Map 1: Change in Parkdale’s Commercial Property Value

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Since the summer 2012, the Parkdale Community Land Trust working group has been conducting a Community Mapping project. The mapping project aims to document spatially 1) trends in neighbourhood change and 2) future opportunities for the Parkdale CLT group. We are looking at a number of characteristics about Parkdale, and planning to release the outcomes of community mapping project, as they get ready (just like Stats Canada releases their census results incrementally).

The first map is the commercial property value change in Parkdale. Change in property value is often used to gauge the degree of neighbourhood change (see for example Smith 1979). We know, although anecdotally, property values in Parkdale are increasing in response to gentrification. But we don’t know to what extent they have been increasing relative to the city average change. To do so, we first looked at the commercial property values along Queen Street West.  Commercial space in Parkdale has experienced a lot of change as Beyond Bread and Butter and other studies have documented. For this analysis, we used the commercial properties along Queen Street West between Dufferin Street and Roncesvalles Ave as a sample (only the north side of Queen St W used for GIS mapping).  

In 2001, the average (median) commercial property value in Parkdale was $223,500; in 2008 the average value increased by 125% to $504,500. On the other hand, in 2001 the city average commercial property value was $374,000; in 2008 it increased by 87% to $700,000. Of course, the Parkdale’s average property value is still lower than the city average. In terms of the degree of change, however, Parkdale has witnessed a higher rate of change in commercial property values than the city.

Two maps below show the spatial disaggregation of commercial property value changes relative to the city average for the years 2001-2005 and the years 2005-2008. Data from the Property Assessment Rolls show that most commercial properties along Queen St W in Parkdale experienced value increase between 2001 and 2005, but, as the map at the top demonstrates, at the lower rates than the city. The rates of change for most blocks along the north side of Queen St W were  below over 20% (highlighted as dark blue) of  the city average.

The map at the bottom shows change in commercial property values between 2005 and 2008. One big difference is that property values of the east side of Lansdowne Ave increased above the city average. Property values of the west side of Lansdowne were still lagging behind the city average rate, but increased at greater rates than years 2001-2005.

Two interesting observations emerge from this spatial and historical disaggregation. First, it is reasonable to say the commercial property value appreciation in Parkdale is a recent event given decades-long residential gentrification (maybe it would be interesting to see “time lag” when we compare with timing of residential property value appreciation). Second, the property value growth took place to a greater extent in the east side of Lansdowne Ave. This may be explained by that the impacts of changes taking place in West Queen West have been approaching into Parkdale.  

The data used for this mapping is based on the current assessed value in 2008 (phased-in over 4 years). As of 2012, we have seen different types of shops and restaurants have emerged in blocks close to Roncesvalles Ave. When the new assessment becomes available, we may see a bit different picture.

For the next map, we will show change in the number of rooming houses and bachelorettes in Parkdale.

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