Metro Vancouver the luxury car capital of North America

The affluence driving Metro Vancouver real estate prices is well documented, and it appears those buyers are willing to pay big bucks for something suitable to park in their garages.

For these drivers, dropping $200,000 on a new ride is no big deal, making Metro Vancouver the luxury and supercar capital of North America.

Just ask 20-year-old Max Yi, the proud new owner of an Aston Martin Rapide S.

“I just want to buy it,” Yi said. “It’s cool.”

The $270,000 four-door sports car is not even Yi’s first luxury vehicle.

“He got a Bentley before but it was crashed,” said Yunhun Yao, who was riding shotgun in Yi’s Aston Martin. “So he needed a car immediately and this car was in the same store where he bought the Bentley.”

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According to ICBC, there are more than 2,000 vehicles registered in Metro Vancouver with a price tag of more than $150,000.

“There’s just so many Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLarens, Rolls-Royces, Bentleys on the street that you see, so you become instantly aware that there seems to be more than anywhere else,” Craig Stowe, president of Luxury & Supercar Weekend, said.

Just how many people in Metro Vancouver are getting behind the wheel of a supercar?

In West Vancouver, one in every 142 people owns a luxury vehicle. In Richmond, it’s one in 577 while in Vancouver it’s one in 615.

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“It kind of blows me away that there’s such a big demand, but with real estate going up, with people’s incomes going up, with what we’ve drawn into the city — of course, bigger house, better cars,” Michael Friskey of McLaren Vancouver said.

The Vancouver dealership expects to sell out its 2016 inventory of McLarens, with each vehicle selling in the range of $350,000.

After all, those in the market for a supercar seem to know exactly what they want.

“It’s fancy, fast and popular,” Yao said.

– With files from John Hua