On British Columbia’s Coast for $2.5 Million: House Hunting in Canada

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This four-bedroom, three-bath residence sits on practically 5 hilltop acres in Halfmoon Bay, a coastal village in British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast area, simply west of Vancouver. The 4,300-square-foot home, accomplished in 2020, overlooks the Salish Sea and varied islands within the Strait of Georgia.

The sellers, William and Shirley Van Esch, stated that whereas readying the hilltop for building, they found “a spot the place the rock dipped down, and we thought, hey, wouldn’t that make a pleasant wine cellar,” Mr. Van Esch stated. They gave that instruction to their architect, together with a request for a top-floor kitchen, an elevator to the wine cellar, and a guesthouse related to the principle home by a breezeway.

In addition they preserved a small, pure pond on the property, constructing a ramp over it that results in one of many residence’s entrances. “Each spring we get this cacophony of frogs — we like it,” Mr. Van Esch stated.

The primary entrance is a single blue door on the bottom flooring of the guesthouse, the place there may be additionally a two-car storage. Stairs result in the window-lined breezeway, with a water view on one facet and woods on the opposite. The breezeway connects with the higher flooring of the principle home.

The open residing space in the principle home has peaked ceilings of fir with skylights, in addition to fir posts, burnished concrete flooring, a free-standing fire and huge ocean-facing home windows. The kitchen has a nine-foot island and counters fabricated from Dekton, a extremely sturdy materials that requires minimal upkeep. Glass doorways from the residing space open onto a big deck.

A pull-down stairway within the kitchen leads as much as a loft area, which the sellers name the “away room.” It has a comfortable window seat overlooking the water.

Off the residing space, the first bed room suite has a custom-built platform mattress and a personal deck. “After we get up within the morning, with out even lifting our heads we are able to see straight out throughout the Salish Sea to Vancouver Island,” Ms. Van Esch stated.

A walk-in closet behind the mattress is accessible through hallways on both facet. The en suite tub has a soaking tub, bathe and a wash station with a trough sink and a two-sided medication cupboard suspended above it.

The bottom flooring of the principle home, which will be accessed from exterior through the ramp over the pond, has a lined entrance porch, an workplace, a household room with one other free-standing fire, and a second bed room and tub.

The wine cellar has a picket bar created from a bit of cedar discovered on the property, Mr. Van Esch stated. The guesthouse, above the storage, has an open residing space with a kitchenette, and a loft bed room with a shower. The suite has its personal entrance and will be locked off from the principle home and used as a short-term rental, stated Gina Stockwell, senior vice chairman of gross sales for Sotheby’s Worldwide Realty Canada, which has the itemizing.

Rural Halfmoon Bay is on the southern finish of British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, adjoining to Secret Cove, which has a marina and a resort, Ms. Stockwell stated. This property is inside a 20-minute drive of the municipality of Sechelt, which has supermarkets, eating places and a hospital. The Sunshine Coast is accessible solely by ferry or float aircraft. The ferry terminal on the coast’s southern tip, in Langdale, is a couple of 50-minute drive from this property; the ferry journey to Vancouver’s Horseshoe Bay is 40 minutes. Float planes from Vancouver land in Sechelt.

The Sunshine Coast, nestled within the southwest nook of mainland British Columbia, stretches for 110 miles from Howe Sound as much as Desolation Sound. The realm consists of the standard territories of the Squamish, Sechelt, Sliammon and Klahoose nations, and has a inhabitants of roughly 50,000.

The area’s mountains, lakes, shoreline and inlets make it a paradise for these in search of outside recreation. “It was Vancouver’s best-kept secret,” stated Aliese MacKenzie, a gross sales agent with Re/Max Metropolis Realty. “About 5 years in the past, we noticed an actual uptick in international consumers. That’s when costs began taking pictures up.”

The pandemic additional enhanced the area’s desirability, as Vancouver residents “who had been caught in condos fled to larger properties and the flexibility to have a house workplace,” stated Sue Scott, a gross sales adviser with Engel & Völkers Vancouver.

The median sale worth for a indifferent residence within the Sunshine Coast area was simply over $1 million Canadian ($726,000) through the first half of this 12 months, a 22 p.c enhance over the identical interval final 12 months, in response to a market report from Re/Max Canada. That worth — which makes the Sunshine Coast one of many extra inexpensive areas within the Vancouver metro space — usually buys a 1,500-square-foot residence with an ocean view in a extra built-up location, like Sechelt, Ms. Stockwell stated.

For the reason that starting of 2022, costs have flattened within the space regardless of “the downward development within the Higher Vancouver housing market,” in response to the report. That’s due partly to a gentle rise in rates of interest this 12 months, which is cooling the market. Gross sales of indifferent properties within the Higher Vancouver space had been down throughout the board via June this 12 months, although not as a lot in outer areas just like the Sunshine Coast (down 25 p.c) as in additional cosmopolitan pockets like East Vancouver (40 p.c), in response to Re/Max Canada.

Proximity to the ferry in Langdale dictates costs, which makes the neighboring city of Gibsons probably the most “elite space,” Ms. MacKenzie stated.

The area is presently coping with a housing disaster, with a scarcity of leases making it tough for enterprise homeowners to seek out sufficient staff. “A number of companies are struggling and, if they’ve the means, they’re shopping for housing to deal with their workers,” she stated.

Stock within the Sunshine Coast area, although nonetheless comparatively low with 277 energetic listings, did climb 73 p.c from final September to this September, in response to information from the Actual Property Board of Higher Vancouver.

Overseas consumers symbolize a really small share of the market within the space, brokers stated, as the vast majority of consumers are from Vancouver.

Most international consumers are from america, they stated. Ms. MacKenzie stated the world additionally attracts consumers from China in search of enterprise investments.

The Canadian authorities plans to institute a two-year prohibition on residence purchases by international nationals come January. The ban is a part of an effort to alleviate stress on housing costs from international buyers, in response to the federal government’s finance division. Non permanent staff and worldwide college students are exempt from the ban.

At the moment, international consumers in most areas of British Columbia should pay an extra 20 p.c tax on residence purchases. Nevertheless, purchases on the Sunshine Coast are exempt from that tax, brokers stated.

“I’ve had consumers from California come up and buy right here particularly as a result of there isn’t a international consumers tax,” Ms. Scott stated.

Patrons and sellers rent their very own lawyer or notary to deal with the transaction. As a result of the vast majority of properties on the Sunshine Coast are usually not related to a municipal sewer, purchases require a septic system inspection, Ms. MacKenzie stated.

English, French; Canadian greenback (1 Canadian greenback = $0.73)

All purchases are topic to a property switch tax. The graduated fee begins at 1 p.c of the truthful market worth as much as $200,000 Canadian ($145,000), and rises to three p.c on any portion of the worth over $2 million Canadian ($1.45 million). A further 2 p.c is due on any portion above $3 million Canadian ($2.18 million).

The annual property taxes on this residence are 6,301 Canadian ($4,575), whether it is categorised as a second residence; the speed is much less if it’s a major residence, Ms. Stockwell stated.

Gina Stockwell, Sotheby’s Worldwide Realty Canada, 604-989-8235, sothebysrealty.ca/en

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