Toronto's Abandoned Mansions

my name is jake williams [Music] i grew up in a somewhat small town just outside of niagara falls called welland i was across the lake from one of north america's largest cities to me toronto was an ever-growing skyline of wealth and power a bustling city that seemed like canada's epicenter for everything interesting but as i grew up and moved just outside the city i learned that living there came at a cost quite a large one in fact for over a decade the city has been going through unbelievable growth trying to keep up with the immense demand new developments quickly became investments and often places to hide dirty money from foreign buyers that drove up the prices but despite all of this real estate being built as quickly as possible it might shock you to learn that there are hundreds of abandoned homes and mansions all across the city of toronto so come along with me as we explore these unbelievable properties the greed that fuels modern day development and the extraordinary people we meet along the way this is toronto's abandoned mansions good evening uh mayor members of council thank you for braving the weather to come out tonight and allowing me the opportunity to speak what we see here is the proposed plan of subdivision overlaid on the air on an aerial photo of the area and as you can see we are in essence putting one of the last pieces in the puzzle for this area our journey begins in richmond hill an up-and-coming wealthy leaning municipality of toronto this home was likely built in the 1970s and it featured an indoor pool a huge luxury especially in the time over the years the surrounding area was bought up and sold to developers for luxury single-family homes in 2011 the local average price per square foot was 238 today it's over 520 this home is on yet another parcel of land to be developed into 13 new detached homes the property was purchased by the developer and left in a state of limbo until they got their approval for new construction but unexpectedly when we got inside we soon concluded that we weren't alone okay seems like a nice guy was that an intercom over here radio control yeah oh yeah it's still this is a relatively nice kitchen looks like it was built in the 90s 90s or 80s would you say uh ethan are you probably late oh yeah you think ladies yeah yeah this um the cardboard countertop yeah it's a it's the fake countertop food counter right do you think it's too expensive for for most people to afford yeah it's too expensive for most people i'm telling you like like me alone because i i google a house around here they told me uh uh one thousand eight hundred it's a basement just for basement parts yeah yeah yeah it has everything right but that one is too much for me i can i can't even make 1800 for the month right yeah you'd be paying instead of let me just wait here until a honey cheap place yeah even in this fight okay yeah well it doesn't make things easier when all the rent is super high yeah like here you're across the street from homes that are millions of dollars oh yeah even this summer i mean i you don't know how much the property is but i mean it's it's the least there's a million yeah oh yeah look at texture with the material right those are all money though this is artwork this this artwork alone bro i do painting too i do portraits this artwork alone bro right this alone bro if i do this sad big money you do you paint i think bro you have any of your work yeah yeah let me take a look i'm gonna say okay that's why i just do like let me just yeah that's awesome oh these are cool these are awesome did you paint all of these here yeah that's why i like this place because it's lonely right yeah yeah yeah right the kind gentleman that we chatted with asked us to blur his face for what he said was out of shame shame that he couldn't afford to live in an area and resorted to take refuge inside an abandoned home a building that was purposely abandoned for the sole reason to demolish and build luxury homes on and that trend continues as we travel south towards the city build your dream mansion across from bridalpath an exceptional opportunity to own a prestigious address and magnificent king's lot that's an excerpt straight from the real estate listing for the property it is currently listed for 5.28 million dollars man this is weird this is a nice home it's a lot bigger than it looks it does yeah yes this was remodeled relatively soon too or relatively crazy wow man look at this gorgeous window that's hot up here double door here oh i got a fireplace there too oh nice oh this is beautiful genuinely this is really beautiful oh my god what it's just so rich wow very large they're gonna do a vanity too it's like all gold yeah this looks like a gold flakes yeah gold flaking wow this is one this is really nice actually the backyard here is covered in work walls and that's because there's another brand new monster house being built right over here oh do you think they severed their lot they might they may have there's a pool on your left too yeah this backyard would have been really nice actually got a pool it's kind of out of view here this looks like it was a step up according to real estate records the property was sold in 2016 for 3.8 million dollars the previous owners appeared to have sold their home to a developer since that 2016 selling date the home has been left dormant and unmaintained that's pretty surprising since the over 4 000 square foot home looks to be recently remodeled with seemingly brand new floors however the signs out front indicate something much larger and more lavish is planned for the property but i guess after all this is the magnificent king lot that you can build your dream mansion across from bridalpath on which speaking [Music] of one of if not the most expensive and affluent neighborhoods in toronto perhaps even canada is bridal path the average home price here is 2.24 million dollars with homes listed for sale here well over 15 million dollars there's even one estate listed for 32 million dollars it's where famous business people like robert herchevek reside or perhaps more notably this guy it's a residential construction site like no other this 35 000 square foot mansion on two acres in the bridal path is the future home of drake yes that's drake but what may shock you about such a posh prestigious neighborhood is that there are multiple abandoned properties intermixed for one reason or another some were purchased for the sole reason to be demolished and built upon like drake's house but most are just in limbo unable to be sold for one reason or another just eight doors down from the famous rapper's home is this property last listed for sale in 2014 for 6.4 million dollars it's 8 000 square feet has 5 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms plus an indoor pool holy crap oh my god [Music] uh this home is interesting it was built in the late 1970s and was sold in 1988 for almost 3 million since it has gone through multiple owners until the early 2000s when it was purchased by a couple who practiced in the medical field they stayed until around 2013 when the family moved to a larger home what no way oh the bathroom still has power oh my god that's wild how can that be got to be kidding me there's still power in this building all the water damage i haven't cut the power like usually this place the power's the first thing to go wow look who's paying the power bill here that is unbelievable look at