Even in a sluggish market, a B.C. trophy home can set a sales record

More than five years after putting the house on the market, a seller in the Okanagan has finally found a buyer, selling for $32-million – and setting a record for the region.

The owner, from another province, purchased the historic site at 12391 Pixton Rd., Lake Country, B.C., in 2011, and then oversaw every detail of a seven-year custom build of what is now a nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom, 19,663 square-foot, 8.55-acre estate, said listing agent Jane Hoffman. Not long after completion, the owner put the house up for sale, knowing it would take years to find the right buyer.

“I loved that house. I knew it was a masterpiece, and I knew it would probably be the nicest home that I would ever sell in my whole career,” said Ms. Hoffman, a long-time real estate agent in the Okanagan.

The identity of the buyer was not disclosed.

Kristy Huber, who’s worked with Ms. Hoffman for 32 years, said these types of high-end sales could boost the B.C. luxury home market.

“A sale of this magnitude really does give confidence to other buyers who have been circling around, looking to make a purchase,” said Ms. Huber. “It snowballs. All of a sudden, the next person says, ‘You know what? It’s okay. I’m going to get off the fence.’”

The sale beat out the previous record for the region, the sale of another lakefront property for $17.5-million, in September. That 20-acre estate at 16080 Carrs Landing Rd. sold in 15 days.

The property on Pixton Road had originally been listed with Ms. Hoffman and Ms. Huber for $45,880,000 and was reduced to $39,898,000 in July, 2024. It had been a private listing at an undisclosed price prior to listing publicly on the MLS.

The property has a peach orchard, 850-feet of shoreline, a private dock, vaulted ceilings, wood beams, fireplaces, marble floors and a swimming pool, among other features you’d expect in a trophy home.

Premium houses built a few years ago that would cost much more to build today have taken on a new allure for buyers, said the agents. Construction costs have soared so high that developers are having a tough time making the numbers work.

Back when construction was slightly more affordable, it might have made sense to embark on a dream home mega project. These days, however, not so much, said Ms. Hoffman. There’s a lot of value in the time and capital someone else has put into a custom house project.

“It would cost substantially more in today’s world to rebuild what was accomplished at this property,” said Ms. Huber.

“The majority of people don’t spend $30-plus million. The ones that do invest those big, big dollars, of course, a lot of times they try to find that piece of property where they can create their own vision,” Ms. Huber said. “But in the times we are in now, can you imagine six or seven years of your life in trying to develop what she developed?”

Added Ms. Hoffman: “We do see people now as they’re aging, they don’t really want to commit five or six years to anything like that, right? They want to enjoy it now, and this buyer can step in and enjoy it now.”

Realtor Suzie Doratti, with Engel & Völkers Okanagan, said trophy homes are good value in a slow market. But the number of $3-million-plus sales per year is about half what they were during the pandemic years.

“The price per square foot – the value that is presented in the resale market – I mean, people can’t build these monster homes at the current cost of construction,” said Ms. Doratti.

“They do present really, really good value.”

The Pixton Road property works out to $1,600 per square foot. “That includes the land value. You can find condos that are coming in at that same price.”

The sale is also notable because it’s located in a part of B.C. that is not exempt from the foreign buyer ban, which narrowed the potential buyer pool to Canadians. Whistler, B.C., saw a record-setting $32-million sale of a six-bedroom property at 5462 Stonebridge Dr. two years ago, but the ski resort is exempt from the foreign buyer ban, so foreign buyers made the purchase. The resort town is also exempt from provincial speculation and vacancy tax.

The Okanagan does not have the same advantage, although it’s a major tourist destination.

“If we were open to an international market, we would have had the potential of foreign buyers, but that changed, right? That shifted with the new legislation,” said Ms. Huber.

Vancouver is also not exempt from those taxes, and its high-end market is suffering as a result, say realtors.

West side realtor Bryan Yan said there are 166 listings priced between $6-million and $20-million in Vancouver, and there have been only a handful of sales in the last three months. For listings over $20-million, it’s a desert.

He’s mostly seeing boomer-age owners sell off their homes so they can give their kids money and avoid probate tax.

“Our economy is based on a lot of that right now, because there are no foreign buyers. And in China …there’s been a big drop in prices. Nobody is buying. So even if [policy-makers] wanted to bring in foreign buyers, I don’t think it would help.”

He thinks there will be some movement with the recent drop in the Bank of Canada rate, but it won’t impact the high-end market.

Long-time realtor Lorne Goldman said the high end is dead. The market for “spec homes” on the west side doesn’t exist any more, and he believes it’s because of the five per cent tax on new homes.

“If you went back 10 years ago, there used to be a ready market in builder-developed homes. There was a business where a builder would buy a lot and build a new home and sell it for a profit. That market doesn’t exist any more.

“One of the reasons is that people want a custom home. And the other thing is that when a builder sells a new [spec] house, they have to collect GST on both the land component and the construction component.”

West side builder Joel Silverman said the market for multimillion-dollar spec homes that were in demand by offshore buyers dropped off years ago and is non-existent today.

“Spec is dead. Custom for locals is nearly dead, but [there’s] modest activity,” he said in an e-mail.

“It’s the only game in town in the single-family space for the remaining builders and is what you see when you’re driving around.”