Big Fat Deal: $11.8 million to live like a Vancouver Bond villain on Arbutus Street

BCBusiness takes you inside one of the most outrageously upmarket real estate offerings in the province 

Address: 5038 Arbutus Street, Vancouver 

Price: $11,880,000 

Listing: R2699573 

The skinny: Six-bedroom, nine-bathroom, 4,542 square foot house on 5,620 square feet in Vancouver. 

The bling: Vancouver’s Westside is riddled with secrets, mostly because it’s so sparsely populated that there are large swaths of land (and houses themselves) that the actual owners probably don’t know anything about. So it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that, behind a particularly bushy enclave on the part of Arbutus Street before 41st Avenue that curves up a hill like you’re in Mario Kart, lies a massive estate that, if it was in the middle of nowhere instead of just off a busy street, could really be the home of a Bond villain.  

In fact, it’s a bit funny to imagine Christoph Waltz gazing out of the large windows in Lululemon pants and an Arc’teryx jacket while telling whoever the next 007 is that he’s got something up his (completely waterproof) sleeve.  

This place, while undeniably beautiful, is really pushing the limits of how far one go before “West Coast” is a cliché onto itself. I mean, it almost looks like YVR, what with the wood panelling and glass everywhere. All we need are a couple signature Douglas Coupland pieces to hit B.C. bingo.  

But the real gem of any listing in this tax bracket is always the video. And this one doesn’t disappoint:

Here you’ll get the sense of actually being welcomed into this place, via remote-opening custom architectural gates of course, to an acoustic soundtrack that sounds like the backing to one of the Barenaked Ladies’ more introspective tunes (now we’ve definitely hit B.C. bingo). Also, thank the heavens for the lingering shot of the vault, we needed that.  

If you had $12 million, you wouldn’t have to walk to the store, which is good because there isn’t one for, like, 10 blocks. 

The hidden extras: Pool, hot tub (with accompanying outdoor shower) and multiple green-roof terraces.