With plenty of room for growth, Lib­erty Vil­lage has become one of Toronto’s most desir­able con­do­minium com­mu­ni­ties for young pro­fes­sion­als look­ing for cut­ting edge archi­tec­ture and afford­able pric­ing close to the cen­tral core. Bounded at the north by King Street West, the west by Duf­ferin Street, the south by the Gar­diner Express­way the east by Stra­chan Avenue and the north­east by the CP rail­way tracks, Lib­erty Vil­lage real estate has cer­tainly seen rapid appre­ci­a­tion for con­do­minium end-users and investors.

Where there were once huge indus­trial oper­a­tions, now sit mod­ern Victorian-style town­homes. Where streets named Massey and Bat­tery Road evoke the man­u­fac­tur­ing plants that built the city, now rise spec­tac­u­lar lofts and condominiums.

Once mainly vacant land and mixed-use indus­trial com­mer­cial real estate, the neigh­bor­hood has seen mas­sive gen­tri­fi­ca­tion and condo, loft and town­home devel­op­ment. The Lib­erty Vil­lage name was recently intro­duced as a pos­i­tive ‘brand’ by Lib­erty Vil­lage condo own­ers and devel­op­ers in the area as it under­went sig­nif­i­cant growth in 2005 and 2006, both in terms of new con­dos, lofts and office space.

Lib­erty Vil­lage Real Estate Map

Lib­erty Vil­lage con­dos ini­tially were the best option for most first time buy­ers and young pro­fes­sion­als down­town; how­ever, Lib­erty Vil­lage has now solid­i­fied itself as one of the most desir­able condo mar­kets down­town. The area boasts some of the city’s best loft con­ver­sions, town­homes and con­dos as well as many great shops, art gal­leries, cafés and restaurants.

You now have acres of urban town­homes, con­dos and lofts to choose from – and excit­ing retail with Domin­ion, cafe’s, art gal­leries, restau­rants, fur­ni­ture bou­tiques and lounges all enclosed in a unique urban set­ting. Once an indus­trial waste­land, Lib­erty Vil­lage is now one of the most sought-after places to live in Toronto. There’s truly some­thing for every­one in Lib­erty Vil­lage. Just min­utes from the Finan­cial Dis­trict and enter­tain­ment core by streetcar.

Many of the turn of the cen­tury ware­houses and fac­to­ries have been con­verted into some stun­ning lofts – with more turned into cafe’s, restau­rants, fit­ness stu­dios and bou­tiques. This is def­i­nitely a one of a kind com­mu­nity that appeals to young cou­ples and the sin­gle professional.

There are hun­dreds of Lib­erty Vil­lage town­homes in total rang­ing from bach­e­lors to 3 bed­rooms with huge rooftop ter­races. Never mind all of the conds and new lofts (and the one loft con­ver­sion, the Toy Fac­tory Lofts). This is a 10-year master-planned com­mu­nity, with the final build­ings fin­ish­ing soon.

Lib­erty Village

Though its com­bi­na­tion of retail shops, office spaces, restau­rants and res­i­dences have made Lib­erty Vil­lage a thriv­ing neigh­bour­hood, some fear that young fam­i­lies are flee­ing the area due to ris­ing rents, tiny condo units and busi­nesses cater­ing pri­mar­ily to tran­sient twenty-somethings.

Res­i­den­tial devel­op­ments in Lib­erty Vil­lage – a good three-quarters of which were built after 1986 – pri­mar­ily accom­mo­date young pro­fes­sion­als with­out chil­dren. The result­ing neigh­bour­hood pop­u­la­tion is pri­mar­ily between 25 and 44 (57%) and sin­gle (54%). The one char­ac­ter­is­tic that these groups share is the abil­ity to live in smaller spaces, such as the one-to-two-bedroom apart­ments, con­dos and lofts that make up more than 80% of Lib­erty Vil­lage – a neigh­bour­hood with no detached homes.

In addi­tion, local busi­nesses have fol­lowed the devel­op­ers’ exam­ple, gear­ing prod­ucts and ser­vices toward the condo demo­graphic. Res­i­dents have ready access to beer bou­tiques, fine cheese stores and fancy cof­fee shops. But as soon as they have a baby, they move out to a neigh­bour­hood with a school and a com­mu­nity cen­tre and a library – none of which are cur­rently avail­able in Lib­erty Village.

In order to build a more sta­ble res­i­den­tial com­mu­nity, devel­op­ers will have to decide whether they are going to sup­port poten­tial future mar­kets of emerg­ing fam­i­lies or whether they are going to con­tinue meet­ing the cur­rent demand from young urbanites.

—————————————————————————————————–
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.
—————————————————————————————————–