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High-end Okanagan shrugs off the real estate blues

Multimillion-dollar property and land sales continue across the Central and North Okanagan this autumn, despite economic angst
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Edmonton-based Westrich Pacific plans a luxury 1,000-home mixed development on a 13-acre waterfront site it bought in West Kelowna. | Westrich Pacific

Sales of prime waterfront, residential land and luxury properties in B.C.’s Okanagan continue, despite the angst that has stunted much of British Columbia’s real estate market in the second half of 2022.

Jane Hoffman of Jane Hoffman Realty, Coldwell Banker, said her team transacted $62.5 million worth of listings in the eight weeks ending October 21, with pricing from $2.7 million to $9.75 million.

At Predator Ridge, a golf course community between Kelowna and Vernon, 30 of 38 building lots in the new Outlook subdivision quickly sold at prices ranging from $640,000 to more than $1.2 million, according to Jeff Hudson of HM Commercial in Kelowna.

And a listing for a 13.1-acre lakefront site in West Kelowna, under a 125-year pre-paid lease by Westbank First Nation, sold in October to Edmonton-based developer Westrich Pacific in a deal brokered by HM Commercial. The sale price was not released, but sources estimate it was north of $25 million. Westrich Pacific plans a luxury 1,000-home development with a retail village, under a conditional development permit inked September 10.

“Although there is short-term uncertainty in the market, there are still very big projects like this happening throughout the Okanagan,” Hudson said.

Other notable deals transacted in the third quarter of this year include a 0.92-acre building site at Big White ski hill, Kelowna that sold for $2.45 million, and a 4.5-acre multi-family development site in West Kelowna, which sold for $5.16 million, according to HM Commercial’s quarterly report released October 26.

As well,  Sutton Place Hotels, a luxury hotel brand owned and operated by B.C.-based Northland Properties Corporation, announced September 9 that it is building a new luxury hotel at Kelowna International Airport, with construction to start in 2023.