The City of Vancouver is known by a number of nicknames, including Raincouver, Hollywood North, Terminal City and a few others..It’s also known as Canada’s most expensive housing market and is singled out in the Demographia International Housing Affordability report as being the third least affordable housing market for in the world, behind only Hong Kong and Sydney, Australia.. $22-million house up for sale in VancouverGourmet kitchen .The Demographia report measures the affordability of housing in 92 major markets around the world, using the median multiple, a price-to-income ratio, which is the median house price divided by the gross median household income (pre-tax). .The equation results in the number of years it takes to buy a home, if every dollar of household income was used to pay for the home. The lower the number, the better.. $22 million house up for sale in VancouverA place to retire to when you see your monthly mortgage payment. .Hong Kong’s median multiple is 23.2, Sydney’s is 15.3 and Vancouver’s is 13.3. By comparison Edmonton, which Demographia identifies as Canada’s most affordable major market, has a median multiple of 3.6..The cost of land is the deciding factor in housing affordability..“Harvard University’s William Alonso showed that the value of land tends to rise from the low agricultural values outside the built-up urban area to the center. Normally, without urban containment, land values tend to rise gradually, as distances increase from the center,” says the Demographia report’s author, Wendell Cox, a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and the Urban Reform Institute.. $22 million house up for sale in VancouverLuxurious bathroom in $22 million house up for sale in Vancouver .“With urban containment, it is expected there will be abrupt land value increases, such as at urban growth boundaries. Land values and house prices tend to be higher throughout the entire area of urban containment.”.The Greater Vancouver Area has more natural urban containment than other Canadian cities, with the Pacific Ocean and Rocky Mountains drawing the lines for development.. $22 million house up for sale in Vancouver$22 million house up for sale in Vancouver .The area’s proximity to the Canada/US border could be considered a mandated urban containment, as is an area immediately east reserved, by law, as an agriculture-only area..A home recently put on the market in Vancouver’s Kerrisdale community gives an example of the rising cost of land in the area..The 10,177-sq.-ft. home on a 41,530-sq.-ft. lot is listed at $22 million. .The current home, built in 2018, is not the only home to have been on the huge lot. .Records show the property has been sold at least three times since 1996. In that year, it sold for $1,180,000. It sold again in 2011 for $6,350,000, an amazing 438% increase from 1996. The most recent sale was in 2013, for $8,800,000, an increase of 39%. If it sells for $22 million, it’s a 250% increase from 2013..The home has everything you would expect for the price, and more, including multiple safe rooms to ‘escape disasters’ and a shooting gallery, says the sales brochure..Listing agent Herb Fischer, of Sutton Group-West Coast Realty, says the three-storey mansion, located on Southwest Marine Drive overlooking the Fraser River, has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms, a chef's dream kitchen and a large ground floor bedroom with an ensuite and changing room..The main floor also features a grand foyer and a concert hall in the front, leading to a huge entertaining living area with river views..The owners’ bedroom on the third level features a full ensuite, a computer room, arcade loft, a gallery and bar..Downstairs are a theatre, gym and sauna, wine cellar and another bar. The basement level also includes a library and another bedroom, as well as the shooting gallery..And, of course, the home has an elevator (handy for going from bar to bar after a few shots in the gallery)..Annual property taxes are approximately $70,000, slightly lower than monthly mortgage payments, based on a 20% downpayment and a 25-year amortization period at an interest rate of 2.25%..But, it’s all about the land. As Mark Twain said, “Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.”
