New analysis from digital real estate platform Wahi reveals the 10 Greater Toronto Area condo buildings with the most and least expensive median monthly condo fees as well as insights into how these fees range around the region. 

Monthly maintenance fees are a fact of life for condo owners, although how much these payments cost can vary greatly from unit to unit and building to building. 

These fees are normally calculated by the size of a unit and reflect its proportionate share of the condo corporation’s expenses in managing the property. Condo fees cover items such as building insurance, maintenance of common elements, amenities, some utilities, and contributions to the building reserve fund, which is set aside for major repairs.

New analysis by Wahi examines maintenance fees in previously sold one-bedroom condos, establishing a median monthly payment for thousands of multi-family buildings throughout the Greater Toronto Area. Wahi then ranked the 10 condos with the highest and lowest median fees. “For homebuyers who are considering buying a condo, maintenance fees are an important factor to consider when figuring out their budgets,” says Wahi CEO Benjy Katchen. “Wahi’s latest study provides a ballpark estimate of what condo owners can expect to pay at different price points in the GTA market,” he adds.

Wahi’s condo-building ranking is based on maintenance fees for one-bedroom units that were sold between 2021 and 2023. Buildings had to have a minimum of three sales over the study period to be included in the rankings. A three-year period was chosen to maximize the number of buildings that would meet the three-sale minimum as well as provide a more relevant median figure based on more transactions. Condo townhomes were excluded from the rankings. Note that a variety of factors influence maintenance fees, such as the size of a building’s reserve fund as well as the exact square footage of each unit, and Wahi was unable to take these into account as this information is not consistently provided in listings.

Some 13 GTA condo buildings had a median monthly maintenance fee in excess of $1,000 per month, according to Wahi’s analysis. The top 10 most expensive buildings for fees were predominantly concentrated within older luxury buildings in Downtown Toronto, with only one located outside of the city’s limits, in Oakville. Wahi has included the age of each building as well as a list of its amenities, as each can influence maintenance fees. For example, older buildings typically have larger floor plans and have heat and hydro rolled into fees, which can skew fees higher. Meanwhile, a luxury building with lots of fancy amenities costs more to maintain.

The GTA condo buildings with the least expensive maintenance fees were mostly located beyond Toronto’s core, with buildings located in areas such as Milton and Oakville, as well as more suburban parts of Toronto, such as Scarborough and North York. They were also generally built within the last several years, with the majority completed between 2018 and 2022. 

The lowest median local maintenance fee for 2023 was found in Milton, which was also home to two of the three condo buildings with the least expensive maintenance fees in the region. On the other end of the spectrum, Newmarket had the highest median maintenance fee. To look at how maintenance fees range throughout the region, Wahi has compared the median one-bedroom fee for 2023 in 24 towns and cities in the GTA, as well as the six former boroughs of Toronto.

Brock, East Gwillimbury, and Halton Hills did not have sufficient sales activity to measure maintenance fees. With a larger pool of sales to examine when looking at the entire region rather than specific buildings, Wahi focused on a single year so that year-over-year changes to maintenance fees would not skew the results (that said, at least some condo boards froze increases during the pandemic). Note that the mix of units that sell can influence the median. For example, if luxury sales are concentrated in a smaller market, the median may appear higher than what’s reflective of the market average. 

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