University

Around the Neighbourhood

Cultural landmarks: the Royal Ontario Museum at Bloor and Avenue Road, the Royal Conservatory of Music and its Koerner Hall, and the University of Toronto itself, from Hart House and Convocation Hall to the Ontario Legislature at Queen’s Park.

Hot local spots: Harbord Street is the eating strip, with The Harbord House pub, Parquet on its corner at 97 Harbord, Rasa just off it on Robert Street, and the longtime Harbord Bakery for challah and blueberry buns. Kensington Market’s cafes and stalls sit a block southwest.

Parks & green space: Queen’s Park, the leafy oval behind the Legislature, plus Philosopher’s Walk winding up beside the ROM and the open green of King’s College Circle on campus.

Your Typical Neighbour

This is a young, transient, highly educated neighbourhood shaped by the university. A large share of residents are students and young renters living near campus, with education levels among the highest in the city and a very international population. Layered on top is the settled, professional community of Harbord Village, many of them U of T faculty who own the century houses west of campus. Rental tenure dominates near the university; ownership concentrates in the Harbord Village house stock. It’s less a family enclave than a place people pass through on the way to a degree, with a stable professional core anchoring the residential streets.

Source: City of Toronto Neighbourhood Profile, University (Neighbourhood #79), 2021 Census

What We Love

The location is unrepeatable. You’re inside the university, next to the ROM and the Conservatory, a block from Kensington Market and on a subway line, with Harbord Street’s small restaurants at the door. Harbord Village is a genuine surprise: quiet, leafy and residential in the middle of all that institutional energy, with handsome century houses and small parks. For anyone who wants to live in the cultural and academic heart of Toronto and walk to nearly everything, few neighbourhoods deliver more.

What We Don’t Love

It’s the university’s neighbourhood first and yours second. Term brings crowds, turnover and a lot of student rentals, and the institutional footprint, hospitals, campus buildings, the Legislature, means big stretches that don’t feel residential at all. Parking is scarce and expensive, some of the rental housing near campus is tired, and the summer emptying-out can make parts of it feel quiet in a hollow way. It’s central and convenient, not calm.

Real Estate

Two markets share the neighbourhood. Near campus it’s condos, lofts and purpose-built rentals, with strong, steady student demand that makes the area a perennial for investors. West of campus, Harbord Village is a tight grid of Victorian and Edwardian semis and the occasional detached, well-kept and long held by professionals and faculty, and priced accordingly. Inventory on the house side is thin and rarely cheap; the condo side offers more choice and the more attainable entry points. New to the market? Start with our First-Time Buyer guide.

(Current prices and days on market appear in the live statistics block below, updated quarterly.)

Schools

If you kid(s) aren’t  old enough to attend the University of Toronto just yet, there are great public and private school options nearby.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Lord Lansdowne Junior Public School
Collège français secondaire
École élémentaire Gabrielle-Roy
Kensington Community School
King Edward Junior and Senior Public School
Jesse Ketchum Junior and Senior Public School
Huron Street Junior Public School

SENIOR SCHOOLS

Central Technical School
Jarvis Collegiate Institute
Harbord Collegiate Institute

PRIVATE & CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School
École élémentaire catholique du Sacré-Coeur
St. Bruno/St. Raymond Catholic School

For school rankings and Fraser Institute scores, see our interactive Toronto school map.

Transit

Transit here is a strength. Line 1 (Yonge-University) runs down the east edge with Museum and Queen’s Park stations, Line 2 (Bloor-Danforth) crosses the top with St. George and Spadina, and the 506 College and 510 Spadina streetcars frame the south and west. Most residents walk or ride; drivers reach the Gardiner via Spadina but contend with downtown congestion the whole way.