Dunbar teardown for $5 million suggests Vancouver's real-estate market isn't ready to return to Earth just yet

On September 22, the provincial government released its third round of data on B.C. real estate to reveal that sales to foreign nationals plummeted following the introduction of a 15-percent tax on such transactions.

Then, on October 4, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported that property sales across the Lower Mainland continued a downward trend they’ve been on for six months now and, in September, fell below the 10-year average for the first time since May 2014.

Meanwhile, the City of Vancouver is moving ahead with plans to implement a tax on vacant homes and Ottawa is tightening restrictions on risky mortgages.

All of that might give people hope that the region’s out-of-control real-estate market might soon begin to chill. But listings that some might describe as unreasonable are still easy to find.

Take this four-bedroom, two-bathroom fixer upper on West 29^th Avenue in the city’s West Side.

Asking price: $5 million even.

The author of the listing doesn’t even pretend to care about the house that sits on this 6,540-square-foot lot. Its description makes no mention of bedrooms or bathrooms. Instead, it focuses on the land.

“This is a perfect opportunity to buy a large oversized lot in the Dunbar area,” it reads.

In case you were wondering, 15 percent of $5 million is $750,000. Even for the wealthy, that’s quite a premium to pay on a teardown.

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