St. James Town Homes & Real Estate Toronto

When development of St. James Town began, in the second half of the 19th century, this was a sought-after suburban address for upper-middle-class families. Classic Victorian homes lined the streets in the area between Parliament and Sherbourne Streets, bordered in the north by Bloor Street East and by Wellesley in the south. As the city grew, life in the neighbourhood continued largely unchanged for decades... until 1953. Then everything changed dramatically.

With the announcement of major amendments to zoning that greatly increased building density for St. James Town, the community became a hot target for private investors. As the 1950s gave way to the Swinging Sixties, a developer consortium had bought up the neighbourhood’s entire housing stock, every home — and razed them to the ground. Toronto’s first apartment towers would rise in their place.

Today, this is the most densely populated neighbourhood in Canada, with some 17,000 residents occupying almost 7000 units in eighteen towers — fourteen privately owned, and four owned and operated by the public sector.

The original plan was to create a high-rise neighbourhood of young professionals and upwardly-mobile singles, but the plan did not survive its encounter with its market. The apartments themselves lacked appeal for the targeted demographic, and St. James Town soon became home to low-to-moderate income families.

By the 1990s, this once much-desired genteel neighbourhood had become one of the city’s poorest. In 1997, the City took remedial steps and approved A Community Action Plan, St. James Town 2000. The plan’s initiatives included a new multi-service community centre, upgrades to local parks, and the repair and future maintenance of St. James Town buildings.

St. James Town is well served by public transportation, with the Castle Frank and Sherbourne subway stops in walking distance.

For current information on available listings for St. James Town homes and real estate, please see the column at the right of this page. Listings are updated daily, so we recommend that you bookmark this page and check back frequently.