How to Sell Your Condo and Buy a House: PARKING

The price of parking spots in downtown condos has shot up dramatically over the past few years, and many new buildings have far fewer parking spots than actual units in the building. Parking downtown has become a premium commodity. When you’re selling your condo and buying a house in Toronto, finding a house with parking can be an equally challenging and expensive task.

This is one of several videos in my series about “How to Sell Your Condo and Buy a House“. Check out my Youtube Channel for the entire series.

Parking spots in Toronto condos are now selling for around $25-50K. When it comes to houses, having a parking spot can add at least that much or more to the cost of your house depending on what neighbourhood you are buying in.

There are several different types of parking you will come across in Toronto houses:

None. Many houses in the core of the city don’t have parking at all.

Mutual Drive. Mutual drive is a very common type of parking in certain areas of the city like East York and The Beaches. Mutual drive is when 2 neighbouring houses share 1 common driveway and a parking pad or garage is located on each property in the rear of the house.

Private Drive. Private drives are exclusive use of a single property. Private drives are highly sought after, however, they are quite rare on homes in the core of the city under about $1M

Laneway. Laneway parking is common in areas like Cabbagetown, Leslieville and Little Italy. Laneway is a great way to get a good size yard as well as on-site parking.

Front Pad. Front pad parking is when you park on the front lawn of your property. This type of parking is becoming more rare due to recent city by-laws.

Some Expert Tips:

1) Even if you don’t have a car and don’t plan on getting a car, consider buying a house with parking if you can afford it. Having parking will make your house easier to re-sell to someone else when you move in the future.

2) If buying a house with front pad parking, check to see if it is a legal parking pad by looking for one of these plaques. Also call the city to see if the parking permit is transferable to you as the new owner.

Here’s an example of a mutual drive that is not really a mutual drive. As you can see, the distance between these two houses is only about 80 inches. A Honda Accord is about 73 inches wide. Yes, it could technically be used but it is so tight that the average person would likely not be comfortable driving their car up and down this driveway every day.

If you are thinking about selling your condo and buying a house this year, I’d love to help. For more information contact me.

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