VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Someone is the proud new owner of a $10.1-million condo in Downtown Vancouver. While it sounds like a lot, it's more than 30 per cent less than the $15.5 million that was asked for.
The
7,000-square-foot-plus sub-penthouse is 41 floors up in the modern Shaw Tower on Coal Harbour and has 360 degree views of the mountains.
It sold for $5 million less than asked for, but UBC real estate expert
Dr. Tsur Somerville says it's not indicative of a change in Vancouver's housing market because fewer people actually buy homes this expensive.
"That luxury market is different, and that luxury market has also cooled down from where it was earlier in 2011."
But he says luxury homes fall in a different category than homes sold in the regular market.
There are fewer high end buyers, no open houses, and less information is listed. Somerville says they tend to be on the market up to 10 times longer.
"And so list price and sale price and time on the market are just a completely different animal than it is for the type of unit that most people would buy."
The sale is not a record compared to Shangri-La's $17-million penthouse, but it's still pretty pricey.
The Shaw penthouse owner will pay $47,000 a year in taxes and nearly $4,000 a month in maintenance fees.