This $700,000 Toronto house doesn't even have a back

Typically, when you think of a house, you picture four walls and a roof. And yet, this Toronto house is missing one key element: a fourth wall.

The entire back of 72 Seventh St. is gone.

So are a bunch of other things, like windows, doors, floors, interior walls, plumbing and electrical.

The view from the front door. 

In short, the house is basically a demolition site that appears to have been abandoned halfway through the job.

The back of the house. 

Several feet of standing water fills the basement, while piles of garbage and construction debris are scattered throughout the property. Calling it a fixer-upper would be extremely generous.

A view of the main floor and basement. 

At this point, the property itself is probably one of the biggest things 72 Seventh St. has going for it.

The house sits on a 25-by-125-foot lot, giving whoever buys it a decent canvas to start over.

Debris in the backyard. 

The other bright side is the price. This shell of a house is currently listed for just $700,000 in an area where detached homes can sell for upwards of $2,865,000.

And location-wise, there's a reason houses around here can sell for almost $3 million.

The property is in Etobicoke, just a five-minute walk from Lake Ontario and the waterfront. It's also close to schools, parks, local shops and restaurants, while the TTC, GO Transit and nearby highways make getting around the city relatively easy.

A fireplace once existed in the house. 

In other words, the location is pretty great. The house? Less so.

And while $700,000 might initially sound like a bargain for a detached property this close to the lake, the purchase price is very much just the beginning.

Building a house in Toronto is expensive at the best of times, but right now there's an added wrinkle: the escalating trade war between Canada and the U.S.

More construction garbage. 

Canada's latest round of retaliatory tariffs took effect Sept. 8, targeting $27.6 billion worth of U.S. imports with tariffs ranging from 15 to 50 per cent.

Old joists from the house. 

And unfortunately for anyone looking at a property that needs to essentially be rebuilt from scratch, the list includes construction materials, appliances, as well as steel and aluminum.

The Canadian Construction Association has already warned that the construction industry could be particularly vulnerable to the escalating tariffs because Canada is a net importer of critical construction materials.

Cinderblocks and particle board in backyard. 

So predicting exactly what it might cost — or how long it might take — to turn 72 Seventh St. back into an actual house isn't exactly straightforward.

And with the tariff situation seemingly capable of changing by the week, anyone taking on a major build right now also has to contend with a level of uncertainty that's difficult to price into a project.

More garbage. 

Then there's the small matter of whatever is happening with the existing structure.

Given the house is already partially demolished and has standing water in the basement, whoever buys it will presumably need to figure out whether there's anything here worth salvaging or whether it makes more sense to finish what someone else started and tear the whole thing down.

The back of the house, or lack thereof. 

Either way, you're probably not moving in anytime soon.