So-called “haunted house” back on the market
AVancouver property with a spooky reputation has returned to the market in search of a new owner. This comes less than a year after city council approved—on March 9, 2021—a rezoning application for a six-storey rental building at the 4118-4138 Cambie Street site.
The asking price for the prime location across from King Edward Station on the Canada Line is $26 million.
Pennyfarthing Properties Grayson North Ltd. acquired 4118 Cambie Street, which has a reputed haunted house, and the adjoining 4138 Cambie Street site between 2017 and 2018.
The development company paid a total of $16,150,000 for the two properties. At the new asking price of $26 million, Pennyfarthing is looking at a 60.9 percent gross profit. That’s a positive return of $9,850,000 for its investment three to four years ago.
The property now carries the consolidated address of 4118 Cambie Street and has a 2021 assessment of $24,138,000.
For many years, ghostly tales abounded regarding the home at 4118 Cambie Street.
“The story goes that it was either an ancient burial ground or there was a man who murdered his elderly mother there,” blogger Michael Kwan wrote back in 2011.
Kwan wrote that “everyone who inhabited the home since then has experienced strange occurrences”.
“We’ve heard stories of luggage being left out on the lawn, baby cribs pushed precariously to the edge of windows, shadowy footsteps walking up the exterior walls, families sleeping only to wake up on the lawn, and more,” the writer behind the Beyond the Rhetoric site noted at the time.
“I hear that Buddhist monks live there and the house is ‘clean’ of spirits, but I still get chills,” Kwan added.
Earlier, in 2010, Mary Sheridan of the Mary in Vancity blog wrote about haunted places in the city. Commenting on that post, a reader by the name of Alice suggested: “You should check up on that creepy haunted house on Cambie St and King Ed…supposedly now owned by Buddhist monks!”
Records show that in 2016, Pennyfarthing filed a rezoning application for 4138 Cambie Street on behalf of its owner, Yuk Ying Ng.
The plan for the property at the time was for a six-storey condo building and two-storey townhouses, for a total of 22 strata homes.
The developer purchased the same property at 4138 Cambie Street from Ng in 2017 for $4,150,000. City council approved the rezoning application in 2019. However, the approved application was later withdrawn.
Then in 2018, Pennyfarthing bought the neighbouring property at 4118 Cambie Street, home to the supposed haunted house.
The company purchased the site from the Canada Shin Yat Tong Moral Society, a religious charity and home of the Buddhist monks who reportedly lived in the property. The purchase price was $12 million.
In 2020, Pennyfarthing filed a new rezoning application for the consolidated property. This time, it was for a rental development with 90 units.
As of December 5, the listing made by agent Avison Young has been on the realtor.ca site for 38 days. The listing highlighted the “development opportunity” for the combined properties with the single 4118 Cambie Street address.