Sunshine Coast's Million Dollar Babies: Hush now, don't you cry!

[Skook]

July 23, 2013 - A look at recent listings...

I mentioned in my July 20th SC Total Active Listings post that I had begun checking to see how many million dollar plus listings there were on a daily basis. I also added some words about new property listing…

Quote:The other day I noticed a new listing in the Gibson’s area and guess what? This property has been listed below assessment! The 'Asking Price Premium' for this home at 1238 Sunnyside Rd, Gibsons is -4%. I decided to go through all the million + listings and see if any others were below assessment and I found only one at 4588 Cameron Rd, Pender Harbour. This empty property has been listed for 185 days and counting (bet it’s already been relisted more than once) and likewise the APP stands at -4%. I found one other property with an APP of only +1% but on average the APP for the million dollar listings on the SC is around +60% with some as high as +170% and beyond.

I ended by saying, “I don’t know if this Sunnyside Rd property is a relist but the owner has realized that the days of making money on these million dollar properties is now over on the Sunshine Coast. It will be interesting to see if this message gets through to the other 90 or so property owners who have placed their ‘million dollar babies’ on the market.”

Today, the number of $1mill+ currently listed stands at 97 - and increase of 4 since yesterday. I thought it might be interesting to compare of few of this recent listings to see what is happening with pricing.

A property in Hopkins Landing not far from the Langdale ferry terminal at 1230 St. Andrew's Road was relisted two days ago. The asking price is $1,895,000 and the 'Asking Price Premium' is +188%. It is a 3 bed/4bath 4637sf 15-year-old described as an “Executive View Home” (perhaps because the current owner is a retired excutive?) sitting on 1 acre - I don’t know if the price changed with the relist but I don’t think so.

Just up the road in Grantham’s Landing is another relist at 888 Ruffum Rd. It is a 17 years old 3 bed/1½ bath 4500 sf home sitting on 2.2 acres. There is also a 1600 sf cottage on the property and both the main house and cottage have oceanviews. The original asking price was $1,999,000 and with the relist it has dropped an incredible $800,000 to $1,199,000 which I suspect brings it very close to its Assessment.

Is one more desperate than the other to sale? Perhaps, although it could be that the owners of the St. Andrew’s Rd property purchased it as a resale and paid a much higher APP themselves and are now trying to recoup that purchase price as well as expenses paid since then. If either of these two were to sell, my guess is it won’t be the one on St. Andrew’s.

As high as the +188% APP above seems, I found one even more ridiculous especially given its location. This property is at 13825 Lee Road located on Sakinaw Lake in Garden Bay (Pender Harbour). It is a 37 year old 4 bed/2bath 1,955 sf 2 storey waterfront home sitting on less than half an acre. It comes with this listing description: “Perfect family cottage complete with flag pole & waterside dock w/slide.” It also points out the property has “rare road access.” That latter point is true for Sakinaw but that is one looooooong drive in from the highway. The property was listed 4 days ago and the asking price is $1,490,000 - the APP is +230% which gives you a good idea of what BC Assessment thinks of its value as a waterfront property in Pender Harbour despite its rare road access, dock, water slide and flag pole.

Now let’s take these three properties above, two with oceanviews and one lake waterfront, and compare them to a property listed 11 days ago. DL 4444 is water access only and located in Sechelt Inlet. It has been operating as a retreat and comes with 2 homes (one is 9 years old) and 10 “luxurious” tent cabins. I can tell you now it would be quicker to get to this property by boat from Sechelt then it would be to drive to that Lee Rd property on Sakinaw. It is a 124 acre property with 1 mile of oceanfront. Its list price is $1,298,000 and the APP is +65%.

It’s an interesting comparison, isn’t it? And, it illustrates perfectly how differently property can be priced depending on the values (or perceived values) held by the owner and, of course, whether the property sells at that price is dependent on the values (or perceived values) of the purchaser. Ten or more years ago at the height of the RE frenzy all of these properties would have sold quickly regardless, but not now. I wonder how long it will take for these four owners to find buyers that think like they do; if not, what will they do?