West Queen West

Your Typical Neighbour

The West Queen West vibe reflects the relatively young demographic of the neighbourhood. It’s also extremely multicultural. Chances are strong your neighbour identifies as a visible minority, is a first time buyer, and is enjoying a bohemian lifestyle.

What We Love

What we like best: Amazing culture available at a stones throw. Live music, art, food and retail are all right outside your door. Oh and did we mention art!? Nearby Trinity Bellwoods Park is a top destination for leisurely weekends, picnics and catching the Cherry Blossoms come Sping time.

What We Don’t Love

Local & independent shops and restaurants are a mainstay but more and more national chains are popping up every year. (Not surprising given the surge in commercial rents!). Opportunities for some really amazing loft conversions were thrown away here in recent years with the demolition of some long standing industrial spaces.

The Real Estate Scoop

This ‘hood is home to some of the sweetest (pun intended) Toronto lofts — we’re looking at you Candy Factory and Chocolate Company Lofts. These are some of the first Toronto loft conversions and they undoubtedly set the bar for what a loft should look like. They have often been imitated – but rarely replicated – elsewhere in the city. Rare offerings in these buildings are short-lived and sell at a premium. There are very few actual houses remaining today within the most commonly accepted borders of this neighbourhood (i.e. south of Queen). While there are a smattering along bordering Shaw Street as well as Dovercourt, much of the industrial conversion that has occurred in this area has been filled with higher density stacked townhomes, and the wealth of new condo construction that lines both King Street, Queen Street and both sides of the Rail Corridor that diagonally dissects the area.

Most of the industrial spaces that lingered into the late ’90s are now gone and have been replaced with thousands of condo units that have been completed in the last two decades. The size and price point of many of these units have led to a sharp increase in the population of the area, which explains the equally sharp increase in the number of bars and restaurants that have taken over the Queen Street frontage (despite the sharp increases in commercial rents!).

People move here for the lifestyle. Shopping, gallery-hopping (though the number of them has shrunk significantly in the last couple of years, a result of the aforementioned increases in rent), and nightlife are everywhere – no wonder, given the saturation of “hallmarks of hipness” as Vogue put it.

Schools

The best options are in neighbouring Niagara, Parkdale and Beaconsfield, including Alexander Muir/Gladstone and Givins/Shaw, both just north of Queen Street.

PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Niagara St Jr Public School
Givins/Shaw Junior Public School
Parkdale Junior and Senior Public School
Alexander Muir/Gladstone Ave Junior and Senior Public School

Transit

You’re pretty much surrounded by 24-hour streetcars, although you’re not super close to the subway. 97 on the Walkscore, 100 on the Transit Score. Drivers are very close to major arteries in and out of the city. Not too shabby if we do say so ourselves!