Buying a condo

A form of ownership, not a building type. You own your unit outright and a share of everything else — lobby, roof, elevators, garage — through the condo corporation. Your monthly fee funds the upkeep of that shared part, and the corporation's rules govern what you can do inside your own unit. Townhouses, lofts and low-rises can all be condos.

Cost of entry, location and less to look after. Condos sit where the density is — near transit, near the core — so they buy you an address a house at the same price could not. You are not organising a roof replacement or shovelling the drive. In exchange you accept a monthly fee, a rulebook and neighbours through the wall.

Mortgage, property tax, insurance for your unit and contents, and the monthly maintenance fee. Ask what the fee includes — heat, water and hydro vary building to building, and a low fee that excludes utilities may be the more expensive one. Fees rise over time; a building holding them artificially flat is usually deferring work it will have to fund later.

Location, layout and the fee first, because those decide whether you enjoy living there. Then the corporation itself: reserve fund balance, any planned special assessment, and whether there is litigation outstanding. All of it is in the status certificate, which your lawyer should review before your conditions come off. A beautiful unit in a badly run corporation is a bad purchase.

Sometimes. They rent readily near transit and employment, and they are the least demanding property to hold at a distance. But the fee is a fixed cost that rises, a special assessment can wipe out a year of profit without warning, and in a building where a hundred units are near-identical, yours competes with all of them on price. Run the numbers on the actual fee, not an assumed one.

Much like a house, with one addition: the lender assesses the building as well as you. A high proportion of rentals, a thin reserve fund or ongoing litigation can affect what a lender will advance. Get a written pre-approval before you shop, and tell your broker it is a condo — finding out at the financing condition is finding out too late.

Your lawyer reviews the status certificate: the declaration and by-laws, the financial statements, the reserve fund study, any special assessment, and any litigation the corporation is involved in. Rules on pets, rentals and short-term letting live there too, and they bind you. We will point you to lawyers who do this work regularly, and the advice is theirs to give, not ours.

By comparing it to what has actually sold in the same building and comparable ones nearby — same tier, same exposure, similar fee — rather than to what is currently listed. Asking prices are opinions; sold prices are evidence. We prepare that comparison before you offer, and where it says the asking price is ahead of the market, that is what we tell you.