Hills of St. Andrew occupies the northwest corner of Aurora, bounded roughly by Bathurst Street to the west, Yonge Street to the east, Orchard Heights Boulevard to the south, and St. John’s Sideroad to the north. The neighbourhood takes its name from St. Andrew’s College, an independent boys boarding and day school that has operated on its 126-acre campus here since 1926. The College is not incidental to the neighbourhood’s character. It is the reason the neighbourhood exists in its current form: large-lot, low-density, heavily treed, with streets that wind up and down the Oak Ridges Moraine terrain rather than conforming to a standard grid.

The topography here is genuinely distinctive within the GTA context. The Oak Ridges Moraine creates rolling landforms that most of York Region flattens through grading during development. In Hills of St. Andrew, that natural profile was largely preserved. Streets curve around the contours of the land, end in quiet cul-de-sacs, and pass through stands of mature trees that predate the residential construction. Willow Farm Lane is the neighbourhood’s signature street, its name a reminder of the agricultural past before the houses came.

The result is a neighbourhood that looks and feels unlike most of Aurora’s other residential areas. This is not a subdivision. The housing here was built across several decades, mostly in the 1970s through 1990s, and the variety of architectural expression reflects that span. Homes range from comfortable family detached houses to custom-built estates on larger lots. The dominant buyer is a family with children, making up 61 percent of households, drawn by the school’s reputation, the trail access to the Oak Ridges Moraine corridor, and the privacy that the neighbourhood’s topography and tree cover create. At an average listing price of $2.1 million and an average sold price of $2.34 million, it is the third most expensive neighbourhood in Aurora.

Hills of St. Andrew is Aurora’s third most expensive neighbourhood, with an average listing price of approximately $2.1 million and an average sold price of approximately $2.34 million. Those figures reflect a 20 percent premium over the Aurora average, which was approximately $1.4 million through 2024. The market here is almost entirely detached houses: current inventory runs to 15 detached homes and one townhome, which means the neighbourhood has no condo component and very limited entry-level options.

Properties sell in roughly 33 days on average, and 28.6 percent of homes sell above asking price, with a 97.8 percent sale-to-list ratio overall. That pace and ratio suggest a market where buyers are competitive but not frantic, and where correctly priced properties move within a month without dramatic overbid situations. The 42.9 percent of homes that sell within 10 days signals that well-presented, accurately priced listings attract early offers. Overpriced listings in this price range tend to sit considerably longer.

The price variation within the neighbourhood is wide. Entry-level detached homes on standard lots from the 1970s and 1980s construction period can be found below $1.5 million when they need significant updating. Fully renovated homes on larger lots with mature landscaping trade in the $2 million to $3 million range. Custom estates on the best streets, with rear lot depth and tree cover, have transacted well above $3 million. Buyers comparing Hills of St. Andrew to nearby Aurora Estates and Bayview Southeast will find different product types: Hills of St. Andrew has more mid-century and 1980s stock where those neighbourhoods lean toward later-period construction. The price premium in Hills of St. Andrew reflects the school adjacency and the Moraine topography as much as the housing itself.

Hills of St. Andrew’s transit situation is one of the neighbourhood’s genuine limitations. The Aurora GO station on Wellington Street East is approximately six kilometres east of the neighbourhood’s interior, which is not a walking distance for most residents. GO Transit serves Aurora primarily from that Wellington Street station, and reaching it from Hills of St. Andrew requires a car or a bus connection. York Region Transit provides bus service along Yonge Street and Bathurst Street on the neighbourhood’s eastern and western borders, and Route 72 on Wellington Street carries service toward the GO station, but the bus connections add time and transfers that make GO a less natural commuter option for Hills of St. Andrew households compared to Bayview Wellington.

By car, the neighbourhood’s highway access is less direct than some might expect. Highway 400, the nearest 400-series highway, is approximately four kilometres west via St. John’s Sideroad or Bloomington Road. Highway 404 is further east, accessible via Wellington Street East or Bloomington Road. Residents heading to Toronto typically travel either south on Yonge Street and merge into the Highway 401 corridor at York Mills, or take local roads to the 404 and head south toward the DVP. Either route involves 45 to 60 minutes of driving in off-peak conditions and longer in peak.

For buyers who drive to work or whose employers are in York Region, King, or Newmarket rather than downtown Toronto, the highway access is adequate. The proximity to King Township to the west and Newmarket to the north means that residents can reach the Hwy 400/404 network within 10 minutes via St. John’s Sideroad or Yonge Street North. The neighbourhood is not well-served by transit in the way that Bayview Wellington or Aurora Village are, and buyers who rely on GO rail should weigh that clearly against the neighbourhood’s other advantages.

