Some asking prices are crazy, ?until it sells,? says one real estate agent
JOANNE LEE-YOUNG
The Vancouver Sun
A Shaughnessy home raised eyebrows when it sold last year for $8.01 million — or $2 million over the asking price. The four-bedroom home on a 16,400-square-foot lot — at 1383 West 32nd Ave. — was listed for $5.99 million in February of 2015 before fetching the inflated figure a few months later.
In mid-May it was put back on the market in pretty much the same condition. The asking price is $11.88 million, an amount that seems at least moderately audacious even in a market with high demand for a tight supply of such single-family homes in desirable areas.
And there are other properties with what is being cheekily referred to as “ego-pricing” — or whatever a seller wants to ask.
“People can ask for whatever they want. God bless them,” said RE/MAX’s Stuart Bonner of Vancouver Westside Real Estate.
The buyer’s agent in last year’s sale of that home on 32nd Avenue is now helping him or her to sell it. Ruby Chang of Sutton Group West Coast did not return calls to her cellphone on Thursday.
But to roughly compare, said Bonner, who sold the house on West 32nd last year, there is now another house across the street — at 1437 W 32nd, on a 17,000-squarefoot lot — that went under contract in June to be sold for just over $8 million. Bonner was thrilled to report back this latest sale to his client. The lot that just sold is only five per cent larger in size, he said.
The other property that has tongues wagging is also a $10-million-plus, single-family home. But this one is not a regular big house on a sprawling Shaughnessy or Belmont Avenue lot.
It’s on a 25-foot front lot, and the front door is not even a stone’s throw to the sidewalk, at 1081 West 7th Ave. It’s nestled in a mix of condos and townhouses in Fairview Slopes, two blocks down from West Broadway near Oak Street. The asking price is $13.8 million.
“A big part was finding land with 180-degree views, that is minutes from downtown, and maintaining the environment and fitting into the neighbourhood,” said Shaireen Lalani, a Yaletown dentist who owns the property. She bought the land more than a decade ago and said building the home has been a 10-year project.
Indeed, it’s an almost 5,000-square-foot, super-modern five-level home that cascades from 7th Avenue onto the lane behind. It has a private elevator, and is made of steel and concrete. The listing describes it as being “designed by one of Canada’s most noted architectural firms, Battersby Howat, whose design hallmarks are the interplay between natural materials, light and view.”
Listing agent Ken Leong lists the property’s many attributes. Of the asking price, he said: “This is luxury real estate. It used to be that these were unheard of prices in Vancouver. The city has changed. Look at prices in Marpole. It used to be that in Marpole, for the west side, it was one of the worst areas, but now Marpole is selling for $1,100 a square foot. It’s crazy.”
“It’s not just that it’s luxury,” said Lalani, noting how it would be difficult to find this land and build using concrete and steel, which has gone up in price. “We are five minutes from anything, but we have privacy and views. We are in our 40s, so we are still feeling young at heart and didn’t want a typical house with a yard. It’s also having the vision we had, and that’s not dime a dozen.”
The house was initially marketed on its own website at $16 million, but was then adjusted recently to $13.8 million. “Because of the lack of market comparables, it was hard to set,” said Lalani, adding they relied on her realtor’s advice.
But is there a comp of any kind? A few doors down, at 1033 West 7th, there is another home. It’s smaller at about 3,300 square feet, with one less bedroom and one less bathroom, and just three storeys terracing down to the back lane. It’s an older wood house, but was recently renovated. It similarly has sweeping views of the city in the back and abuts almost right against the city sidewalk in the narrow 25-foot-wide front. It sold in March for $2.744 million.
Sue Johnson, one of the listing agents who handled that sale, described the area as being “very cool, urban living at its best.” She added that it’s a single-family home in an area with a lot of multi-family density: apartments, city homes and condos. “It’s very unique.” She declined to comment on the $13.8million asking price of the home that’s currently for sale.
Both properties are zoned FM1 or multi-family and are freehold non-strata. Their assessed land values are both $1.469 million.
A realtor who was happy to offer his thoughts, but not his name for publication, said in an email that, in general, sometimes asking prices are crazy “until it sells.”
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