Finch and Bathust vs. Don Mills and Eglinton for condo

I'm assuming the building on Finch that you are referring to has the cafe on the main floor, and the rest of the retail units are empty -except for the last one on the other side which has the gaming place.
I always thought that would be a good place to live, for all the reasons you said. They were selling the second floor units as offices (not sure if that is the case now), and god knows what could go in there - massage places or whatnot, so you may get some undesireables roaming around or just a steady stream of people going in and out all day for whatever reason. But I think there is a separate, keyed elevator for the residential units, IIRC. There is no shopping unless you walk to Bathurst - probably 10 min. On the plus side, you are correct in that Finch between Bathurst and Yonge is being re-developed with all those single family homes going or will be going soon and townhouses/stacked townhouses in their place. As well as a couple of the low-rise apt. buildings on the north side are also going... The bus service and overcrowding has improved with the addition of the express service (which you won't be able to use unless you walk over to Bathurst).
If you're looking at not spending a huge amount and don't care that there's no party room or fancy lobby, this building, I would buy in there. I'd think that renting it out would be easy but re-sell, your expecations should be a bit lower but that there is bus service/subway out the door is a huge, huge plus.

I live in that area, ( a little bit more west). I can tell you a few things:
1) whole bunch of houses west of you got bought out for new development about 6 ~ months ago
2) finch road is really bad, lots of potholes, city has yet to update the road
3) there is only one bus that goes east and west on finch. That is the 36. If you are coming back from work, getting onto the 36 realistically is a nightmare, if you are lucky you can hop on pretty quick, but during winters you have to wait outside in the cold, line up and wait for the bus to get on (if you get on the first bus, you may have to wait for the second). If you are so close, the exercise and walk may be better for you. Getting to the station on the 36 is ok, a lot of kids go east on the 36 to go to highschool in the morning but they get off just before finch / bathurst intersection, by the time the bus reaches your area it usually has room for you to get on.
4) next to you, you have the no frills up north of yonge, freshco on steeles and bathurst, Coppa on dufferin. So you are set on grocery stores nearby.
5) The gaming place is pretty new, and those retail spaces have been empty for a while, not a lot of foot traffic at that part so I expect shops to turn over very quickly or stay vacant
6) All in all a nice area, although it is still developing, you wont find a lot of nice garden's / parks in the area but it is still a safe place. No sketch, in a few years once Toronto expands a bit more, I see prices going up in that area.
7) Mostly asians in that area, more Koreans. Some Persians (they are more up north or south though). Some eastern europeans (a bit more west of you).
8) Not sure how accurate this is but a bunch of my buddies joke around about Yonge and Finch being a high area for and I quote "escorts", but that stuff like anything else you have to be actively looking for it to actually see it, but something I thought you might like to know.


There is a condo building a little bit more west just after finch and bathurst that you could check out (10 torresdale avenue). I personally know they take amazing care of that building, it is pretty old and first unit buyers still live there so the age group is around 70+ over there, but more and more you find new couples, young families popping up in there. I would check prices with that place to get an idea of condos in the area.

Wrt your #4 above, there is no shopping that you can realistically walk to and bring home groceries on foot. You need a car to get to all of those stores you mention. You can walk from the this proposed building to the intersection of Finch and Bathurst, but there is no grocery store there any more. They closed the Asian one that was there and it is now a Dollarama. But you do get the benefit of not one, but now two Tim Horton's at that intersection.

I worked at Yonge and Finch for years and never heard anything about escorts. haha. Maybe at 3:00 in the morning (when you should be inside asleep anyways!), but I never saw anything during normal hours. The only thing I noticed that has changed are the huge number of Korean kids who are now living in that neighbourhood They come over here, en masse, to study, but certainly do their fair share of drinking and partying, as can be expected. I see puke on the street every single day walking down to my new office location on Yonge, a few blocks south of Finch.

Anyway, this isn't about Yonge and Finch, and the building that the OP is talking about is far enough away from that interseciton that anything that happens at Y&F wouldn't affect them.

DM & eg is getting the crosstown LRT, should see a lot of growth in the future. Mind you this is probably already priced in so you aren't really getting a deal here but the growth potential is higher in my opinion.

Also I wouldn't personally buy in a 4 story condo, if something goes bad the cost is split over so few units.