Priciest property ever listed in North Vancouver

A 14-acre compound in the woods above Deep Cove has set the record for the highest ever asking price for a residential property in North Vancouver.

Sotheby’s International Realty Canada listed the three adjoined lots at 2250 Indian River Cres. this week for $36.2 million. The listing boasts a 9,000-square-foot custom West Coast home built in the 1980s, a self-contained guest house, greenhouse, and a working barn and paddock big enough to hold 12 horses, as well as a pond and Japanese inspired garden.

Over the course of the 1980s, the current owners assembled three properties into their 613,000-square-foot spread. Together, the land value of those three lots was last assessed at $11,467,000. Last year, the family listed the 5.6-acre property their home is built on for $25 million but it did not sell. With the three lots together, listing agent Steve Mitchell said there has already been interest from both locals and from off-shore.

But asking a high price and fetching one are two different things. The most expensive homes actually sold in North Vancouver were in the $12 million range, Mitchell said, but those were mostly waterfront properties less than a third of an acre in size.

“If you actually take the price per acre, as it’s sold in North Vancouver, and you add a house like this and a barn, you come up with a number that is at least that high,” he said.

The land is zoned for single-family homes but Mitchell said he didn’t believe any of the prospective buyers would be interested in subdividing the lots for development. Mitchell said property is going to be highly sought after by someone who values seclusion but also wants to keep a close proximity to Vancouver.

“In Vancouver, this close to the city, we’ve never had anything offered like this. You can go way back historically. This is a one-and-only. To be 20 minutes from downtown in a city like Vancouver, there are buyers out there who want the privacy, they want the space around them and this gives you so many options,” he said. “If you want an acreage like this, you have to leave Metro Vancouver. You have to head out to Surrey, Langley, those areas.”

If you can scrape together $7.24 million for a 20 per cent down payment, your monthly mortgage cost over 25 years would be $138,392 according to CIBC’s mortgage calculator.

“It’s not for everybody,” Mitchell conceded, but added the high end of Vancouver is very hot right now with West Side homes on half-acre lots starting at $25 million.

“The buyer for this house is likely already in Vancouver but there are other buyers out there that would love to acquire something like this,” he said. “Vancouver is in the eye of the rest of the world. People don’t come here to make money. I think they come here because they have money and it’s what Vancouver’s become.”