When Black Press Media first wrote about an Oak Bay mansion selling for nearly $10 million back in January, some readers were angry at how expensive Victoria real estate had become.
And so they took it out on a house on Midland Road that is about 14,000 square feet.
Some took to social media and called it a “white elephant” – an easy target because the house is all white and it has a large footprint on a property that is nearly one acre.
The house has a lot going for it with five bedroom suites, 12 bathrooms, three kitchens and a turntable that rotates your vehicle in the garage.
And yet, despite being in one of Canada’s most desirable neighbourhoods, the mansion has languished on the market for more than 200 days.
It’s not the only one. A 10,000-square-foot mansion on Beach Drive that’s selling for $11.5 million has been on the market for more than 122 days.
The latest Victoria Real Estate Board show that July sales are up from the same month in 2022, but down from June.
A total of 595 properties sold this July, 16.7-per-cent more than the 510 properties sold in July 2022 but a 15.6-per-cent decrease from June 2023. Sales of condominiums were up 16.3 per cent from July 2022 with 200 units sold. Sales of single-family homes increased 15.4 per cent from July 2022 with 293 sold.
“We talked about the return to seasonal norms last month,” said Victoria Real Estate Board chair Graden Sol. “The July numbers reinforce the re-establishment of seasonal patterns with a slow-down in activity as the summer season set in. This dip in activity doesn’t come as a surprise — it aligns with the familiar and expected seasonal patterns that have been observed in our market over the years.”
There were 2,419 active listings for sale on the Victoria Real Estate Board Multiple Listing Service at the end of July 2023, an increase of 3.3 per cent compared to the previous month of June and a 11.9-per-cent increase from the 2,162 active listings for sale at the end of July 2022.
READ MORE: Greater Victoria used buyers scammed with e-transfers that drain accounts