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Downtown Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. Photo: AFP

As home prices continue to rise, Vancouver mansion goes on sale for C$63m

Home on Vancouver’s Billionaires’ Row listed at C$63 million seeks respectful buyer for 21,000 sq ft property as 92-year-old owner looks to downsize

A waterfront mansion on a Vancouver street known as Billionaires’ Row is on the market for C$63 million (US$48 million) – a record listing in a market where rapid home-price gains are seemingly unstoppable.

Perched above a popular beach, the manor features expansive views of downtown Vancouver and snow-capped mountains across the bay. It is owned by local businessman and philanthropist Joseph Segal and his wife, Rosalie.

The asking price is the highest ever for a residential single-family home listed in Greater Vancouver, according to Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, which represents the sellers.

“Why do people sell? Because they have a change of life,” Segal said. “Life is a runway. I’m finished cruising and now I’m descending.”

The 92-year-old president of Kingswood Capital Corp, who has four children, adds with a chuckle: “They can’t afford it. Besides, how do you divide a house in four?”

The lofty price tag underscores the ever-rising home values in Canada’s most expensive city, which has defied a succession of government efforts to cool gains, as well as concerns about the near-collapse of alternative-mortgage lender Home Capital Group.

The price of the average detached house in Vancouver climbed 5 per cent to a record C$1.8 million in May, while the number of properties sold was the third-highest ever for that month.

Christa Frosch, the Sotheby’s listing agent, declined to say how long it might take to find a buyer. But a 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers introduced last August, that would add more than C$9 million to the listed price, is unlikely to dissuade any deep-pocketed overseas investors who would consider the property, Frosch said.

“This is a very unique property – there are not very many people in the world who would be looking at this,” she said. “They will love and understand its value. Fifteen per cent won’t affect that buyer.” 

The Segals’ five-bedroom, 12-bathroom residence boasts more than 21,000 sq ft of living space on a 0.5-hectare lot, according to Sotheby’s. It is on Belmont Avenue, home to five of the region’s 10 most expensive properties.

[My children] can’t afford it. Besides, how do you divide a house in four?
Joseph Segal, president, Kingswood Capital Corp

The house features gallery halls that can seat up to 100 guests for private concerts, a six-car garage, an indoor pool surrounded by white arches and a double-height foyer lined with paintings. The listed price includes light fixtures, such as the chandelier originally from a French chateau which fell into the possession of Benito Mussolini during the second world war before it was returned to its owners and sold, Segal said.

While Vancouver’s lure as a magnet for global cash has sparked local criticism of foreign property owners inflating the market, the story behind the owners of 4743 Belmont Avenue is a quintessentially Canadian one.

Segal left school at 14 when his father died and later joined the Canadian army penniless to fight in the second world war. His road to riches began after the war, when he purchased military surplus goods that no one else wanted – starting with 2,000 cans of olive paint that he convinced farmers to buy to beautify their dilapidated barns, Segal said.

“Nobody would even take them to dump them,” he said. “I bought them for 25 cents a gallon and sold them for C$2.”

From there he built an empire spanning retail, manufacturing and real estate, including founding Fields Stores, a no-frills chain that became a fixture in many rural towns across western Canada. The holdings of his family’s Vancouver-based conglomerate Kingswood Capital Corp today include interests in children’s bed maker Stork Manufacturing, a Vancouver television broadcaster, and commercial, industrial and residential real estate developments in the region.

Segal says he is in no rush to sell.

“I don’t need the money,” he says. “I want someone who will respect and treasure it.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Vancouver home lists at C$63 million
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