Seaton’s Village Basement Suite

In 2017, C.A decided to build a basement suite under her home in Toronto’s Seaton Village neighbourhood. By renting the two-bedroom unit, C.A not only hoped to finance her home’s mortgage, but also to provide someone—especially a student or a young professional—with a liveable space in one of downtown Toronto’s most desirable communities.

As a single mother, C.A herself has benefited tremendously from Seaton Villages’ close proximity to public transit and other important amenities:

“[Seaton Village] is super convenient. Being a parent, it was really helpful because my kids were at daycare and public school at the same time. Because everything was so close and work was so close, it made it doable. Otherwise, [living downtown] might have been impossible. Just a really convenient location for work, for the kids, for school. There’s restaurants, greengrocers on Bloor, and you don’t have to drive at all.”

Although she completed construction on the basement suite late in 2019 and found a tenant for the space almost immediately, a lengthy and expensive construction process spanning two years presented C.A with significant challenges. Working to address the barriers posed by construction, and increasing the number of qualified builders is key to ensuring equity, affordability, and higher uptake.

“We were living in the home while the work was being done, and it was very disruptive. Work started at 7 am with several workers on site, and was noisy. As the solo parent of two young children, I was busy getting ready for the day in the mornings and by the time I got home from work at 5, the workers had left, which made communication challenging. I think this contributed to the builders feeling like they could take advantage of the situation I was in, which impacted me financially.”

Despite her experience during the construction process, C.A is proud of the finished unit, both for its aesthetic and functional features. And although it is newly built, the rent is rather reasonable for an area otherwise known for becoming increasingly unaffordable in recent years.

“We dug really far down to make sure [the space] was super bright. I wanted large windows, and the benefit of being at the [street’s] edge is I could put windows on all sides of the unit. I started renting the two bedroom unit at $2,500 and then the pandemic hit and my tenant left, and then I rented for $2000. And now it's at $2,500 again.” These numbers seem reasonable compared to the average rent of two-bedroom apartments of C$2773 (as listed on Zumper.com), and the median income in Seaton Village of C$167,014 (Wikipedia contributors, 2023).

C.A isn’t the only one in the neighbourhood who has added density to their home in recent years: Basement suites are popular for many Seaton Village homeowners.

However, as C.A admitted, many Seaton Village residents are often skeptical of added density, especially when it might lead to a shift in the character of a neighbourhood that describes itself as keen to “maintain the feel of a small town village” in the midst of Toronto’s urban landscape. Although the area has been friendly to new basement suites, residents are more skeptical of utilizing the neighbourhood's abundant laneways to add density.

“There is definitely some NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) but I don’t really understand it. They say ‘[additional density] is not with the character [of the neighbourhood], it’s too big’, or whatever. But people recognize that it is nice to add density. I certainly thought about a laneway home in the back, just because it seems like it would be easily doable. However, people are mistakenly concerned about how much light would be lost if this whole laneway was laneway homes, since they think it will block the tree canopy and the sky.”

Ultimately, residents of Seaton Village are adding density to accommodate more people. How the neighbourhood continues to evolve in the future, especially with respect to affordability, remains to be seen.

“The neighbourhood was more affordable when I first moved here, but what's happened with Toronto and most neighbourhoods is that it’s getting pretty gentrified. The houses aren’t massive around here, and that’s kind of maybe kept it a little more affordable. But it's still challenging.”