Champagne and traditional tea services flowed at a special home show in Vancouver Sunday.
The invite-only event which included displays from architects, builders contractors and designers was organized by Taste of Life magazine was the first of its kind in North America.
Wendy Guo, publisher of Taste of Life, said the home show gives affluent immigrant home buyers plenty of options as they aim to create unique homes.
“A lot of them are Asian customers and they came here with a dream for their future, with a dream for their family for the next generation and for freedom,” she said. “And they also came here looking for a dream home. So this is for them,” she said.
Photos that lower to reveal a television, handmade glass Italian wall decorations and elaborate room entries were some of the featured items at the show.
Guo said the high number of Asian home buyers in Vancouver made this style of home show popular, and the goal was to “connect East and West”.
“Especially for the homes [valued at] over $2 million, at least half of all purchased are by big Asian buyers,” she said.
Graeme Huguet of My House Design Build Team said the specifically-targeted event is a sign of the Vancouver real estate market.
“I think it's very evident in our region that this group of people are very influential in the marketplace right now both in real estate development as well as in the purchase of properties,” he said.
Luxury real estate specialist Sotheby’s predicts expensive home sales will continue in Vancouver through the winter saying 40 per cent of buyers are outside of Canada and mostly from China.
With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Norma Reid.
