Words like 'spacious' and 'private' are commonly used in real estate descriptions, but for a Burnaby property currently listed with Sotheby's, those aren't just catchphrases.
With 14,000 square feet sitting on a gated 60,000 square foot property, the Burris Street mansion is certainly both spacious and private - but with a price tag to match.
At $12.8 million, it's not the most expensive residential listing in the Vancouver region (that would be a West Vancouver property listed on MLS for $39 million) but it's at the top of the pack in Burnaby, with the next highest current MLS listing in this city coming in just shy of $5 million.
"To my knowledge, it is the highest in Burnaby (historically), by quite a ways - it's built like no other home," said Jamie MacDougall, a Sotheby's real estate representative.
The "very private" owners have lived in the Deer Lake neighbourhood home since it was built in 1995.
"It was built over a three-year period. They had an architect - Ernest Collins - and it was designed by him and the family hand-picked everything," said MacDougall.
The home features a grand foyer entrance, private patios off the bedrooms, a "dream" library and office, indoor racquet ball court with viewing lounge, billiard room, wine cellar, tennis court, outdoor swimming pool, an English rose garden, a four-car garage and luxury finishings from marble to limestone and stained glass.
MacDougall said that, among the real estate community, the estate is known for the quality of the work and construction that went into it.
"It's incredibly well built," he said.
"Estates are really a market all their own," he said, noting that it's almost impossible to compare such a property to others in the same city or region.
It also means the market for buyers is a global one.
"It's absolutely an international sale - that's why Sotheby's is marketing it and it has had showings from different offices in our network," he said.
Sotheby's has more than a dozen realty offices across Canada, and more than 550 offices total worldwide in more than 38 countries.
It's the privacy that's been most appealing to potential buyers who have come to view it, said MacDougall.
"You come in the gate and it's like resort-style living - the privacy is amazing, and that's important (to potential buyers)."
It was also designed with the intention of being capable of "international entertaining" for both business and personal guests.
Still, at the end of the day, despite its size and grandeur, it's still a family home.
"It was built for a family with kids," he says.
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