the damage this building's gonna go up in flames oh this house is just soaked in water look at the roofs they're all about to collapse oh spider webs everywhere man the water damage coming down from the ceiling on the green moss holy smokes wow this is a deep pool it's awesome yeah expensive as well how expensive do you think this was uh to lay all this cement it looks like it's about 10 footer this is probably going to be 65 grand do you think 65 grand to put this in oh yeah just the just the foundation of the pool not the structure itself no ventilation just the cement which is curiously made of wood too yeah looks like a dead rat man and this staircase is something else i have my mask on now because it's pretty bad up here truthfully it's pretty bad everywhere in this house but especially up here and it's hot oh look at this wow sauna in there this is right out of the 80s that's for sure man oh man oh yeah look at the roof it's completely cracked the roof is gone i think this house is right next oh man good lord i can't believe this house is in this condition on one of the most expensive neighborhoods in north america the property failed to sell at auction in 2012 with no one willing to put up the 5 million reserve and after no buyers were found in 2014 the mansion just sat vacant oh yeah look at the wine cellar in there man oh man yeah i know it's like medieval themes this place used to be i guess yeah like many other estates that just sit in limbo around toronto it's unknown what the future may hold in my opinion though i think this building is too far gone and eventually someone will tear it down and probably build something even bigger and more expensive our final location brings us to york mills much like the other neighborhoods we visited it too is up and coming for the wealthy however this property is unique in that it has been for the rich much longer than pretty much anything else in the area this astonishing mansion was built in 1897. it's three floors high has six bedrooms and seven bathrooms it was owned by a prestigious doctor until his death at 97. the home was then put up for sale and marketed as a development opportunity at 6.6 million dollars whole flea smokes this is gorgeous this has been sitting for a while look at the the water damage this looks like the formal dining room this home was very old just by the the heaters i wonder oh oh my god this building has power unbelievable [Music] the property was eventually sold in 2018 to most likely a developer and given its uniquely large landslot the home will likely be torn down and the property divided up into two or three parcels of land for luxury mansions oh man this is huge yeah these rooms are gorgeous just the curvature in the it looks like all the some of the bedrooms at least had fireplaces oh this is like an independent study or something off the main bedroom i take it that this was the master i took it at the master because uh the grates are actually covered oh yeah good point and it's got its own bathroom this is the dressing room whoa the dressing room connects to the bathroom june 1988 the wallpaper so i'm assuming when they put their wallpaper in they made a a note on the side of when it was installed and what type of paper it was so they remember that's cool that is made in england look at these this looks like an original too whatever it is there's no artist's signature this doesn't look like an original but this is so cool oh yeah just this whole carpet is like the yellow out of this radiators like it would have cost so much to heat this house oh yeah probably every single room what's cool about this area this is on the third floor is that this was probably when it was built at least the servant's quarters where they slept i could be wrong but i think so what are you thinking brad i'm getting like uplands vibes yeah i know this definitely was the servant's quarters back when this was like an old traditional style home yeah wow wait look at that industrial fan yeah in the corner there that's crazy that's that's their revolutionized ac that was retrofitted whenever you know they they did their things you could see that this is all uh filled with cork on the one side of the door so it's uh is it yeah oh yeah it's um yes keep the noise there there's one bulb still on that's creepy there's an old ball it has instructions to open using the star as an indicator crappily turn dial counter clockwise past the number 100 for complete times turn dial and then you move the handle open the safe built by jp taylor limited toronto canada that's all that's very old this is like solid iron yeah do not close door it will lock it in there here's the master key i think too yeah i think you're right and then there's all they're protecting is some antifreeze you can see your breath down here yeah the temperature change is so dramatic i'd say all right i think it's time to get out of here [Music] toronto is going through an unprecedented development boom every week it seems like a new condo tower is announced often shattering records and building taller condos which are often bought up by foreign buyers mainly from china it drives up the cost of living from people who don't even intend on using their condo unit instead they wait until it appreciates then sells it off but this film isn't really about the condo boom it's further north into the suburbs something that is prevalent there too but actually has a different problem the sheer unaffordability of housing every single neighborhood we visited has nothing for rent under 2 000 a month now sure that's cherry-picking the wealthiest areas but what shocked me about all of this is how much is just sitting empty and abandoned bayview avenue a huge up-and-coming thoroughfare connecting some of the areas we showed is the most egregious example of this there are many more than 15 homes left empty and abandoned in some cases for years until a developer starts construction for such a wealthy area it's quite staggering to see so much blight on the streets the avenue is dotted with city notice signs for development in front of normal and in some cases relatively new homes and what they're building isn't exactly affordable housing obviously building luxury residences isn't a crime and i'm not saying it is but i think when communities over a rather short amount of time transition into the ultra rich area it was never intended to be has its consequences it puts up a barrier for most people these small homes on bayview are planned to turn into town homes with a starting price of 2 million dollars all while the regular single-family homes behind the billboards sit abandoned this staggering wealth and equality is evident in the thousands of homeless people across the city of toronto some even hiding in plain sight that's not to say the city isn't making an effort though while detached housing in the area under 800 000 is hard to find the city is laying out a plan for affordable housing on the other side of canada vancouver passed a law installing attacks on all foreign real estate purchases in the city many are imploring toronto to do the same despite whatever you may think new development does breathe life into a community it for the most part benefits the families who invested into their homes decades ago and arguably makes the city a nicer looking place when the former buildings they buy are actually demolished development is progress the question is is this progress in the right direction [Music] you

