Location a selling point for $6.98-million West End home in need of ‘a little TLC’
A rundown residence on Barclay Street in downtown Vancouver that needs only “a little TLC” would need a buyer with considerably large pockets.
The two-storey 1922 house on 1511 Barclay has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and an eye-popping list price of $6.98 million. That’s especially noteworthy considering the same house sold for $2.8 million just over two years ago, $700,000 above its then-asking price. Land-title documents list the current owner as Sahara Jetha.
The reason for the high price tag — now and then — is: “Location, location, location!!!” according to the description of the listing by Sydney Deng of Royal Pacific Realty Corp.
The property is being marketed as a land assembly and the listing bills it as an opportunity for “investment and self-use.”
The 2,372-square-foot house has a “well-laid-out floor plan,” according to the ad, with two bedrooms and living space on the main floor, another bedroom on the top floor and a fourth bedroom in the basement.
It sits on a 33-foot-by-131-foot lot on Barclay, just off Nicola Street, between an apartment building and a townhouse in the West End, where single-family dwellings rarely come on the market.
Like most of the West End, the property is zoned RM-5 — another selling point, as it allows for a floorspace ratio of 1.5, or up to 6,484 square feet of living space with the retention of the house and infill in the back.
The RM-5 zoning allows for residential developments with “compatible retail, office, service and institutional uses,” says the city, with an emphasis placed on developments that are compatible with the neighbourhood and suited to families with children.
A representative of Deng said she was out of town and not reachable by phone.
In 2018, the property — which the listing calls a “beautiful oldtimer” — was assessed at $3.3 million for the land and $117,000 for the house, according to B.C. Assessment.
A nearby house on a smaller lot on 977 Broughton St., which had operated as Nelson House B&B, was sold last year for $2.8 million, just slightly over its assessed value of $2.7 million.
Another house on 1390 Thurlow St., near Pacific Street, sold for $6.4 million last year. It was assessed at $5.6 million.