Big Fat Deal: $14 million for the perfect Vancouver parcel of land (photos)

Forget the house. Build a new one. This deal is all about location, location, location

Price: $13,880,000
Address: 5747 Newton Wynd, Vancouver
MLS: V1069032
Listing agent: Greg Carros at Sotheby’s International Realty Canada

What’s the recipe for achieving a price tag of $13,880,000 with barely a nod to the home itself? Start with a parcel of land totalling a little under three-quarters-of-an-acre, mix with a neighbourhood luxuriating in prestigious homes, add a generous helping of to-die-for views and voila.
 
Currently housing a six-bedroom, five-bathroom, 4,875-sq.-ft. home dating to 1949 on Vancouver’s Newton Wynd near UBC’s Chancellor Boulevard, listing agent Greg Carros explains that preliminary plans are available for a “spectacular 11,000-sq.-ft. contemporary residence” to be built on the 30,000-sq.-ft. parcel of land that would match those enviable vistas by creating a “one-of-a-kind dream home.”
 
With land at a premium in this city, prices continue to head northward, especially in these types of desirable areas. Particularly, of course, if they are able to boast Vancouver’s famed trifecta of mountain, water and forest views as well as having an added bonus—as this property does thanks to its elevated position—of additional panoramic scenes of the downtown skyline. As home prices in Toronto and Vancouver surpass Rome and close in on Paris with prime residential real estate in Vancouver now commanding $1,368 per square foot, according to a recent article in the Financial Post, it’s easy to fathom its multi-million-dollar sale price.
 
With UBC and its cultural and recreational amenities on the doorstep—and nature in the form of the University Endowment Lands with its myriad biking, hiking, walking and horse riding trails all around—this quiet and serene location also offers easy access to beaches and a short commute to downtown.
 
Commanding views, close to the action, and knowledge that if a piece of property this size were further out, you’d instantly knock one or two zeroes off the price—guess there’s a lot of truth in that old adage: “location, location, location.”