The Oak Ridges Moraine forms the physical foundation of Hills of St. Andrew, and it creates green amenity that is different in character from Aurora’s constructed parks. The Moraine is a geological ridge of glacial sediment running east-west across southern Ontario, and the rolling terrain and high water table it creates support woodland and wetland habitats that urban development in flatter areas cannot replicate. The tree cover in Hills of St. Andrew, particularly the mature deciduous canopy along Willow Farm Lane and the streets that follow the natural ridgelines, reflects decades of undisturbed growth on Moraine soils.

The Lakeview Trail and Willow Farm Trail network connects through the neighbourhood and links to the broader Aurora trail system. These are genuine natural trails through wooded terrain rather than asphalt multi-use paths, and the experience of walking them is different from the trail corridors in Aurora’s eastern neighbourhoods. The Oak Ridges Moraine Trail, the longer-distance route that follows the Moraine ridge across York Region, is accessible from the neighbourhood’s northern sections.

St. Andrew’s College occupies 126 acres of the neighbourhood’s interior, and while the campus is private school property, its wooded grounds and playing fields contribute to the green character of the surrounding streets. The College’s presence as an anchor institution means the land it occupies will not be redeveloped for residential use, which is a land-use certainty that residents near the campus can rely on. Commercial amenities within the neighbourhood are minimal. The Yonge Street commercial corridor to the east serves most daily needs, and the Aurora Shopping Centre on Yonge Street is reachable in under 10 minutes by car. For everyday services, residents typically drive to Yonge Street or to Bathurst Street south toward the King/Aurora commercial nodes.

St. Andrew’s College is the dominant educational institution in and around the neighbourhood, but it serves a specific buyer. The College is an independent boys school for Grades 6 through 12 offering both day and boarding options. Founded in 1906 and relocated to its Aurora campus in 1926, it sits on 126 acres within the Hills of St. Andrew neighbourhood boundary. Tuition runs well above $30,000 per year for day students and higher for boarders, which places it beyond the reach of most families even at this neighbourhood’s price point. The families who choose Hills of St. Andrew specifically for the College have typically already made the tuition decision before they buy.

For families whose children attend public schools, the YRDSB elementary school serving most Hills of St. Andrew addresses is Aurora’s northwest catchment schools, with Lester B. Pearson Public School and other northwest Aurora elementaries within a short drive. Secondary school students attend Aurora High School on Bloomington Road, which serves the western Aurora catchment and has a range of academic and applied programming including arts and STEM streams.

Catholic families in the area are served by the York Catholic District School Board. The Catholic elementary and secondary options require bussing or driving from Hills of St. Andrew, as the neighbourhood’s distance from the Yonge Street corridor means Catholic school addresses are not walking-distance options. For families with children at St. Andrew’s College, the school operates its own transportation programs for day students coming from across the region, which reduces the daily logistics burden for parents who do not live immediately adjacent to the campus. The combination of a top-tier independent boys school on the campus and solid public secondary options within Aurora gives Hills of St. Andrew a school picture that few Ontario suburban neighbourhoods can match.

Housing in Hills of St. Andrew was built primarily between the 1970s and the 1990s, which means buyers encounter a range of construction eras on adjacent streets. The earliest homes in the neighbourhood reflect the materials and layouts typical of 1970s suburban construction: brick and siding exteriors, traditional floorplans with formal dining rooms, and mechanical systems that have typically been updated at least once. These properties on standard lots can appear at lower price points relative to the neighbourhood average, but renovation costs should be factored into any purchase calculation.

The 1980s and early 1990s construction that dominates much of the neighbourhood introduced larger footprints, double-car garages, and the two-storey layouts that became standard family home format. These homes on lots of half an acre or more, particularly those on the streets that follow the Moraine ridgelines, represent the core of what most buyers seek in Hills of St. Andrew. Well-maintained examples with updated kitchens and primary suites trade in the $2 million to $2.5 million range. Properties that have not been updated since original construction represent value for buyers willing to undertake full renovation, but carrying costs during renovation at this price level are substantial.

Custom-built homes, some constructed in the late 1990s and 2000s on subdivided or assembled lots, bring the neighbourhood’s upper end. These properties, on the best streets with the greatest lot depth and tree coverage, can trade above $3 million with no difficulty. New construction in Hills of St. Andrew is rare given the lot availability, which means the neighbourhood’s inventory turns over through resale rather than through new supply. That constraint on new construction is one of the factors that supports price stability in the neighbourhood over time.

The family profile in Hills of St. Andrew is consistent and predictable in ways that make the neighbourhood easy to characterise. Families with children make up 61 percent of households. The dominant buyer is a family with school-age children whose selection process included St. Andrew’s College or whose priority was the topography, tree cover, and quiet residential character the neighbourhood provides. Couples without children make up 27 percent, typically representing empty nesters who purchased during family-raising years and have not yet left, or professionals who chose the neighbourhood for its privacy and proximity to the 400-series highway network.

