WATCH: The real estate market on the Lower Mainland is sending a record number of buyers Vancouver Island’s way. Many people are now taking advantage of million dollar plus home values there and buying their dream homes across the water.
Maggie Devries was exploring her garden on Tuesday.
“Yes. We have our own little secret garden here,” said Devries. “There’s a lot to this garden. I keep discovering more and more.”
She and her husband are planting roots here as new transplants themselves.
“It’s a very special area,” said the new Ladysmith resident. “With the rolling hills, the real feel of country and yet access.”
The couple made the move to Ladysmith in June of 2017, after selling off their townhouse in Vancouver that stepped onto busy Marine Drive. In exchange, they got quite a bit of money.
Not only does new their home’s ocean-view neighbourhood back onto greenspace, they gained a bedroom, 900 square feet, a massive yard and a lot of cash in their pockets.
“We wound up [with] roughly $300,000 after buying this place,” said Devries’ husband Roland Kokke.
“So we actually ended up doing a little better in Vancouver than we were anticipating and so that was very nice.”
They are part of the record number of buyers moving to the Island from the Lower Mainland in the past year.
The Vancouver Island Real Estate Board (VIREB) says Lower Mainland residents cashing in on homes over there and buying up here made up for a whopping 26 per cent of buyers over the last year. That’s up from 10 per cent just three years ago.
“It’s been an opportunity to cash out on their homes over on the Mainland and be able to purchase a home at a fraction of the cost,” said president of the VIREB, Don McClintock.
“Like 25 per cent or so of the cost that they enjoyed in the sale of their home over there,” said McClintock.
Roland Kokke expects more Lower Mainlanders to do the same.
“It’s a pretty logical move to make if you’re not tied to your work or by other factors,” said Kokke.
Skye Ryan
