Big Fat Deal: $11.5 million for a high-up hothouse in Vancouver’s West End

Inside a $11.5-million three-bedroom, four-bathroom, 4,623-square-foot penthouse in Vancouver's West End

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

Address: 2501-1020 Harwood Street, Vancouver

Price: $11,500,000

Listing: R2274555

The skinny: Three-bedroom, four-bathroom, 4,623-square-foot penthouse in Vancouver’s West End

The bling: Well, for starters, it’s a penthouse. If you’re going to live big and fat and also be in a condo, you absolutely must have a PH address. Never mind that the architects can get a bit overexcited; just like the topper on a wedding cake, a penthouse is there to provide a bit of personality to an otherwise pretty boring column of concrete. And, let’s face it, they have to do something to prove they can actually draw something other than rectangles sitting on top of each other. Here, then, is your very own house of cards—built of glass. What could be more indulgent, more obviously budget-free than a home at the top of a tower that will require all the summer air conditioning and winter heating the dying gasp of the earth’s resources can afford? Continuing that wonderfully carefree, reckless theme that only the truly wealthy can embrace, this delightfully impractical home comes with no fewer than six parking stalls for all your gas-guzzling needs. Another plus: the eight terraces make providing accommodation for the team of permanent window cleaners (the rain! the bird poop! the imprint of your forehead until you remember everything is on a slant!) a whole lot easier. May we suggest a yurt or two? So stylish and exotic, and so in keeping with the small forest of Bolivian rosewood employed inside.

The hidden extras: Views, views, views. So many views unencumbered by curtains or blinds because who needs to sleep? Marble this, stone that, fancy pants staircase carefully placed in the middle of the living room for extra show-off value.