The neighbourhood’s pace of life reflects its physical character. Streets do not carry through traffic. The winding layout, absent of any commercial strip within the neighbourhood boundary, means the only vehicles on most streets belong to residents and their visitors. Children cycle and walk without the arterial road exposure that characterises Aurora’s more grid-based neighbourhoods. The quiet is not incidental. It is the product of streets designed to follow landforms rather than traffic engineers, and of the St. Andrew’s College campus blocking cut-through routes.

Social continuity in Hills of St. Andrew is higher than in Aurora’s more transient eastern neighbourhoods. Turnover is lower, and families who move in at the school age of their children often stay through secondary school and beyond. The community association and the shared experience of the St. Andrew’s College calendar create social infrastructure around the neighbourhood. For buyers who value knowing their neighbours and belonging to a neighbourhood with institutional memory, Hills of St. Andrew provides that in a way that newer, higher-density communities cannot replicate.

The investment characteristics of Hills of St. Andrew rest on three durable constraints: Oak Ridges Moraine designation, the St. Andrew’s College campus, and the low-density zoning that reflects both. These factors collectively limit new supply in the neighbourhood in ways that rezoning or development pressure cannot easily override. The Moraine designation restricts development on environmentally sensitive portions of the neighbourhood. The College campus is a long-established institution on stable ground. The surrounding residential zoning reflects these constraints and has not been subject to the intensification pressure that other Aurora neighbourhoods closer to transit corridors face.

That supply constraint, combined with consistent demand from families seeking top-tier independent school access and natural terrain, produces price stability relative to the broader Aurora market. Hills of St. Andrew’s premium over the Aurora average has been consistent across market cycles, which suggests it is structural rather than cyclical.

Buyers should understand the TRCA and Oak Ridges Moraine regulatory environment before purchasing. Properties on or adjacent to the Moraine, or near the woodland and wetland features that the Moraine landscape supports, are subject to Conservation Authority oversight for any site alteration. Lot severance is generally not permitted on Moraine lands. Additions, outbuildings, and landscaping changes within regulated setbacks require TRCA approval. For buyers planning major additions or garden structures, understanding the specific regulated area applicable to a target property before offer is essential. These constraints are not unusual for the neighbourhood type, but they differ from the standard Ontario Building Code process that governs straightforward residential construction elsewhere.

The case for Hills of St. Andrew is clear and specific. The Oak Ridges Moraine topography, the mature tree canopy, the winding streets, the proximity to St. Andrew’s College, and the quiet residential character are not features that can be replicated in Aurora’s newer neighbourhoods. What exists here grew over decades and cannot be constructed from scratch. Buyers who have searched Aurora broadly and visited Hills of St. Andrew typically report a different physical experience from other parts of the Town, and that difference is not cosmetic.

The limitations are equally clear. Transit is genuinely poor. The GO station is not walkable, and York Region Transit service to the neighbourhood requires a connection to reach rail. Buyers whose daily work pattern requires GO rail commuting to Union Station will find Bayview Wellington or Aurora Village significantly more convenient. The drive to Aurora GO, while possible, adds 15 minutes to the commute compared to living within walking distance of the station.

Commercial amenity requires a car for everything beyond what a short walk on Yonge Street delivers. There is no neighbourhood commercial node in Hills of St. Andrew. Groceries, pharmacies, restaurants, and services are on Yonge Street or at the Aurora Shopping Centre, both reachable in under 10 minutes by car. The neighbourhood functions on the assumption that residents drive, and the infrastructure of daily life is calibrated to that assumption. For car-dependent households with children in schools accessible by car or bus, this is not a drawback. For households that prioritise walkability or transit, it is.

New construction in Hills of St. Andrew is genuinely rare, and when it does occur it commands significant attention from the market. The combination of Moraine regulation, mature lot sizes, and existing tree cover means that most new homes in the neighbourhood are built on assembled parcels or as replacements for older teardown properties rather than on previously undeveloped land. A custom build on a treed lot in the neighbourhood interior, with Moraine topography and an established street address, is a project that typically takes two to three years from acquisition through occupancy and carries a total cost well above the resale comparable.

The nearby development at Bayview Avenue and Vandorf Sideroad, which opened model homes in late 2024 as a 138-lot subdivision, represents new construction adjacent to but outside the Hills of St. Andrew neighbourhood boundary. Buyers comparing new build options should understand that those properties are in the Aurora Grove and Bayview Northeast catchment areas, not Hills of St. Andrew, and the school, community, and topographic character is different.

