‘It’s just a gold mine’: Realtor weighs in on abandoned luxury fixer-upper sold in Scarborough

A massive abandoned mansion overlooking the Scarborough Bluffs that has attracted attention for nearly a decade has finally been sold.

The home on Birchmount Road hit the market with an asking price of $3.8 million and sold for $3.45 million just days later.

“The reason it was technically on the market for longer was because it was in receivership,” explained Royal LePage realtor Normand Gautreau, who had shown the home to his own clients.

“The receiver had to decide who gets paid and who doesn’t get paid, apparently there was over $9 million in financing on the property. So for $3.4 million there was a lot of people that got left out.”

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The real estate listing described the property as a “Magnificent 12,000 + Sq.Ft. Home On Lake Ontario. 3 Car Detached Garage. Almost 2 Acres Overlooking Lake.”

But the listing also noted the home required “substantial work to complete.”

Neighbours said that is an understatement.

“Like a millionaire ghetto” is how Dave Lichtenwalter described 4 Birchmount Road.

He lives two doors down and has had to look at the abandoned structure for nearly ten years.

So some neighbours are expressing relief that the massive home is now officially off the market.

“Hopefully we’ll get somebody that will fix it up and make it nice,” Lichtenwalter said.

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A video posted to YouTube by a visitor to an open house at the property back in May showed major disrepair.

Pictures from inside, also snapped by open house guests, appeared to show extensive mould.

Gautreau had to wear a face mask when he went in.

“When I came for the agents open house in June, you actually had to sign a waiver to go into the property and there’s no hand rails going down the stairs,” he said. “It really is scary and there’s animal feces everywhere, and there’s people that have broken in, homeless people who have been in there, all kinds of graffiti.”

“It’s going to take a ton of money, no matter who bought it, and what they’re going to do. You have to have deep pockets to do this project.”

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The home sits on a massive waterfront lot of 135 feet frontage by 548 feet.

Besides the five bedrooms and seven bathrooms, there is a detached garage structure which fits at least ten cars.

The agent who sold the house would not comment, but Gautreau, who is familiar with the property, called it, “One guy’s dream. Had he not run out of money it would be spectacular. He could have sold it for $10 million today.”

“You just don’t get this kind of property in the city,” he added.

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1:53 Abandoned Scarborough “monster mansion” goes up for sale

Whoever did purchase the mansion on Birchmount Road, Gautreau estimated, if two million is spent to repair and rebuild it, the property could easily sell for $10 million.

“It’s just a gold mine,” he said.

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Right now though, as the listing itself noted, it is “basically a shell of concrete and steel beam.”