840 Richmond St. W., Toronto<\/p>\n
Asking price: $2,999,800<\/p>\n
Taxes: $10,594.92 (2025)<\/p>\n
Lot size: 15.5 by 100.7 feet<\/p>\n
Listing agent: Merrick Bao, Re\/Max Hallmark York Group Realty Ltd. <\/p>\n
The backstory<\/p>\n
Parents want the best for their children, and as home values have risen in Canada the bank of mom and dad has been called upon many times to help kids find a home.<\/p>\n
Some folks had a head start on this concept, among them Chinese nationals who saw Canadian schools as a pathway to opportunity for their children. When Feng Liu visited Canada in 1994, as a translator for his boss, he was impressed by what he saw. When his English-teaching business began to grow in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning, he and his wife decided to see if their son could thrive in Canada. <\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Just inside the door, the main window is a slider, allowing a little indoor-outdoor living.Evereal Studio Inc<\/p>\n \u201cMany people want to come out from China and experience overseas life,\u201d said Mr. Liu. \u201cLearning English is like a life change.\u201d<\/p>\n They bought their first property in Toronto \u2013 a condo on the northern edge of the city \u2013 in 2012, and enrolled their son in a local high school. They could only visit a few times a year, typically for important holidays. \u201cWe don\u2019t have any relatives or friends here; it was hard for him,\u201d Mr. Liu said. <\/p>\n After high school, the next step was a Canadian university, and while they wanted something close to the school, they didn\u2019t want another condo. They wanted more space for their visits. So they bought a recently built three-bedroom house on Richmond Street West. It became their son\u2019s home base for his university years.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n The front room is dominated by a wall of built-in, floor-to-ceiling walnut storage cabinets.Evereal Studio Inc<\/p>\n The house today<\/p>\n Much of downtown Richmond Street West remains commercial, but this stretch has a mix of townhouses (there\u2019s one next door), semi-detached and row houses and low-rise office and retail (next door on the other side). It\u2019s close to where Richmond Street terminates in the mainly residential area just north of Stanley Park.<\/p>\n The four-level house is tall and narrow, with grey brick on the upper levels and lots of windows in front. Just inside the door, the main window is a slider, allowing a little indoor-outdoor living.<\/p>\n This front room is dominated by a wall of built-in, floor-to-ceiling walnut storage cabinets. There is broad-plank white oak flooring that extends through this level and down the stairs to the main living area. The floor is currently configured to have an office space just behind the front room.<\/p>\n