Real Estate in Whistler

Hi everyone, I’m James Garbutt. And I’m Denny Dumas. And this is the Garbutt Dumas Real Estate Podcast.

Denny: Whistler has always been a favorite spot of mine, weekend getaways, I guess part of the appeal from Greater Vancouver is that it’s extremely accessible to people in Vancouver being an hour and a half drive. One thing I don’t know a ton about is Whistler real estate.

But, always super curious and every time I’m up there I find myself checking mls of like, what’s available, what appraisals look like today, how are they so expensive? Who’s paying for these? So naturally I wanted to chat with our good friend, Nick. He has been a Whistler realtor for…

Nick: Oh man over a decade. 2008.

Denny: 2008. Yeah, strange year to start.

Nick: Yeah.  Let me tell you about it. 

Denny: You grew up in Vancouver? 

Nick: No, no, I was. I was Edmonton born and raised. Yeah, so dealing, licking my wounds, licking my wounds this morning after last night. But Edmonton  born and raised and then been out in Whistler for 17 years, 17 years since 2006. Selling since 2008. Yes,  very interesting year to come into real estate. 

Denny: One thing I did not necessarily know, I guess I would have guessed, a high percentage, but you mentioned early that 85% of the Whistler market is greater Vancouver, vacation homes, rental homes, etc. 

So, the reason for this podcast is to update our listeners on what’s going on in Whistler. what the market looks like with interest rates 6% ish, what investment properties look like in Whistler, so I think we’re just gonna give like a big summary of what’s currently going on there. 

Maybe let’s start with interest rates go up six or four and a quarter percent last year. What did Whistler do?

Nick: I think like everything or like everyone it kind of came to a bit of a halt. I mean once, once ski season was over last year, towards the end of March, beginning of April, everything really did kind of slow down considerably from the, from the run up that we saw. As we headed in back into summer was, summer was actually incredibly slow. Normally summer we’ve over the last kind of five to seven years. Summer has really kind of picked up again and then obviously there’s a run up in the ski season. So we saw a bit of that run up in September, October and then a bit of November and then everything just kind of died out. 

Denny: Does real estate naturally move with like the seasons of Whistler? Obviously summer, mountain biking and skiing in the winter.

Nick: Yeah.

Denny: So those like shoulder seasons…historically slows?

Nick: Yeah, historically speaking, you know, as I’ve always found that, you know, especially going into, into ski season One I’m a little bit different now but you know, going into ski season you’re moving into like revenue season as well. So you don’t have to hold on to the property as long without generating any revenue. So there, that tends to be the time when the majority of the transactions are getting done. 

There’s, I find it’s like you’re going into like the fourth quarter there’s money in the bank, job secure. Whistler’s always been a dream of people, right? And it’s like, okay, we’re doing it, it’s ski season, let’s go. Plus, like, I mean, there’s just nowhere to rent in Whistler either right?  

I mean, we’ve got an offer in last night on one of our two bedroom townhouses and in Deer Run and that was there in the email, they said that like they’ve been renting for 20 years and they’re like, they don’t want to do it anymore they just want their own place. Kids are in ski school and so yeah, so that’s the, that’s generally our peak period, is that kind of September through to December. But it’s changed over the last kind of five to seven years for sure.

Denny:As a listing agent, are you steering people to like waiting to list until the beginning of ski season then? I find, well, I’m thinking that there could be some issues with that too, in terms of like scheduling, Airbnb or rentals for that season and then you’re selling a property that is currently rented. Are you cutting potential buyers out if they’re wanting to use the property during ki season etc?

Nick: Yeah, I mean, I, I tend I’m always I think I’m probably more of the mindset that like, there’s no better time than the present. Everybody’s got different reasons for selling whatnot. The other thing that we do see I mean, right now even like being in what are we in May now? I mean, historically speaking, we’ve seen inventory levels, you know, rise after ski season, but the sales have basically matched the inventory coming on and that’s the biggest issue that we have in Whistler right now is there’s just there’s not a lot of inventory. I mean, we’re at all time all time lows again, right? So.

Denny: You can say that for Greater Vancouver too.

Nick: Yeah.

Denny: January was the lowest number of new listings in Greater Vancouver in any month since 2004. April was the lowest number of new listings for an April since 2003. 

