Live in The Annex
Bay-and-gable houses on 1880s lots between two subway lines, and the first part of Toronto allowed to build six units on one of them.
The Annex was annexed in 1887, which is where the name comes from, and built out over the next twenty-five years in the house type Toronto invented: a narrow lot, a projecting bay, a steep gable, red brick and stone. It sits between two subway lines with the University of Toronto on its southern edge, which is why it has been dense, rented, subdivided and argued about for a hundred years. In July 2026 the TRREB district it belongs to, C02, carried a detached benchmark of $2,605,500 and an apartment benchmark of $782,300, and over the previous twelve months the first fell 2.15% while the second fell 14.65%. Those two numbers describe the same square kilometre of city in the same month, and they are the clearest statement on this site of what has happened to Toronto. The other thing that changed here is what you are allowed to build: since May 2023 four units are permitted on any residential lot in the city, and since June 2025 five and six units are permitted in the Toronto and East York wards, which include this one.
Annexed in 1887, and still arguing about what can be built on it
West of Avenue Road and north of Bloor Street, running up to the Dupont rail corridor and the escarpment below Casa Loma, and west toward Bathurst Street.
The neighbourhood is named after an 1887 annexation and built in the house type Toronto invented for it: a narrow lot, a projecting bay, a steep gable, red brick with stone trim. Most of it went up between 1890 and 1910 for professionals leaving the old city centre, and most of it is still standing, which is the first thing worth understanding about the price.
Two subway lines are within walking distance. Line 2 runs under Bloor along the southern edge and Line 1 turns north through Spadina and Dupont, so the two cross at the corner of the neighbourhood. Almost nowhere else in Canada can say that, and it is the single largest reason the low-rise stock here is the most expensive in the country.
The two halves of the market have separated completely. In July 2026 the TRREB district this neighbourhood sits in carried a detached benchmark of $2,605,500, down 2.15% on the year, and an apartment benchmark of $782,300, down 14.65%. Same district, same month, same index, a twelve-point gap. The Toronto hub has the citywide version of that split and it is narrower than this one.
What you may build here changed twice. Since May 2023 four units are permitted as of right on any residential lot in Toronto, and since June 2025 five and six units are permitted in the Toronto and East York wards. This is one of them. That does not make a sixplex easy or cheap, but it does mean the conversation with the City starts from permission rather than from a rezoning.
- Whether the property is inside a heritage conservation district, because the district plan governs exterior work and demolition
- Whether the house has been divided into flats, and whether those units are legal and registered
- Knob-and-tube wiring and galvanised supply lines are common in this stock and both affect what an insurer will write
- Basement backup history: the ground falls away south of the escarpment and the sewers here are old
- The land transfer tax is charged twice in this city, provincial and municipal, which on a benchmark price here is a six-figure line
- Student turnover is a feature of this rental market, not a defect, and it clusters in August
How the Annex got here
- 1887Toronto annexes the land north and west of Bloor and Avenue Road. The neighbourhood is named after the act that created it.
- 1890sThe bay-and-gable and Richardsonian Romanesque stock goes up on narrow lots, built for professionals leaving the old city centre.
- 1914Casa Loma is completed on the escarpment above the neighbourhood, on the old shoreline of glacial Lake Iroquois.
- 1966The Bloor-Danforth subway opens beneath the neighbourhood's southern edge, adding a second line to the Yonge-University one already crossing it.
- 1971The Spadina Expressway is cancelled after a campaign run largely out of this neighbourhood. The blocks it would have taken are still standing.
- 2023City Council permits up to four units on any residential lot in Toronto, ending a zoning rule that had made most of the old city single-family only.
- 2025Council extends five and six units to the Toronto and East York wards, which is why this neighbourhood is on different rules from Willowdale or Mimico.
Casa Loma, Christie Pits and the blocks that were never demolished
The ground rises sharply north of the neighbourhood because that is the old shoreline of glacial Lake Iroquois, and Casa Loma was built on top of it in 1914. South and west, Christie Pits is a former gravel pit turned into the best sledding hill in the west end. What is not here is an expressway: the Spadina Expressway was cancelled in 1971 after a campaign run largely out of these streets, and the blocks it would have taken are the ones people now pay to live on.
The resident's angle: the canopy is the neighbourhood's best feature and a standing cost. Mature silver maples over a three-storey Victorian roof mean an arborist on retainer and eavestroughs cleared twice a year, and the City's permit rules apply to a tree on private land above a certain trunk size.
24 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 24 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are computed from a representative point in the neighbourhood, using straight-line distance multiplied by a road factor and a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times. In this neighbourhood the drive time is the least useful column on the page. Almost everything in the first two groups is faster on foot or on the subway than in a car.
