mar­kets, tra­di­tional bak­eries and neigh­bor­hood retail­ers share the street com­fort­ably with art gal­leries, trendy bistros, bou­tiques and exclu­sive fash­ion shops — while the modern-minded shop­per may pre­fer the multi-level, glass-roofed gal­le­ria with its shops, restau­rants, cin­e­mas and a Mar­riott hotel.

Houses in Lit­tle Italy

Black-clad non­nas may still shuf­fle along side­walks with the day’s gro­ceries, and elab­o­rate tile shrines to the Vir­gin Mary may still bless many of the houses – but the influx of Ital­ian and Por­tuguese immi­grants from whom this neigh­bour­hood derives its soul slowed over the years. In their place came pro­fes­sion­als look­ing for a foothold in the city, and 20-somethings eager to live within stum­bling dis­tance of the bars along the Col­lege strip.

It’s a real estate ecosys­tem in which all par­ties thrive: the bar kids lend the area a cachet that attracts afflu­ent home­buy­ers, who in turn fund the retire­ments of the blue-collar immi­grants. Teem­ing with restau­rants, gelato par­lours and cafes, the area’s endur­ing pop­u­lar­ity has sparked a few new condo projects that promise to mix up the Col­lege streetscape. Brack­eted on the east and west by the million-dollar homes along Palmer­ston and Dover­court, the typ­i­cal semi-detached Vic­to­rian will still run from around $600,000 up to closer to $800,000 for larger, updated homes.

Lit­tle Italy real estate is afford­able and an attrac­tive bar­gain for young buy­ers. In the 1980s, the neigh­bour­hood began to see an increase in young pro­fes­sion­als mov­ing in to take advan­tage of the hous­ing prices. Most houses are semi-detached two sto­ries and in Edwar­dian and Vic­to­rian row house styles. They have spa­cious rooms, but, with­out their orig­i­nal mould­ings and wood­work­ing. Most Lit­tle Italy real estate make great fixer-uppers and are per­fect for indi­vid­u­als look­ing for a down­town res­i­dence at a rea­son­able price.

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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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