Nick: Wow.

Denny: So, in Greater Vancouver, I think Whistler’s probably feeling the same thing and maybe give me a quick summary. In the last maybe 60 days, it’s gone from slow and steady with no inventory, buyers starting to build up a little bit activity, increasing on listings, open houses to complete frenzy again.

Nick: Yeah.

Denny: And like I was mentioning we had a, any listing that is priced correctly, it seems like in the majority of neighborhoods, is super busy in sales in a week.

Like, we had that North Van house I was telling you about a couple weeks ago they had 75 showings and four offers a week one. Then like even an area that is slightly saturated for inventory like North Surrey. There’s just a lot of new buildings and a lot of product there. A lot of condos. We had a one bedroom condo list last week that sold in four days. 

Nick: Really. 

Denny: And I thought we listed high. Like if you look at what was available, this was a brand new building. So maybe slightly different but there’s a lot of product that is like three to five years old in that neighborhood that was priced 50k below us. Somehow,  everything sells apparently. 

So what’s changed? What is that landscape look like in Whistler in the last let’s say like month or two? 

Nick: Yeah, I think it’s, like I said, our, our issue has always been kind of inventory, inventory levels. You know, 10 years ago, we had 600. I mean, they give you kind of an idea and an example. After the Olympics in 2010. In April of 2010, everybody hung on for that Olympic windfall revenue and then soon it was over, the market got flooded. We had like 1100 properties for sale in Whistler, yeah.

Denny: Which comparatively like a typical spring would be what?

Nick: Well, I mean, to give you an idea now, like where we sit today, we’re at 180, in all of Whistler. 

Denny: Seven times the inventory.

Nick: Yeah. Like go back 10 years to 2013. We were at about 600. Like for us to have a really balanced market. We need kind of 450 ish properties to have a balanced market. We’re at 100 and I did the newsletter on Friday, roughly 180, 181 I mean, I’ve seen it as low like in the peak of COVID when all the craziness was going on. We had like 95 properties for sale. So it’s like one comes on, it sells and another one comes on, it sells. 

We don’t have any new development either. Right? Like we’re maxed out on our bed units, so it’s all recycled inventory. So, if that answers your question? 

Denny: Yeah. Property value can you give me like a few different examples of maybe like a one bedroom condo that is in an Airbnb building? A two bedroom townhouse, a single like entry level single family home like what do those market values look like today?

Nick: Today? Yeah. So a one bedroom, like a one bedroom condo. Well, I can tell you about the one that I just sold in Tyndall Stone Lodge. So, Tyndall Stone Lodge, center of the village basically, looking onto the Olympic rings, right on the stroll. For those of you like Purebread, you know where Purebread is?

Denny: Yeah.

Nick:  Okay, so it’s the one that’s about Purebred. One bedroom 550 square feet. They listed it at $1,000,039 I had a client that found out about it right away before it even hit our, we have the WMLS, before it even hit the market. Offered subject free above list, they countered back more above list and said if you don’t take this then we’re going to relist higher and do a DRPO and all that so so we took it.

But so again to answer your question phase one condo in the village anywhere from $925,000 up to $1.1 is basically kind of where things are at from the condo side of things. A two bedroom townhouse in something like you know, North Star Symphony. There’s one in Granite court. That’s kind of the main village and then going up into The Benchlands is a little bit more value there, like a ski and two bedroom ski in ski out condo in the Aspen’s is 2 million bucks $2.1.

Denny: That’s crazy. What would square footage look like?

Nick:  Like 850sq ft.

Denny: 850.

Nick: Yeah.

Denny: That’s like 2500 bucks a foot, roughly.

Nick: Yeah, yeah, it’s, it’s quite I mean, you go over across, the across the mountain to Pinnacle Ridge. It’s like, I mean, these are big townhouses. They’re 2400 square foot townhouses. They’re $3,000 a foot, ski in, ski out, and the whole nine yards. But for the most part, like something in Northstar Symphony, Granite Court, you’re looking say $1.65, up to up to $2, depending on the property and depending on the complex and how it’s finished and, and everything else, that’s in the village. 

Benchlands there’s a little bit more. There’s a little bit higher value in The Benchlands at the peak. I sold, I sold a unit in BlackHome Greens right on the first hole of the Chateau golf course. For $2.5. That was January two years ago. Yeah, that’s at the peak. So and that’s 1000 square feet. Yeah.

