Studio on Richmond, Toronto Condo Reviews 

If you’ve never lived in any other buildings it’s easy to try and complain about this building but in my experience, as this is the 5th condo I have lived in downtown it is AMAZING in comparison. Of course, there are occasional issues but that’s always going to happen. I have friends living at the Ritz and the Shang and they have way more issues than we have ever had here. The location is amazing, the elevator wait time is never long unless of course it’s rush hour and there can be a small wait but even through Covid with there only being allowed 2 people in the elevator at once it hasn’t been more than a few minutes. The concierge is very nice and accommodating. The cleaning staff is always cleaning and there are always carpet lines in the hallways. I have no complaints about this building. Not having free visitor parking but that’s how all the buildings being built now are. The city is making builders “donate” parking for the public as the city grows so not really a way around that. Anyone who gets to live here will be more than pleased

I lived in a studio for a year. At first, the building and my unit were okay. But after the first 2 months, I noticed the quality of things in comparison to friends places in different buildings. I never got hot water or cold water in the kitchen sink, only lukewarm. The hot water in the last 6 months has been malfunctioning, so I've had cold showers 30% of the time, and sometimes no water at all. The elevators are EXTREMELY SLOW and the wait can range from 5-20min. The garbage disposal is also out of service 50% of the time, and always has an awful odour that you can smell before even opening the door. I would not recommend living here.

This rating is for Studio 1, not Studio 2. Pros: Layouts are nicely designed and spacious. The design is modern. The walls are thick, even if my next-door neighbour is having a party I cannot hear it! It's very quiet. Only if people are stomping above you, then you will hear it. I think the side walls sound insulation is better than above and below. Excellent location, unbeatable really. 1 minute away from Osgoode subway station and the Path to walk underground. I really enjoy the hot tub and sauna amenities. Just that alone is worth paying some of the maintenance fees. Property management is ok, they seem to somewhat care. I find the assistant's to always be rude and just want to get work done. The property manager though seems to care. The concierge is generally friendly. The supervisor concierge is very accountable and takes her job seriously. Could be my floor, but it's generally quiet and have no issues with the residents on my floor. The building allows for Airbnb, but at this time, there are more long term tenants than airbnbers. Cons: The fire alarm system is shared with the other studio building. This means that if the alarm goes off at another building, it will sound in your building. No visitor parking. Underground parking in the building is very expensive. I always recommend visitors to park elsewhere since it's expensive to park within this building. A lot of young people in the building, a lot of renters and some airbnbers (not too many airbnb units though, mostly renters) who do not care. They leave garbage in the hallways, garbage on the floor in the garbage rooms, the garbage chute is frequently down. People keep on throwing cigarette butts off of their balconies and burning people's balcony furniture (although this happens in every condo). People just don't listen. Good luck if you live on the north side of the building. There's a dance studio which place loud music. Residents living on the other sides of the building do not hear the music. Maintenance fees are high and there's been a huge jump over the years. Not sure what has been happening with the hot water issues. Seems to have issues every 1-2 months. Hope they fix it. Not enough elevators for the building. If you are on a higher floor where you cannot take the stairs, except for long waits, especially during rush hour. You can easily add 5-10 minutes to wait each time you use it during rush hour. Since there are a lot of renters, the moving elevator is out of service frequently. This leaves only 2 elevators in service. The yoga room is a challenge since you cannot practice dance/fitness, anything that involves any jumping due to residents living underneath. The yoga room should have been designed on the main floor with no one living underneath. If you have a locker in P1, good luck. It's known to be flooded in, and lots of theft issues. Lockers on other floors (P2 and lower) tend to not have any issues with theft and flooding. Parcels are no longer fully managed by the concierge as they installed the Parcel Locker, which cost us additional maintenance fees. They tried to charge us $1/parcel to receive each parcel, but the owners fought this, so they rented out the parcel locker. Better than having to pay per parcel, but the parcel room should have been designed larger for more storage.

Pros: Decent layouts, places look nice decent amenities (though on BBQ is always broken, hot tubs are only open in summer, the gym is too hot, in my opinion). Convenient location (obviously). Fairly secure bike lock area in the underground parking. Cons: Elevators break constantly - I was stuck in one for 20 minutes once. Elevators are also quite slow. There is only a tight hallway to get to the elevators and there is often a long line-up of people, leading to crowding - poor design, in my opinion. Lots of issues with hot water - seems to mostly affect the upper floors (something with the pump not being able to get hot water up). Heating and cooling systems seem to break every time the seasons change. Concierge does not accept packages on residents' behalf - have to use Parcel Port, which is not the greatest technology! Storage lockers flood for some reason, I find my condo very dusty all the time (didn't have this issue in other places).

Nothing wrong with any building itself. Concierge and cleaning staffs are super nice and friendly. However, management decides to stop accepting any parcels, they install lockers(small size) for parcel delivery and charge residents $1.05(or1.75) per parcel delivery. The over-sized parcels will not be accommodated. The maintenance fee increased by approximately 10% as well in 2019. I don't understand why I'm paying more maintenance fee and living standard is lowered??? Where does the money go?

I have been living at Studio on Richmond since 2016 and I couldn't be more pleased. Any maintenance issues have been promptly dealt with. The property management team replies within hours (always less than 24 hours). Very courteuous and friendly. Great amenities! I only use this gym and their yoga room. I have no need to have a separate gym membership. Sauna is a nice bonus too. Everything is always empty for the most part. I've been using the sauna almost daily for a year and I always have it to myself. Building is also Air BnB-friendly which is nice.

My thoughts:

-The amenities are great - the 9th floor has a recreational area which includes a lounge, bar, spa, dining/meeting room, billiard room and yoga room. There is also a well-equipped gym on the ground floor.

-The building management is very professional and the building is very well maintained.

-The location is unbeatable; located right at Richmond Street West and University. It's a 30 second walk to Osgoode TTC station on the University line, a 5 minute walk to the underground PATH and about a 15 minute walk to the Eaton Centre.

-The architecture of the building is unique; it doesn't quite look like anything else in Toronto

On the other side, the maintenance fees of $0.55 per square foot is for the condo unit only. It does not include maintenance fees for a parking space ($52.38 per month) and a locker unit ($15.70 per month). So if you if you own a parking space and locker in addition to a unit, the maintenance fee is actually $0.63 per month. This does not include hydro and water, which are metered separately.