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 773,513

Rating: 4.9181399 out of 5

Keywords: TORONTO ABANDONED MANSIONS, welland, skyline b-roll, city streets, drone, abandoned homes, abandoned celebrity home, mansions, toronto, niagara, toronto abandoned, canada abandoned, abandoned million dollar, creepy home, PG, claen, full documentary, short documentary, 4K, 1800s abandoned home, urbex, abandoned places, new developments, demolition, interview, indoor pool, with power, interesting, 2020, 2021, North York, modern home, real estate, bright sun films, Jake williams

Id: x-pr7gNf3CE

Length: 27min 17sec (1637 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 14 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/hellokrissi]

I'm absolutely fascinated by abandoned houses. This was a pretty interesting watch - especially with the first house. Thanks for sharing. :O

[u/bureX]

How... Who... What?

How does any of this make sense? Recently renovated luxury houses in decay? Who bought these things and why did it make sense to let these properties rot? So many questions...

Also, all of these buildings with power still running in them and so much crap happening in there makes me think all of these places are fire hazards. The circuit breaker may pop in the best case, buuuut...

[u/North416er]

Welcome to North York. Just doing an evening stroll around Doris/Willowdale area, you can count more than 10 of these easily This is unfair to those of us that can't afford housing despite having relatively decent incomes. Probably the same people/org that owns have my condo building.

[u/tercet]

Of the 50~ 10M+ Properties in Bridle Path I would guess 5 are completely abandoned/slated for demo like house 2 in this video, and maybe another 5-10 are empty in good shape trying to get new owners.

I used to live near the 3rd house in this video, never knew it was in such bad shape, haha

[u/motlumn]

Very cool, thanks for sharing. Sad to see some places totally ruined because the roof got old.

[u/PicoPixie]

Are these places STILL abandoned? It seems like they filmed this before the pandemic of something.

Thinking of taking a shot to bridle path to scope it out and find a good photogenic place.

[u/DaveKLR]

So sell me one of these places for 500K and I'll fixer up.

[u/Ontario0000]

Lots of these places are empty the owner has no will when they passed away,will is being contested,title of the property is unknown or incomplete or the owner so rich they forgot about it.

[u/murd3rsaurus]

Neat, thanks