Canaccord founder’s home sells for $31M
Point Grey property owned by Peter Brown is most expensive listed on MLS this year
A Point Grey home on Belmont Avenue owned by Peter Brown, the founder of investment dealer Canaccord Genuity Group, and his wife Joanne, is under contract to be sold for $31.1 million, according to information available on the Multiple Listing Service.
The sale price — which was reported by the listing brokerage, Dexter Associates Realty, to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver — is the most expensive sale recorded on the service so far this year.
A waterfront property on Point Grey Rd. listed on the MLS sold in June 2015 for $22 million.
Prior to that, in December 2014, land- title documents showed the $51.88-million purchase of a property on three Point Grey lots by Mailin Chen, a businessman from China, and Chunghwa Investment (Canada) Co. Ltd., his wholly owned company.
Last July, the Browns’ house was assessed at about $25.6-million. At that valuation, it was considered the 18th most expensive residential real estate property in B.C., according to B.C. Assessment. Since then, prices have increased even further.
The Browns, a prominent Vancouver couple who have been influential in B.C.’s corporate, political and philanthropic circles, listed their home on the MLS at the beginning of March, asking $35 million. They purchased the property in 1983 for $2.5 million, according to land sale records.
The new buyer of the home cannot be confirmed as the land title has not yet changed. The buyer’s agent, Cherry Xu of Royal Pacific Realty, declined to comment earlier this week.
Alix Brown of Dexter Associates Realty, who shared the listing with agent Shona Hurst, also declined to comment.
Property taxes last year for the 14,663- square- foot mansion with five bedrooms and eight bathrooms on a 1.71-acre lot with views of Stanley Park, the North Shore mountains and the city were almost $80,000.
Down the road, another mansion is currently asking $33.8 million.
The most expensive property on B.C. Assessment’s list this year was Lululemon Athletica founder Chip Wilson’s mansion on Point Grey Road, which rang in at $63.9 million.
There are at least 10 other houses on Belmont Avenue that are assessed at more than $20 million, with the most expensive one at over $57 million. The house on Point Grey Rd. that sold for $22 million in June, with the deal finalizing in October, is back on the MLS again, asking $23.9 million.
Observers disagree about the impact of sales at this very high end of the market on the rest of the region. There is a limited number of properties assessed at more than $25 million, never mind ones that are on the market and then sold. There are also private sales that are conducted without a listing on the MLS.
However, they generally agree the combination of a limited supply and an influx of cash from wealthy mainland Chinese buyers has driven up prices for single-family homes, especially on Vancouver’s west side. Some analysts argue that luxury home sales in these desirable areas set prices at the margin. There is then a cascading impact as these sellers move into homes in other areas and pay higher prices that are then used as comparable sales to set new benchmarks.