Wahi reveals list of 10 Buildings with Highest Condo Fees in GTA

New analysis from digital real estate platform Wahi has revealed the 10 Greater Toronto Area (GTA) condo buildings with the most and least expensive median monthly condo fees and insights into how these fees range around the region.

While monthly maintenance fees are a part of condo ownership, how much these payments cost can vary. These fees usually cover building insurance, amenities, some utilities, contributions to the building reserve fund and are normally calculated by the size of a unit while also reflecting its share of the condo corporation’s expenses in managing the property.

The analysis by Wahi examines maintenance fees in previously sold one-bedroom condos, and establishes a median monthly payment for thousands of multi-family buildings throughout the GTA. 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,” said 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.”

The condo-building ranking by Wahi is based on maintenance fees for one-bedroom units that were sold between 2021 and 2023. According to Wahi, buildings had to have a minimum of three sales over the study period to be included in the rankings. Condo townhomes were excluded from the rankings.

According to Wahi’s analysis, some 13 GTA condo buildings had a median monthly maintenance fee in excess of $1,000 per month. The top 10 most expensive buildings for fees were predominantly concentrated within older luxury buildings in Downtown Toronto, with only one located in Oakville.

Along with the age of each building, Wahi has also included a list of its amenities, as each can influence maintenance fees. Wahi noted that older buildings usualy have larger floor plans and have heat and hydro rolled into fees, which can make fees higher while a luxury building with fancier amenities costs more to maintain.

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

The lowest median local maintenance fee for 2023 was found in Milton, according to Wahi, which was also home to two of the three condo buildings with the least expensive maintenance fees in the region.

Newmarket had the highest median maintenance fee. 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, to look at how maintenance fees range throughout the region.

Brock, East Gwillimbury, and Halton Hills did not have sufficient sales activity to measure maintenance fees, according to Wahi.

Wahi focused on a single year so that year-over-year changes to maintenance fees would not skew the results, but noted that the mix of units that sell can influence the median. For example, if luxury sales are concentrated in a smaller market, Wahi says the median may appear higher than what’s reflective of the market average.