A North Saanich luxury home just became the most expensive sale in the community’s history — and the priciest one in Greater Victoria since 2006.
Known as Ardmore Hall, the luxury estate sold for $9 million in early January, after having gone for around $5 million three years prior.
Coverage of Victoria housing on Globalnews.ca/bc:
The sale came months after Victoria was ranked in the world’s top two luxury property markets by Christie’s International Real Estate and Chestnut Park Real Estate of Toronto.
It’s also amid growing unaffordability in Victoria, a trend that began two years ago, around the time that the provincial government imposed a 15 per cent property transfer tax on foreign buyers in Metro Vancouver, according to RBC’s Housing Affordability Report.
READ MORE: B.C. city now ranks among world’s top 2 luxury home markets, and it’s not Vancouver
Located about 25 kilometres north of Victoria, Ardmore Hall is a waterfront property with a 9,359-sq.-ft. principal residence.
The property has views of the Strait of Georgia, the Pacific Ocean, and has its own private moorage.
There are six large bedrooms, each with an ensuite bathroom; a “state-of-the-art” theatre; a games room; a karaoke room; a wine cellar; and a mahogany library.
There’s also an infinity pool and a Jacuzzi, as well as fountains, ponds, waterfalls and a marble gazebo.
The home was bought by a Calgary couple, said Logan Wilson, the property’s listing agent who works with Sotheby’s International Realty Canada.
Explaining the run-up in price in four years, Wilson said Ardmore Hall was sold for $5.6 million in a foreclosure proceeding in 2014 — which was a “fantastic deal” at the time, Wilson said.
Since then, the owners “put a lot of money into the infrastructure” of the home, including landscaping work.
“There was a fairly significant investment beyond what they paid on paper,” Wilson said.
Foreign buyers weren’t candidates for the home, he added.
But the sale came at a time when data suggests they’re having an influence in the Victoria area.
In January 2017, BMO noted that Victoria home prices continued to climb around the same time that B.C.’s foreign buyers tax came into effect.
READ MORE: B.C. foreign buyers tax really did yank down Vancouver home prices: BMO
Wilson said there’s a “high probability” that foreign capital has gravitated to North Saanich, an area that’s close to the international airport, the ferry terminal, and is a “short, easily commutable distance into Victoria.”
But foreign buyers aren’t the only factor influencing home prices in the region, according to Wilson.
“You have the aging baby boomer demographic retiring to this area just because of weather,” he said.
“And then you have a very stable market from the government infrastructure here in Victoria, so it’s very gradually gone up.”
Here are some more photos of Ardmore Hall:
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