'Housing porn': Vancouver home flipped 3 times in 3 years, most recently for $6.3M
A two-storey home in the heart of Vancouver's posh Shaughnessy neighbourhood was listed and sold twice this year.
The three-bedroom, three-bath single family home is on a 13,048-square-foot lot, which it shares with two other buildings.
It’s surrounded by lush gardens and trees, boasting of “privacy and serenity,” according to its listing.
The home on The Crescent Street most recently sold for $6.3 million, which is $280,000 less than its listing price. Back in February, it sold for $5.3 million.
And before that, in 2018, it was snatched up for $4,840,000.
“My first reaction to it is rich people do rich people things,” said Tsur Somerville, a professor in real estate finance with the UBC Sauder School of Business.
The most striking thing, according to Somerville, is the apparent "flipping of it without renovation."
“It's hard to tell if those are necessarily arm's length transactions," he said, describing a potential situation in which "people transfer the unit from themselves to themselves for corporate holding reasons.”
Steve Saretsky, a Vancouver realtor with Oakwyn Realty who was not involved in this listing, said fewer homes are being flipped – bought and sold within a two-year window – than in previous years.
“If we look at flipping activity, homes that are flipped as a percentage of total sales is hovering just below five per cent,” he said. “If you look at the data from a historical perspective, that's on the low side. I think we reached around seven or eight per cent in the last housing cycle.”
Prices have also gone up across the board.
“When people can borrow on a variable rate mortgage today at 1.2 per cent and inflation is running, you know, north of four per cent, it becomes a pretty compelling place to park your capital,” Saretsky said.
And demand remains high, with home sales up 20.8 per cent last month over the 10-year September average, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
But when it comes to the luxury housing market, Somerville said there typically isn’t as much activity.
“It's a market that's less liquid, but if you're selling a really expensive home there's just fewer people out there. We're going to buy it so they tend to sit on the market for longer times,” he said.
But not The Crescent Street home, which sold in just two days.
“It's the housing porn thing and we're all sort of fascinated by what rich people do,” Somerville said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
First court appearance for boy and girl charged in death of Halifax 16-year-old
A girl and a boy, both 14 years old, made their first appearance today in a Halifax courtroom, where they each face a second-degree murder charge in the stabbing death of a 16-year-old high school student.