Bruce Constantineau
Sun
A model of Wakefield Homes’ 31-unit project in Sechelt.
Sunshine Coast waterfront values have surged to the point where the latest residential projects feature luxury homes priced at more than $1.5 million — a level that potential buyers would have scoffed at just a few years ago, Vancouver developer Les Allen said Thursday.
Allen, who sold out a 40-unit cottage development near Pender Harbour this year, said that until recently, the Sunshine Coast was a real estate backwater that lagged behind the boom that dominated much of the B.C. market.
“But now buyers are catching on and the place is hot,” Allen said in an interview. “You see all these new high-end developments coming in that, five years ago, would have been a joke — a disaster. Now they’ll all probably sell out.”
Alberta-based Rockwater Properties is currently developing a 24-unit Pender Harbour project — Whittakers — that features detached homes priced from about $700,000 to more than $1.5 million. Sales won’t take place until the end of July, but Rockwater president Kevin Toth said more than 600 potential buyers have already registered their interest in the project, with 55 per cent coming from B.C. and 34 per cent from Alberta.
Average lot sizes for the three-bedroom homes are half an acre, and all the houses feature hardwood flooring, large sundecks and master bedrooms with fireplaces and water views.
“The prices are driven by the quality of the land and the quality of the site,” Toth said in an interview. “It’s one of the few low-bank waterfront properties in that area, so it makes sense to develop a luxury product.”
A 31-unit waterfront housing project in Sechelt — called Wakefield Beach — sold half its units on the first day of sales in March, including three that were priced from $1.1 million to $1.35 million.
Vancouver housing consultant Oswald Jurock said Sunshine Coast real estate flew under the radar until 2003, “when it took off like a rocket.”
“The interest is a lot higher now because Alberta, the rest of Canada and the rest of the world has discovered B.C.,” he said in an interview, noting that 38 per cent of Coal Harbour condo owners are American. “There are also many more dual-income retirees with more money to spend.”
Jurock remembers waterfront homes with sandy beaches at Porpoise Bay selling for about $220,000 in 1999, and estimates those properties now are worth from $600,000 to $700,000.
Allen, who has developed more than 200 lots on the Sunshine Coast since 1992, sold the last of his units this year and now focuses on Lower Mainland projects because there are virtually no significant Sunshine Coast waterfront properties available for development now.
He said few private property owners are willing to sell now because they know waterfront land is “priceless,” so property titles tend to get passed down from generation to generation.
“When you go over there, it looks like there’s a lot of land to develop, but it’s either private land that’s not for sale, or it’s Crown land,” Allen said.
“Just try to find a big piece to develop.
“It’s impossible.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
