Stratford homes for sale and city guide

What kind of housing does Stratford have, and how old is it?

More variety than the villages around it. In the 2021 Census the City of Stratford counted 14,740 occupied private dwellings, and only about half were single-detached houses. One in five households lived in a low-rise apartment, and 815 lived in buildings of five or more storeys, against 35 in St. Marys and none in the Mitchell, Milverton or Listowel population centres. About two in three households owned their home, and roughly 7% lived in a condominium.

The housing is old by Ontario standards. Almost 38% of the city's dwellings predate 1961, 27% went up between 1961 and 1980, and about 18% arrived after 2000, including 960 homes finished between 2016 and 2021 as the population grew 5.6% to 33,232. The City's list of designated heritage properties shows where the oldest houses sit: 55, 88 and 100 Daly Avenue (1874, 1891 and 1896), 50 and 109 Cobourg Street (1873 and 1889), 77 and 129 Brunswick Street (1860s and 1880) and 52 Devon Street, dated 1857. Designation covers those individual properties, not the whole street, so the house next door may carry no heritage status at all.

• Single-detached houses: 52.9% of occupied dwellings
• Apartments in buildings under five storeys: 20.0%
• Semi-detached houses: 10.4%; row houses: 6.3%
• Apartments in buildings of five or more storeys: 5.5%; apartments in a duplex: 4.5%

Those shares come from Statistics Canada's 2021 Census Profile for the City of Stratford. To see what is for sale now, look at the houses listed in Stratford or everything on the market in the city, on a map.

Does heritage status change what you can do with a Stratford house?

It can, and there are three different situations to tell apart. The Stratford City Centre Core is a Heritage Conservation District under the Ontario Heritage Act, and the City requires a heritage permit for any new construction or alteration inside the district or to an individually designated property. The Act's definition of alteration is broad: to change in any manner, including to restore, renovate, repair or disturb. When a demolition, building or sign permit is sought for a designated building, the Heritage Stratford committee is notified immediately.

The third category is lighter: non-designated properties listed on the Municipal Heritage Register. Ask the Building and Planning department which category an address falls into before you firm up an offer.

How are Stratford's public and Catholic schools organized by grade?

The Avon Maitland District School Board splits the public system in three. Its elementary schools in the city run from junior kindergarten to Grade 6: Anne Hathaway Public School at 77 Bruce Street and Bedford Public School at 59 Bedford Drive (both with French Immersion), Avon Public School at 31 Huntingdon Avenue, Hamlet Public School at 315 West Gore Street, Romeo Public School at 49 Rebecca Street and Shakespeare Public School at 35 Mowat Street. Grades 7 and 8 attend Stratford Intermediate School at 60 St. Andrew Street, and Stratford District Secondary School at 428 Forman Avenue covers Grades 9 to 12.

On the Catholic side, the city has St. Aloysius at 228 Avondale Avenue, St. Ambrose at 181 Louise Street and Jeanne Sauvé at 8 Grange Street for the younger grades, and St. Michael Catholic Secondary School at 240 Oakdale Avenue, all Huron-Perth Catholic board schools. For post-secondary, the University of Waterloo's Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business sits at 125 St. Patrick Street. Catchment lines move as enrolment shifts, so check a particular address against both boards' school finders rather than the nearest building.

What is it like to live near the Avon River and Lake Victoria?

The river is the city's front yard. The Avon rises in a field northeast of the village of Shakespeare in Perth East, widens into Lake Victoria in the middle of Stratford, and runs about 37 km in all before joining the North Thames just north of St. Marys. The City describes its park system as roughly 115 acres of formal parkland and 60 acres of natural areas, cut through by Lake Victoria and a nearly 2 km stretch of the Avon, with more than 15 km of trails for walking, running and cycling.

Lake Victoria is used for canoeing, kayaking and paddle boats, and the parks include Upper Queen's Park, Anne Hathaway Park, Dufferin Park, North Shore Park and the T.J. Dolan Natural Area. Lions Pool is the outdoor pool.

How do you get from Stratford to London, Kitchener or Toronto?

By road, Highway 8 enters the city as Huron Street, turns onto Ontario Street and meets Highway 7 at Erie Street, and the two run together east through Shakespeare toward Kitchener. Highway 7 heads the other way, past St. Marys to Highway 4 at Elginfield north of London, while Highway 8 carries on west through Sebringville and Mitchell toward Goderich. Downtown Stratford is about 48 km from the Forks in downtown London as the crow flies.

Rail is the bigger story. The station at 101 Shakespeare Street, one block east of Downie Street, is a VIA Rail stop on the Toronto to Sarnia corridor, in a building the Grand Trunk put up in 1913.

Inside the city, Stratford Transit runs local bus routes, and PC Connect regional buses link Stratford with St. Marys, London and Kitchener-Waterloo. Check current routes and schedules before planning a commute around them.

Which buildings anchor everyday life in Stratford?

Downtown still revolves around its civic buildings. City Hall, opened in 1900 on a triangular square at Wellington and Downie Streets, is a National Historic Site, and the 1887 Perth County Courthouse stands at 1 Huron Street. Stratford Public Library at 19 St. Andrew Street is a Carnegie library that opened in 1903 and was enlarged in 1926 and 1975.

Stratford General Hospital, at 46 General Hospital Drive, is part of the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance. The Festival's other stages are scattered through the core: the Avon Theatre at 99 Downie Street, in use since 1900 and bought by the Festival in 1963; the Studio Theatre at 34 George Street East, opened in 2002; and the 600-seat Tom Patterson Theatre at 111 Lakeside Drive.

What should Stratford buyers check before conditions come off?

Most of the homework here is about heritage, the river and what the lot can hold. We go through these with buyers before conditions are waived, and if you own in Stratford already, our evaluation of your home starts with the same local detail.

• Heritage status: confirm whether the address is inside the City Centre Core district, individually designated, or only listed on the register, since each carries different rules.
• River and floodplain: the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority manages the Avon watershed, and under Ontario Regulation 41/24 a permit can be needed for work in river valleys, floodplains and wetlands. Ask about any lot near the Avon or Lake Victoria.
• Trees: the City's Private Tree Preservation By-law protects larger trees on private property, which matters before an addition or a new driveway.
• Extra units: the City allows additional residential units on many properties, useful if you are weighing an investment property. Confirm what a lot allows with the Planning division first.
• Closing costs: Ontario land transfer tax is due on closing; our land transfer tax calculator shows the figure.