THE ULTIMATE IN PRIVACY:
PETER CLOUGH
Province
Mark Lester is an island sales specialist for Colliers. WAYNE LEIDENFROST — THE PROVINCE
Neil Wark of ReMax Wark Realty is B.C.’s top ‘island’ real estate agent. LES BAZSO — THE PROVINCE
West Trail Island on the Sunshine Coast comes with a deluxe home, a cultivated park with pond, sandy beaches, arbutus trees, a warm tidal swimming pool and a micro-climate that promises 60 per cent less cloud cover than Vancouver has.
Norway Island comes complete with three homes, a pool, tennis court and fruit orchard. The main house features six bedrooms and firewood that’s delivered by an electric lift.
Brethour, one of the Gulf Islands, includes gardens and pasture land, several deep ponds and a three-bedroom home featuring a sauna and marble fireplace.
South Trail Island, just off Sechelt, includes a five-bedroom lodge and two rustic log dwellings, a yearround dock, a sauna building, workshop, fruit trees — and two helicopter landing pads.
On busy weekdays, West Vancouver tax consultant David Holt looks out his office window and dreams of his own private island.
There are eagles’ nests in the trees, seals and cormorants in the harbour, wild roses in the meadow and a nice, sandy beach with clear water. To top it off, the sunsets from the house on the rocky outcrop are sublime.
For most of us, that’s where the fantasy ends. But on Friday afternoons, David Holt leaves tax shelters and business plans behind and drives out of the city and up the Sunshine Coast to his boat. After 15 minutes on the water, he pulls up to the dock at West Trail Island.
Some weekends, he takes friends along to enjoy the swimming and fishing, the arbutus trees and wildflowers and birds — including Bob, the island’s resident peacock. These days, however, Holt says he’s been spending his weekends alone. On a 16-acre island, complete with house, guest cottage and outbuildings, there’s always work to do. He usually makes a point of cranking up his stereo and not worrying about the neighbours.
“I’m in love with the place,” is how he puts it. “When I’m there, the world changes.”
Holt became king of his own domain 12 years ago when he paid less than $500,000 for West Trail, one of four islands that form the Trail Islands Group off the coast from Sechelt.
Today, as island-hunters from around the world discover what one realtor calls B.C.’s “hidden gems,” West Trail is valued at $2.7 million.
Holt has it listed for sale — though he admits he’s not entirely sure what he’ll do when the offers start to roll in. “I don’t really want to sell it,” he says.
West Trail Island comes with a deluxe 216-square-metre home, a cultivated park with pond, panoramic views of Georgia Strait from just about every room, arbutus trees, sandy beaches, a warm tidal “swimming pool” and a micro-climate that promises 60 per cent less cloud cover than Vancouver’s.
Holt says it’s really quite magical.
“You can be sitting there on the deck and you’ll see swans flying by at eye-level,” he says. “It’s just stunning.”
The man to call about West Trail and nine of the other 44 B.C. islands listed for sale (or recently sold) on www.privateislandsonline.com is Neil Wark of ReMax.
Wark is considered Vancouver’s leading island specialist and has promoted the lifestyle and investment opportunities of privately owned Gulf Islands to magazines and newspapers as far-flung as Japan and France.
“I have people coming in from Zurich and all over the place,” says Wark. “B.C.’s becoming better and better known all the time.”
Like most agents, he’s reluctant to name high-profile clients, though he somehow lets it slip that in the past couple of years he’s been helping sax player Kenny G to look for a peaceful retreat off our coast — so far, without success.
His most recent sale was to a couple from Hong Kong who paid $2.45 million for Jenkins Island near Nanaimo — 186 acres with seven beaches, five fresh-water streams and three cabins.
“They’re going to build a nice home on it, with docks and everything,” says Wark.
He says buyers in Europe, the U.S. and Asia view B.C.’s island market as undervalued in comparison to other hideaways such as the Cook Islands, the Caribbean, Fiji and the U.S. San Juans.
“A five-acre island in the San Juans could be $2 million [US],” says Wark. “I’ve got an 11-acre island with city power, city water and the rest of the stuff for less than $1 million Canadian.”
He’s talking about Helford Island, which he describes as one of the best deals on the market (it can be viewed, along with West Trail Island, at www.bcprivateislands.com).
“It has a nice little cabin, it’s never been logged and has easy access from the Sunshine Coast,” says Wark. He calls Helford a steal at $895,000.
His website also lists Clamshell Island, 1.1 acres of pristine beauty just a little too close to the Saltspring Island ferry terminal. It’s not exactly the best location for a prestigious hideaway but, at $195,000, this chunk of exclusivity can be yours for the price of a Coquitlam condo.
Owning Clamshell would put you in the same club as other private Gulf Island owners such as Tim Boyle, president of Portland, Ore.-based Columbia Sportswear.
In December, Boyle bought Brethour Island, near Sidney, from a Swiss industrialist. At $6.5 million, he got himself a deal, considering that Brethour has been valued on some island-fantasy websites at as much as $9 million.
