Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Revelstoke condos sell out in three hours

"Great value" says Canadian, international buyers

By Clare Ogilvie

More than $60 million worth of ski-in ski-out condos sold out in three hours this week.

Expecting to see a Whistler brand on the sale? Well look again — the flash flood of buyers was in Revelstoke, where resort development has barely started.

“We expected a strong showing from registration but it was a little surprising,” said Don Simpson, the developer of the Revelstoke Mountain Resort from his base in Denver, Colorado.

Simpson is partnered with Toronto developers Hunter Milborne and Robert Powadiuk to create Revelstoke Mountain Resort (RMR).

In fact developers had only planned to pre-sell units in the first building, Nelsen Lodge, but the demand was so great they ended up offering units in the second building for sale too, though they weren’t supposed to go on offer until this fall.

The units, priced from $310,000 to $2 million were the first to be sold in a $1 billion, 15 year plan to turn Mount MacKenzie into a four-season resort. That plan includes a call for up to 16,000 bed units, guest service facilities, an 18-hole golf course, a multi-use trail system, 25 lifts and 100 ski and snowboard trails.

At buildout it will be about one third the size of Whistler and comparable to Big White and Sun Peaks.

More than 4,000 registrants flooded the Sotheby’s International Realty, Canada sales team over the past two months in anticipation of the condo pre construction sales release.

"We anticipated the response to the first real estate offering would be large, but the demand has exceeded even our highest expectations," commented Ross McCredie, President and CEO of Sotheby's International Realty Canada, which handled the sale of the units.

"Clearly, these buyers understand the future value of this resort, and its place among the most unique mountain playgrounds in the world."

Surprisingly, 56 per cent of the buyers were from the U.S.

“That was what was surprising to me,” said McCredie.

“A lot of the American buyers pick up a paper every day and see how bad the market is, but I think a lot of people are very bullish on Canada and in particular Western Canada. And when… I was promoting this in the U.K. they thought the price was the deposit.”

Europeans have been traveling to the Revelstoke area for years to take advantage of the many heli-ski operations there and with non-stop flights from Europe to Kelowna on the horizon it is likely the destination will become even more popular.

Also, said McCredie, the demographics in Europe are changing and with an older crowd vacationing they are less concerned about spending a whole day traveling.

Revelstoke is poised for growth. In 15 years, said McCredie: “I think it will be known as the best ski resort in North America for skiers.

“For people really going for true mountain experience. You can wake up there and ski down onto lift service or go Cat-skiing or heli-skiing and in summer you have golf, fishing, mountain biking, and hiking trails.

“The other thing that is unique, you have a town of 8,500 people right there.”

As well as giving Whistler a run for its money on how fast real estate sells out Revelstoke is about to take away one of the resort’s other bragging rights — vertical drop. With the addition of a $22 million gondola and high speed quad chairlift the mountain will offer the longest skiable vertical in North America, at 1,829 metres.

Whistler boasts a vertical of 1,609 metres.

Phase one for the new lifts is expected to be operational for the 07/08 season. In 2008 the gondola will be extended to achieve the full vertical.

Simpson, chairman of the Simpson Property Group, Canada, said buyers realized that the real estate was a great value.

“I think people realize it is a bargain,” he said.

“As far as the amount of terrain, the vertical drop, and it does have more snow and better snow so to buy right next to the gondola in comparable resorts it would be two to three times the cost.

“It is something new and it is a value compared to Whistler.”

More single-family lots and townhouses will be offered up this summer.

On its peak Mount MacKenzie receives an average of 1,200 cm of snow a year, about double that of Whistler, and its higher overall altitude should also offer "lighter" snow as well.

On Jan. 16, RMR announced its purchase of local heli-ski operation, Selkirk Tangiers Helicopter Skiing Ltd. With this addition, the resort will boast over half a million acres of heli-ski terrain with access from the resort base.

A single two-seat lift has been operating on the hill since the late 1960s, known as Powder Springs. More recently a cat-ski operation has offered "lifts" to higher elevations. In order to build the local economy, the City of Revelstoke started the process of finding outside investors to dramatically expand the ski area and build a large resort complex at the base of the mountain.

While the Revelstoke condo sale surprised many, Whistler is also ready to see a new real estate offering by Cressey, at Fitzsimmons Walk.

Realtor John Ryan said he hopes the sales will be brisk but the offering has come up quickly and so he is being conservative in his expectations.

“I think we will have good absorption, but it is a little early to tell if we will sell out,” he said.

But with the unique townhouses, offering “outdoor living rooms” with fireplaces, double secure garages, awesome views and easy access to village amenities chances are they won’t last long.

The 41, four-bedroom luxury units have a starting price of $1.8 million.

The market in Whistler does seem to be bouncing back from the doldrums over the last few years. Sales of homes over $1 million are up 38 per cent over this time last year, said Ryan.

  Homes under $1 million are also up 20 per cent and homes over $4 million are also selling well.

“We have really come back to life,” he said. “I don’t think people realized how slow we have really been.”

Several factors are at play, said Ryan, including a great snow year when the rest of the world had very little, the Olympic effect and a growing realization that Whistler real estate is good value for money.

“All of sudden people are saying value and Whistler in the same sentence,” he said.

“I never thought I would hear that again, so I am getting a lot of clients saying, ‘you are selling stuff up there for (a price) that you couldn’t build it for.’”

This fall will also see 36 Whistler Housing Authority units come available from the Fitzsimmons Walk development. They will be priced in the $200,000-$300,000 range.

Ryan said he was not surprised by the rapid uptake of the Revelstoke units as most were priced under $500,000.

“It is fantastic,” he said.

“It is really the first offering of that kind in Revelstoke and I think they are promoting it well with the new lifts and so on.”