Cheapest detached house in Toronto draws 29 offers, goes $512,000 over asking

Owning a house in Toronto is far out of reach for most would-be buyers, and when the cheapest detached house available in the city is listed for nearly $800,000, it’s not hard to see why.

And when that same house sells for $512,000 over asking, things become even more clear.

The home, located at 70 Moberly Avenue in Toronto’s East Danforth neighbourhood, is a two-storey house with three bedrooms and one bathroom. It hit the market with an asking price of $799,000, making it the lowest-priced detached house listing in Toronto at the time. Just days later, it sold for $1,311,000.

RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd.

Listing agent Ken McDonald said that offer night brought in a staggering 29 offers from people all across the province.

“There were people from, you know, Oshawa that contacted me, from up north to the west end of the city,” McDonald told Daily Hive. “So instead of having just regional and local interest, I got more than regional interest.”

Although the listing was intentionally priced low, McDonald says he was not expecting it to go as high as it did, initially anticipating a sale in the $1.1-1.2 million range.

“It’s hard to predict the future, what the actions are or what other people will do, it’s very hard,” McDonald said. “But one thing is — we hear this over and over again — we don’t have enough listings. And in this particular week, there were very few listings, so if there had been another detached available for sale at a reasonable price, it would have split the interest, so there was some good luck there too.”

RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd.

The lot that the house sits on is relatively narrow, spanning just 21 feet across, but it does stretch back 100 feet, giving the house a decently-sized backyard — a hot commodity in Toronto.

As to be expected, being the cheapest house on the Toronto market, it’s in need of some TLC and modernizations. The listing pictures reveal a plethora of old-school wallpaper, carpeted floors, scuffed-up hardwood, retro tiles, and an unfinished basement.

“Although it’s tired and it needs work, the layout was actually — you can’t mathematically get a better layout,” McDonald said. “So the work that needs to be done is all topical — it’s new paint and flooring and potlights and this kind of stuff. It’s not moving walls and reengineering the structure of the house.”

RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd.

The house is in a desirable location, just off Danforth Avenue and all the shops it has to offer, and it’s just one street over from East Lynn Park, which has a wading pool and playground.

RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd.

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RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd.

Although there’s plenty of uncertainty when it comes to Toronto real estate, one thing’s for sure: it’s still very much a seller’s market.