Brethour is known for its harbour seals, its park-like setting and its spectacular variety of birdlife. A previous owner put in a six-hole golf course — now in need of a major overhaul. Nevertheless, it was no doubt a detail that caught the eye of Boyle, an avid golfer, when he visited last year to look for a companion to nearby Domville Island, which he also owns.
Mark Lester, the Vancouver realtor who sold Brethour, says the Forbes 400-types and the occasional celebrity client he escorts around B.C. islands are looking for more than a sound investment. He says they see this part of the world as a secure hideaway.
“Even if you’re a very well known individual, you can have total anonymity on your island here,” says Lester. “You can have total privacy. You really are the king of your own domain and, for some people, that’s tremendously appealing.”
He points out that Americans who bought in on our island boom at the beginning have made huge profits on the Canadian dollar. “When we had a 67-cent dollar it was much easier
for Americans to purchase,” says Lester. “Our real estate was incredibly inexpensive. Now some of those same Americans who purchased then have made an incredibly good lift on exchange alone. They don’t need to be as aggressive with price.”
Regardless of exchange rates, says Lester, most real-estate analysts estimate the appreciation of coastal islands in B.C. at between eight and 10 per cent per year.
“The Gulf Islands are a pretty amazing place,” he says. “So is the whole B.C. coast. In the context of the international marketplace, it’s a real hidden gem. If you look at values of the Canadian Gulf Islands and the San Juans, you can pay 15 per cent again at least to get the same property.”
Retired Seattle-area dentist Norm Culver says he can hardly believe the bargain he got when he decided to buy an island in B.C. He has a permanent home on a shared island in the San Juans but says the proliferation of “Keep Off” and “No Trespassing” signs convinced him it was time to follow his boyhood dream of owning his own island.
“The San Juans were prohibitively expensive, so I kept going farther and farther north, looking at the websites, until I got to the point where I could afford one,” says Culver.
He stopped at Dick Island, accessible at low tide by foot from Texada. He paid just $300,000 for a 16-acre island with cabin that would’ve been priced in the millions had it been on the U.S. side of the border.
“It’s remote and that’s the very thing I wanted,” says Culver. “It has first-growth timber, two eagles’ nests and about a mile of waterfront — just beautiful.”
Going north might well be how the rest of us can afford to join the club.
New Westminster realtor Brian Harris says Haida Gwaii is fast becoming the new frontier of recreational real estate. One of his listings on www.landquest.com is Maple Island, a 2.5-acre retreat just 1.6 kilometres from the government wharf in Queen Charlotte City. With an asking price of $125,000, the listing notes that while there’s no cabin on the island, it does have an incredible variety of fossils — perfect for that marine biologist who’s at home with a table-saw and doesn’t mind constant drizzle.
“The inquiries we’ve had to date have been from fishermen who want a getaway in the heart of B.C.’s best fishing area,” says Harris. “There’ve also been inquiries from people who want to do commercial kayaking and things like that.”
If you can’t afford your own B.C. island, the next best thing is to get yourself hired as a caretaker.
For 10 years, Robert Day and his wife Dorothy have looked after Scott Island near Chemainus on behalf of Sir David Wynn-Williams — better known among locals as The Duke of Wales.
Sir David flies in from the U.K. just once or twice a year.
Day says island-sitting is not as cushy as it sounds. “A lot of people think there’s nothing to do, but it’s a full-time job,” he says. “You have to maintain boats and lawns and gardens and whatever else is there.”
Scott Island, too, is on the market — listed at $5.3 million. Sir David, head of a dairy business, is said to be looking for an island a little closer to home.
Victoria realtor Peter Nash (www.peternash.com) is the man to call if you’re interested in buying this 4.53-acre crown jewel located in a marine area known as “the banana belt.” Scott comes with a five-bedroom house, caretakers’ wing (plus caretakers), tennis courts, six outbuildings, one of the best harbours in the Gulf Islands, a hydraulic crane for unloading supplies, a $250,000 boat and all furniture, fixtures and fittings — right down to the curtains.
Has anyone called Kenny G?
[email protected] Here are a few other islands in B.C. currently for sale
American Island: 8 acres, $84,900
This is your big chance to own an entire kilometre of spectacular waterfront — not on the coast, unfortunately, but in a corner of Stuart Lake in northern B.C. The island comes with beaches and good moorage bays. “A sporstsman’s dream,” says the listing.
East Point Islet: 3 acres, $299,000
East Point, near Nelson Island on the Sunshine Coast, is described as having a great beach, safe moorage, well water, spectacular views and great fishing and scuba diving. “Priced to sell,” says the listing.
Ring Island: 14.4 acres, $560,000 Here’s your chance to rule an island for less than the average price of a home in North Van. Ring Island is located on the sunny southwest side of Cortes Island and is noted for its fine oysters. But “unspoiled and undeveloped” means you’ll be living in a tent until you get the cabin up.
Ballenas Island: 100 acres, $1,600,000
Located about 50 kilometres north of Nanaimo, Ballenas is just a 20-minute airhop from Vancouver. The listing describes it as “one of B.C.’s world famous coastal islands unrivalled for its rugged beauty, privacy and the sea-life surrounding it.” We’ll take it.
