Neighbourhoods / Little India
Little India
Gerrard Street East in full colour — sari shops, sweet counters, charcoal smoke on the sidewalk, and some of the best-value houses this close to downtown.
Eat this first: Chaat from a counter, then kulfi eaten walking east along Gerrard
Little India at a glance
Character
The Gerrard India Bazaar is the largest South Asian market street in North America, and walking it on a Saturday is the single best argument I can make for this city's food. Sari shops sit beside sweet counters stacked with barfi and jalebi, charcoal smoke drifts out of tandoor kitchens onto the sidewalk, and the whole strip runs late into the evening.
Off the main street it is a quiet, established residential neighbourhood — Victorian and Edwardian semis on deep lots, mature trees, and a mix of families who have been here for decades alongside newer arrivals priced out of Riverdale and Leslieville.
It is also, to my eye, the most underrated address in the east end. You are ten minutes from the Don Valley Parkway, twenty from downtown, a short ride from the beaches, and living on top of a food street that people drive across the region to visit.
Housing stock
Victorian and Edwardian semis and rowhouses dominate, many on unusually deep lots with rear-lane access — which matters both for parking and for garden-suite potential.
Homes here are frequently two storeys with two to four bedrooms and a finished basement, and a meaningful share carry a legal or long-standing second unit.
Value remains strong relative to neighbourhoods a few blocks west, but the gap has narrowed each year as buyers work their way east along the Carlton streetcar.
Getting around
The 506 Carlton streetcar runs the length of Gerrard and connects directly to College Street and the downtown core; Coxwell and Greenwood stations on Line 2 are a short bus ride north.
Drivers reach the Don Valley Parkway or Lake Shore Boulevard in under ten minutes, which makes this one of the easier east-end neighbourhoods to leave the city from on a Friday afternoon.
Who it suits
- Buyers who want the most house they can get within a short ride of downtown, and who will actually use the street they live on.
- Households looking for a property with a second unit or garden-suite potential to help carry the mortgage.
- Anyone whose weekends revolve around cooking — this is the best grocery street in the east end by a wide margin.
Eat your way somewhere else
Curious whether Little India fits your life?
Tell me how you live and I will tell you honestly whether these streets match — and where else to look if they do not.