REAL ESTATE I Foreign buyers snap up pricey properties halfway between Whistler, Vancouver
Derrick Penner
Sun
Squamish real estate reached the $1 million threshold this week with the sale of a deluxe, 3,600-square-foot home in the town’s tony Garibaldi Highlands, realtor Joanne Ennis reports.
Ennis, with Royal LePage Black Tusk Realty in Squamish, said the house, which was listed for $1.09 million, sold for exactly $1 million to a young couple moving from the United Kingdom.
She added that the next highest sale this year was a neighbouring home that went for $925,000.
Buyers for the last few high-end properties in Squamish have come from out of the country and were attracted by the town’s central location between Vancouver and the skiing at Whistler, Ennis said.
Upgrades to the Sea to Sky Highway have had a big part in the increased attractiveness, she added, making Squamish like “the ‘Malibu’ between Vancouver and Whistler.”
“Finally, we’re getting some recognition.”
Ennis said there has been some spillover from Whistler itself with buyers drawn south to the relatively more affordable real estate in Squamish.
“In Whistler, if you’re going to buy this quality of a home, that’s in the $2 million, $3 million and $4 million mark,” she added.
The $1-million home is on Glacier Heights, which Ennis described as almost the top of the Garibaldi Highlands, and boasts four bedrooms, five baths, hardwood floors, crown mouldings, a home theatre and spectacular view of Squamish and Howe Sound.
At the lower end of Squamish real estate, prices for single detached homes generally remained the second lowest within the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. Board statistics for November showed 21 single-family-home sales in Squamish in November with the median price hitting $364,000.
West Vancouver had the highest average price in November with 49 sales and the median price coming in at $1.2 million.
The Sunshine Coast had the lowest median price, which was $302,000 across 45 sales.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
