Buying in Centretown

Centretown is the grid between Bronson and Elgin, from Laurier Avenue down to the Queensway, the highway Ottawa calls by name and the maps call the 417. Bank Street runs down the middle, Somerset crosses it, and everything you need is inside a fifteen-minute walk: the office, the grocery store, the canal, the train. Condos are most of the sales, between $350K and $650K. The rowhouses and semis on the side streets run $700K to over $1M, and there are far fewer of them than you would expect.

I live in Centretown, and have for the past few years. I have watched it change a little in that time, and it is by far my favourite neighbourhood in Ottawa. I am grateful to live here. I love how close it is to the other core communities, Chinatown, the Glebe, the Market, while still feeling residential in parts. So I know its ebbs and flows from the inside, and that is what this page is.

Homes in Centretown

Two neighbourhoods with one name

People say Centretown and mean different things. East of Elgin, between the street and the canal, is the Golden Triangle: bigger houses, embassies, and prices that belong with the Glebe. West of Bronson is Chinatown and Little Italy, cheaper and changing fast. Centretown proper is what sits between Bronson and Elgin.

It changes north to south too. Above Somerset it is office towers and newer condos, busy at noon and quiet at night. Below Somerset the buildings get lower and the trees get older, and that is where most of the rowhouses are.

The fee is the second price

A two-bedroom in one of the older concrete towers can carry a monthly fee of $700 to $1,000 and up. That sounds bad until you see the unit: 1,100 square feet, a big balcony, and a building that has hopefully already replaced its windows and its garage membrane. The newer towers start lower on smaller units, and the fees climb in the first few years, when the building's budget meets its first engineering audit.

The fee alone will not tell you which is the better deal. The status certificate will: the reserve fund, the most recent engineering study, and whether a special assessment is already on the way. I read every one of these before a client waives a condition, and more than once what was in one has ended the conversation. I wrote a post about why condo fees are high in Ottawa and what a healthy one looks like, if you want the longer version.

Two smaller things that surprise people. A parking spot can be hard to find, is usually a separate line on the listing, and is worth $25K to $45K on its own. A locker matters more than you think in a 650 square foot unit, though those are easier to find if you need one.

What a 1910 rowhouse asks of you

The rowhouses are the same age as the Glebe's, with the same list: knob-and-tube or aluminum wiring, a stone foundation and whether the basement is dry, the roof, the windows, the furnace. Any one of them is a $20K to $60K conversation. Most of the roofs here are flat, too, which means more maintenance and more care in checking them. By the way, I also wrote about what a home inspection covers.

Then there are the Centretown extras. In older houses the sound insulation between units is thin; that is true in every older neighbourhood in the city, and Centretown is no exception. There is seldom a driveway, so the car lives on the street with a city permit, or not with you at all. Almost all of these houses have an addition at the back, because they were built small, and you want to know the addition went on properly and with permits. Chimneys are usually not in great shape either. Rebuilding one costs less than you might expect, but it is still a few thousand dollars. And a fair number of these houses were split into two or three units at some point, with or without a permit. The rental income in the listing is only real if the units are legal, so I check.

Bank Street, the Queensway and the noise

The streets closest to the Queensway, Catherine and Arlington especially, hear the highway loudest. Bank and Elgin have bars and patios, the Village on Bank and the Elgin strip are lively late on a Friday and Saturday, and Canada Day fills Elgin. I would still very happily buy on any of these streets. I would just want to know which side of the building the unit faces, which matters more than the floor number. If you can, go back to the address on a Friday at eleven at night and a Tuesday at seven in the morning. Twenty minutes each will tell you more than the listing does.

Getting around

The train is Line 1, at Parliament and Lyon on Queen Street, ten to fifteen minutes on foot from Somerset. Buses run on Bank and Somerset, the O'Connor bike lane runs south into the Glebe, and the Laurier lane takes you east and west. Most of my Centretown clients own a car, but many do not.

Schools are here too, which people forget: Elgin Street and Centennial for the elementary years, Glashan for the middle years, and Lisgar Collegiate by the canal. For parks, Dundonald is on Somerset at Lyon, Jack Purcell is off Elgin, Minto Park is on Elgin at Gilmour, and McNabb, with its arena, is on Percy at Gladstone. The Museum of Nature is on McLeod at Metcalfe.

The offer

You will have different considerations for condos and houses.

In an older building, keep an eye on which major repairs have been done in the last few years. Were the windows replaced? Will the heating and cooling systems need updating soon? Is there anything major coming, like exterior cladding, the roof or the water mains? A newer building is usually less risky. Still keep an eye on the heating and cooling once it is ten to fifteen years old, but your main considerations there will be location, noise, size and amenities, and with amenities, whether you will use them, because you pay for their upkeep either way. Older or newer, review the status certificate.

Houses are usually more competitive here, and they are almost always old. The foundation is likely stone, and stone is not waterproof, so expect some moisture to come through. What you want to be sure of is that the water is manageable, because constant water through a stone foundation is bad for its integrity. Then the electrical, the heating and cooling, and whether any additions were done with permits. Get an inspection from a home inspector who knows Centretown houses. By the way, I also wrote about how offer nights go in Ottawa, if you have never been through one.

One more thing on the house side. The checks on the building are the same as they were, but the new zoning bylaw allows more units on a lot than the old one did, which changes what a builder will pay for it, which changes who you are bidding against.

Who is happy here

First-time buyers who want to walk to work and would rather have the location than the square footage. Public servants, downtown more days than they used to be. Downsizers from the suburbs who want restaurants instead of a lawn. Couples who will keep one car and use it on weekends.

Who is not: anyone who needs two parking spots, though some places do have them, a big yard for a dog, or quiet after ten. Or, put simply, anyone who does not want to live in an active community. Families do live here and make it work. The schools are good, and there is more of a sense of community in Centretown than you might imagine. A good three-bedroom with a yard takes time to find here, and I will tell you that before we commit to a search.

Alternatives worth a look

The Glebe if the budget is bigger and you want a house and a yard. The Golden Triangle if you want the house by the canal and the budget matches. Sandy Hill across the canal, cheaper for a house and full of students. Old Ottawa East, across the canal to the south, quieter and changing fast. Hintonburg for similar walkability with a bit more house and less concrete, quieter, and closer to things like the farmers' market. Chinatown and Little Italy, west of Bronson, for the same condo money with more room.

Selling in Centretown

If you are selling a condo, you are competing with every other unit in your building and the one across the street. The last three sales in your own building set the price, and the neighbourhood average has almost nothing to do with it, because there is so much variety from one building to the next. A rowhouse is scarce, and priced right it will get competition. Ask me for a real number.

A good building at a fair price is one of the better buys in the city. A bad building is a fee you pay every month for years. I will tell you which is which. Tell me your budget and whether you plan to keep a car, and I will tell you where I would start.

Questions I get about Centretown