Housing in Birchcliffe-Cliffside, Toronto

Birchcliffe-Cliffside is half detached houses, and most of its housing predates 1961, on lots that are generous by city standards, which is why so much of it is being torn down and rebuilt. Buying here often means choosing between a small original house on a big lot and a new build on the lot beside it, and those two are valued on completely different things.

Arts and Crafts houses with deep eaves, set back from the street

A grass bank running down to the shore of Lake Ontario

A residential street of detached houses under mature trees

Houses on Victoria Park AvenueDillan Payne, CC BY-SA 4.0
The lake shore by the R.C. Harris plantDillan Payne, CC BY-SA 4.0
Victoria Park AvenueDillan Payne, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photographs from Wikimedia Commons, used under the licence shown with each one. A photograph is here because it was taken inside this neighbourhood's boundary or because its own page names this neighbourhood or its main street, and because somebody looked at it.

Birchcliffe-Cliffside, among Toronto's 158 neighbourhoodsExplore on Google Maps

People: 22,700
Households: 9,620
Median dwelling value: $1M
Median household income: $90K

What stands out about Birchcliffe-Cliffside

51% of its dwellings are detached houses, higher than the middle of Toronto's 158 neighbourhoods at 26%.
57% of its housing was built before 1961, higher than the middle of Toronto's 158 neighbourhoods at 29%.
14% of its dwellings are in buildings of five storeys or more, lower than the middle of Toronto's 158 neighbourhoods at 36%.
34% of its households rent, lower than the middle of Toronto's 158 neighbourhoods at 46%.

What is built here

Detached house: 51%4,940
Semi-detached house: 5%440
Duplex: 8%805
Apartment, under five storeys: 21%2,015
Apartment, five storeys or more: 14%1,345

And how many bedrooms it has

One bedroom: 17%1,670
Two bedrooms: 30%2,910
Three bedrooms: 30%2,890
Four or more bedrooms: 20%1,955

When it was built

The most useful line on this page. Almost everything a home inspection turns up in Toronto is a function of the decade the house went up in, and so is most of what an insurer asks about.

1960 or before: 57%5,495
1961 to 1980: 18%1,760
1981 to 2000: 12%1,110
2001 to 2010: 4%345
2011 to 2021: 9%910

What to check before you buy in Birchcliffe-Cliffside

Raised by the housing stock above, not by any particular house. Each one is a question to ask rather than a problem to expect.

Wiring, and what the insurer will say about itA large share of the housing here was built before 1961, which is the stock where knob and tube wiring turns up. Some insurers will not bind a policy on it, and finding that out after the offer is firm is expensive. Ask what the panel is, whether the house has been rewired, and get the answer before the financing condition comes off.
The supply line into the houseHouses of this age often still have the original galvanized supply line, which narrows with age and shows up as poor pressure upstairs. Replacing it is a road cut and a permit, not an afternoon. Run a tap on the top floor while something else is running downstairs.
What was added, and whether it was permittedIn a neighbourhood this detached, a large share of the houses have been added to or finished below grade at some point. The City's building records will say what was permitted. An unpermitted addition is not automatically a problem to walk away from, but it is a problem to know about rather than inherit.

What it costs to live here

Owner monthly shelter cost: $1,780
Renter monthly shelter cost: $1,200
Owners with a mortgage: 59%
Households renting: 34%

Shelter cost is the census measure: for an owner it is the mortgage payment, property taxes, condominium fees and utilities together, and for a renter it is rent and utilities. These are medians from 2021, so read them as the shape of the place rather than as a quote.

How people get to work

Car, truck or van: 70%4,475
Public transit: 19%1,190
Walked: 5%320
Bicycle: 1%85

Where these numbers come from

2021 Census of Population, Statistics Canada, tabulated by the City of Toronto Open Data as Neighbourhood Profiles, with neighbourhood names and boundaries from Neighbourhoods. Retrieved September 18, 2026. The City publishes both packages with their licence recorded as "License not specified".

These are aggregate figures for a whole neighbourhood from a census taken in 2021, so they lag the market and they describe no individual home. Housey is not a real estate board and this is not MLS data: for what a specific house is worth today, ask a realtor.