Every gym within reach
Christie Pits and Ramsden Park are the two outdoor anchors, and the university's athletic centre sits at the southern edge. Commercial studios cluster along Bloor, where the rents are high and the turnover is quick.
- Outdoor pool in summer, the hill in winter, and baseball on the diamond most of the year
- Ramsden Park east of Avenue Road has the rink and the courts
- The University of Toronto's athletic facilities are on the southern edge and open to members
- The residential grid itself is the running route, and the canopy makes it usable in August
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Christie Pits Park open | The outdoor pool and the hill, and the neighbourhood's default running route. | 4–6 min |
| Ramsden Park open | The rebuilt park east of Avenue Road, with the outdoor rink in winter and the courts in summer. | 4–6 min |
The free option is the neighbourhood. This is one of the few places in Canada where walking somewhere useful is the default rather than an achievement, and it is most of what the price buys.
Small catchments, and a university on the doorstep
Huron Street and Palmerston Avenue are the neighbourhood elementaries and Central Technical School the 1915 secondary school on Bathurst. Catchments in the old city are small and irregular, so two houses on the same block can be assigned differently. The board also runs a central admissions process for specialised programmes alongside home-school assignment.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Huron Street Junior Public School | Toronto District School Board | The neighbourhood public elementary. The TDSB assigns by address and the boundaries here are small; check the specific address rather than the neighbourhood. |
| Palmerston Avenue Junior Public School | Toronto District School Board | The elementary on the western side of the neighbourhood, with a French immersion stream at some grades. |
| Central Technical School | Toronto District School Board | The 1915 secondary school on Bathurst Street, with specialised art and technical programmes that draw from across the city. |
| Toronto District School Board optional attendance | Toronto District School Board | The board runs a central admissions process for specialised schools and programmes alongside home-school assignment. Apply in the board's window, which closes in the autumn for the following September. |
| University of Toronto | Independent | The St. George campus is on the southern edge of the neighbourhood. It is the single largest reason the rental market here is what it is, and the reason turnover clusters in August. |
The University of Toronto is on the southern edge, and it shapes this housing market more than any school does: a large share of the stock is rented by the room or the flat, and the leasing year runs to the academic one. Check the specific address in the board's boundary tool rather than trusting the neighbourhood name.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Daily mean around −5 °C, colder on the nights the wind comes off the lake
- The quietest month for listings, which is exactly why some buyers shop in it
- Sidewalk clearing on narrow Annex frontages is the owner's job and it matters
- The freeze-thaw cycle that does the damage to century brick and mortar
- Ice damming on a steep gable roof is the seasonal repair here
- Spring listings are being prepared now, so viewings pick up late in the month
- The spring market opens and the listing count climbs sharply
- The best month to see a house with the leaves down and the foundation visible
- Road salt damage on walkways and porch stone shows up as it melts
- Historically the busiest month for new listings in the city
- The canopy comes in and the streets change character completely
- A good month to check drainage: the Annex sits below the escarpment and water runs downhill
- Warm enough to walk the whole neighbourhood, which is the only way to judge it
- Offer nights are still a feature of the low-rise market here even in a falling one
- Doors Open Toronto opens buildings that are otherwise closed
- The university empties and the rental market briefly loosens
- Cellar and basement viewings are least informative now; ask about wet-weather history
- Patios along Bloor take over the sidewalk
- Humid, high twenties, and the month Toronto's serious rainfalls arrive
- Basement backup is the local insurance question; check the sewer endorsement
- The quietest stretch of the year for sales
- Student leases turn over and the rental market is at its tightest
- The best month to see how much shade the canopy actually gives
- Contractors are booked out; get quotes before you need them
- The autumn market opens and runs to late November
- The university returns and the neighbourhood fills up again
- Furnace and chimney servicing before the heating season, on stock this old
- The best weather of the year for walking the streets
- Leaf fall clogs the eavestroughs on a three-storey Victorian, which is a ladder job
- Property tax instalments and the year's assessment notices land around now
- Listings thin out sharply after the middle of the month
- Grey and wet rather than cold, which is the honest description of a Toronto November
- Negotiating room opens up for anyone still shopping
- The thinnest month for listings and the thinnest for competition
- Snow clearing on a narrow shared lane is worth asking a neighbour about
- Closings cluster before the end of the year for tax reasons
25 photographs of Toronto and the region
Drawn from the site's shared, freely licensed Toronto photo library, not photographs of The Annex itself. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 25 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near The Annex, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Toronto library.