Real Estate

Big Fat Deal: $4.5 million for a house of doom on the waterfront in West Vancouver

Inside a four-bedroom, four-bathroom, 3,926-square-foot home on a 32,668-square-foot waterfront lot in West Vancouver

By Steve Burgess /

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

Address: 6177 Nelson Avenue, West Vancouver

Price: $4,490,000

Listing: R2356395

The skinny: Four-bedroom, four-bathroom, 3,926-square-foot house of doom on a 32,668-square-foot waterfront lot in West Vancouver

The bling: It’s nice to be admired. Though maybe not so much if you’re a turkey and Christmas is coming. Being the centre of attention is not so wonderful when your admirers are busy whetting their knives and drooling.

Anyway, if you were the perfectly lovely home for sale at 6177 Nelson Avenue in West Vancouver, you would be justified in feeling a bit nervous right now. As usual there are lots of photos on the listing. But do any of them show the lovely interior of the home? They do not. The house has four bathrooms, three fireplaces and almost 4,000 square feet of living space. Are we shown any of that? Nope. It’s all long shots and pictures of the lot and the beautiful view. They might as well have included a picture of a giant hydraulic shovel. “All appliances included,” the listing says—presumably so you can knock them down the hill with a wrecking ball like some monster mini-golf course.

Just to make it clear, the listing reads: “6175 Nelson is also available (MLS# R2356392) and could be lived in while building your dream home in this location or combine both properties to create a massive waterfront estate.” No, this listing is not for the unambitious peon who might be satisfied with four bedrooms, four bathrooms and almost 4,000 square feet of floor space. This is for the buyer who looks out over his/her domain with an evil cackle and shouts, “I SHALL BUILD A PALACE SUCH AS THESE PUNY NEIGHBOURS HAVE NEVER SEEN!”

The photos do show two very tall trees just in front of the lot. Once you have built your supervillain lair, you could probably use them for target practice as you test your new super energy-beam gun. Let the world tremble before you! (Also, you’ll be close to a marina and shopping.)

The hidden extras: Nothing specific mentioned, but once that shovel starts swinging there’s no telling what will fall out of the walls.