The Allegro development at the former Highland Gate Golf Course in Aurora Highlands, which is adding 157 new homes, a 21.3-acre park, and 7.3 kilometres of trails, represents the kind of master-planned new construction that Aurora is seeing in its available land parcels. Hills of St. Andrew will not see a comparable project because the land is not available in the same way. That scarcity of new supply is one reason the neighbourhood holds value consistently: the stock is finite, the constraints on new additions are real, and demand from families seeking exactly what the neighbourhood offers remains steady.

Q: Is Hills of St. Andrew named after St. Andrew’s College?
A: Yes. St. Andrew’s College is an independent boys school for Grades 6 through 12 that has occupied a 126-acre campus in what is now called Hills of St. Andrew since 1926. The school was founded in 1906 and relocated to Aurora from its original location. The College campus occupies a substantial portion of the neighbourhood’s interior and defines much of its character: the low-density residential development that surrounds the school, the mature trees, and the winding streets that follow the Oak Ridges Moraine terrain all reflect the school’s long presence in the area. Day students and boarders from across the GTA and beyond attend the College, and families who move specifically for school access are a consistent segment of the neighbourhood’s buyer pool.

Q: What is the average home price in Hills of St. Andrew and what types of homes are available?
A: The average listing price in Hills of St. Andrew is approximately $2.1 million, and the average sold price tracks at approximately $2.34 million, making it the third most expensive neighbourhood in Aurora. The market is almost entirely detached houses, with townhomes representing a negligible share of inventory. Price variation is wide: 1970s and 1980s homes requiring renovation can appear below $1.5 million, while fully updated homes on larger lots with mature tree cover trade between $2 million and $3 million. Custom estates and properties on the best streets with the deepest lots have transacted above $3 million. There is no condo market in Hills of St. Andrew. Buyers seeking entry-level Aurora options should look at Bayview Wellington or Aurora Grove.

Q: How does the Oak Ridges Moraine affect properties in Hills of St. Andrew?
A: The Oak Ridges Moraine is a provincially significant geological feature running east-west through York Region, and it is the reason Hills of St. Andrew has its distinctive rolling terrain, mature woodland, and high water table. Properties on or adjacent to Moraine landforms and associated wetland or woodland features are subject to Conservation Authority (TRCA) regulation for site alteration, additions, and outbuildings. This means that proposed rear additions, sheds, in-ground pools, and significant grading changes on regulated properties require TRCA approval in addition to a Town of Aurora building permit. The Moraine designation also restricts lot severance in most cases. Buyers should confirm with TRCA or a real estate lawyer whether a specific property falls within a regulated area before proceeding, as the constraints differ by lot and location within the neighbourhood.

Q: Is Hills of St. Andrew suitable for buyers who commute to Toronto by GO Transit?
A: It is possible but not convenient. The Aurora GO station is on Wellington Street East, approximately six kilometres east of the Hills of St. Andrew neighbourhood interior. That distance requires either a car drive to the station or a York Region Transit bus connection with a transfer, adding 20 to 30 minutes to the commute each way compared to walking from Bayview Wellington or Aurora Village. Buyers who commute to Union Station daily and need the station to be within walking distance should consider other Aurora neighbourhoods first. Buyers who drive to the station, or who work in York Region rather than downtown Toronto, find the commute logistics less consequential. The neighbourhood is best suited to buyers whose work is accessible by car or who commute infrequently enough that the station distance is not a daily concern.

Hills of St. Andrew is the clearest example in Aurora of a neighbourhood where the physical environment, rather than the amenity infrastructure, is the primary draw. The Oak Ridges Moraine terrain, the mature deciduous canopy, the winding streets, the quiet, and the proximity to St. Andrew’s College create a combination that no other Aurora neighbourhood replicates. Families who have decided they want these things, and who have the budget to buy at this price point, consistently end up here.

The trade-offs are clear-eyed: transit is poor, daily errands require a car, and new construction is scarce. These are not problems to be solved by the neighbourhood’s evolution. They are structural characteristics of a low-density area on Moraine terrain that sits away from Aurora’s transit-served corridors. Buyers who need GO rail walkability, or who prefer not to drive for everything, will be better served by Aurora Village, Bayview Wellington, or Bayview Northeast.

For the buyer it is built for, Hills of St. Andrew performs consistently. The average sold price above $2.3 million reflects demand that absorbs the neighbourhood’s limited inventory without dramatic overbid situations. Turnover is low. The stock is not being replenished by new construction. Demand from families with school-age children and from affluent retirees who value the natural setting is not cyclical. These factors have supported price performance here through the interest rate increases of 2022 and 2023 and through the broader York Region softening that followed.

Torontoproperty.ca tracks every sale and active listing in Hills of St. Andrew. The data shows which streets trade at the top of the range, how renovated versus unrenovated stock is priced by the market, and how long specific property types sit before selling. If you are deciding whether this neighbourhood is the right fit at this price point, the sales history is the most direct answer.