I started to study the value of 1 & 2 bedroom condos along the subway line. After I completed my initial research, my next question was how much have the values changed between 2017 and 2016 at each subway station. My analysis was even surprising to me. It does matter which subway station is the closest to your condo in determining how much your condo will increase year over year.

I pulled the numbers from the Toronto Real Estate Board statistics based on condos that were within a 0.3km radius or 394 steps from a subway station. Some stations don’t have any condos built within the 0.3 km distance and some had few sales reported during the period of Jan. 1 to July 24th making some of the sample sizes rather small (ie. less than 4 condos).

What I learned:

Line 1 For One-Bedroom Condos

• The worst place to invest in a one bedroom condo is Summerhill station. It is surprising given all of the amenities the area has to offer. Maybe the 5 thieves scared everyone off (local nickname for the 5 expensive stores in the area).
• Lawrence station had the highest return. However, the caution here is that the sample size is extremely small as one condo building in the area was just completed so for that reason. I would take this one with a grain of salt and look at the next station with the highest return. That would be Lawrence West.
• The next stations with the highest returns were Queen, Finch, Union & Wilson (in that order). These stations are uptown and downtown at the extreme ends of the city so there’s no pattern in their values.

Line 1 For Two-Bedroom Condos

• The worst station to invest in a 2 bedroom condo is York Mills station. Rosedale comes in at the second worst place to invest in a 2 bedroom condo
• The best stations to invest in 2 bedroom condos are North York Centre, King Sheppard & Finch (in that order)
• For the most part each station has returns well over 15% so clearly condo owners aren’t doing too badly.

Line 2 For One Bedroom Condos

• The worst place to invest in a 1 bedroom condo would be Old Mill station. Many stations along this line simply don’t have condos or so few condos. There might be a sale in one year but not the next year to do a proper comparison. So the Old Mill wins this prize as the worst place to purchase a 1 bedroom condo
• The best place to invest? Kennedy, Christie & Victoria Park subway stations at well over 40% return for 1 bedroom condo

Line 2 For Two Bedroom Condos

• The worst place to invest in a condo is at Christie subway station, however given the incredibly small sample size of 2 bedroom condos at this station, the next lowest stations were Spadina & Bathurst at -2% and -1% return respectively. A surprising figure given all of the amenities in these areas. That being said they are well established Toronto neighbourhoods so it doesn’t provide a lot of room for growth.
• The best place to invest in a 2 bedroom condo is Lawrence East and St George. Considering that the stations Spadina & Bathurst were on the worst place to invest, it’s interesting that St George ended up on the second best place to invest. Third on the list was Islington proving that the best places to invest in a 2 bedroom condo are literally all over the city. With stations in the east end, west end and central all ending up on the best places to invest in a 2 bedroom condo.

So the next time you decide to make a condo purchase in Toronto, you can make a better investment decision based on which subway station is closest to the condo you wish to buy.