Denny: Nick mentioned, one second, then I’ll let you update single family.  Nick mentioned something that called Phase 1. We’re gonna get into that in podcast two., so you’re gonna have to listen to the next one. We will have that stuff in detail of what properties and where can be Airbnb’d versus what cannot versus what is Phase two, we’ll explain all that stuff but getting back to updates, market value.. So go into single family home, like what would an entry level single family home within 10 minute drive of the village be?

Nick: Yeah. I mean, it depends on what you classify as entry level.

Denny: Well, there’s a lot of I guess, is that just west of the village?

Nick:  North?

Denny: Just North of the village? 

Nick: Yeah. 

Denny: There was a lot of like those 1970 kind of chalets.

Nick: Yeah. Okay, are so I did a deal, last month. The property had actually been on the market for a while, it was built in 1968, 1500 square feet ,nice kind of A frame. It was, it was in relatively good shape, big lot, you know, 12,500 square foot lot. So lots of potential to do different things with a lot and everything and they brought it on at $3.2 million. I mean, there wasn’t anything, this wasn’t renovated or anything like that, brought it on at $3.2 million. Drop the price, drop the price, it was on the, on the market for just over 300 days. And then of course, once you drop the price to a certain level, then everybody wants it, right. So there we are in multiple offers again, and sold for just over $2.5. I mean, that’s pretty much a lot value.

I mean, at our height, average price, like in 2020, like the height of COVID or 2021 I guess. Average Price was like $4.8 million for a single family average. 

Denny:  Average, wow.

Nick: Average. Today we’re at $3.4 average, we came down a bit but it’s starting to creep back up again. Again, this is just there’s no inventory. I did a deal on a house in guess back in October in White Gold, which is probably the, I would say top three premier neighborhoods in Whistler, walk to the village, walk to Blackcomb, all that kind of stuff. Right on Fitzsimmons Creek like it was on Fitzsimmons Road South which is like kind of Premier, primo road. Nobody’s going to be built behind you. It’s all like Crown land. You got the view. 

House was built in ‘94 – ‘91.  $6.1 million and he’s doing a million and a half dollar renovation on it. So, another house down the street sold for $8.6 brand new, all that good stuff so you actually know the, you probably know who the old owner was, anyway. I’ll tell you later.

Denny:  Alright. Where’s all this money coming from? You mentioned about 85% of people are coming from Greater Vancouver. You know, multiple 5-6-7-$8 million homes. Where’s this money coming from?

Nick: I don’t know. I mean, like I’m yeah…

Denny: It’s hard to explain. 

Nick:  It’s pretty crazy. 

Denny: Like these are like business owners, physicians who are they? 

Nick: Lawyers, investment guys. Like I mean, Whistler’s got a lot of like kind of who’s who in it. Right? You know, like the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, you know. Lululemon’s there. Aritizia’s there and, you know, people that you, you wouldn’t necessarily think of like that own businesses and stuff. Like it’s just, I mean, it seems like it’s the place to I mean. And it’s so easy. I mean, you were saying at the beginning there. Vancouver in the Olympics, Vancouver got the Canada Line, we got the highway and that just opened everything up for us. 

I mean, it’s easy. You can get to Whistler from Downtown in an hour and a half. You know, and it’s all about lifestyle now. Everybody, everybody wants to live that, that lifestyle. So where the money is coming from I have no idea. The majority of the buyers are coming from the Lower Mainland. Like I said 80-85% of them are coming from the Lower Mainland. We are seeing more so high end stuff like the high, high end is coming from overseas. So…

Denny: With the Canadian dollar, we probably seem like a very inexpensive investment for those types of people. 

Nick: Yeah,I mean, the only thing like when I first got into selling I mean, the it was the Americans that really buoyed the market from 2003 to 2008. Because at that time, the dollar was like 60 cents. And so and they were just spending, spending like crazy and coming up there and I mean, they probably, you know when the Four Seasons was built in 2005 I bet you probably 80% was foreign, foreign ownership. And then you know, the whole world collapses and but it was almost like they hedged against the, against the currency. So what they lost on their sale price from what they paid, they made back on the currency because that you know, from 2009 to 2011, or whatever the dollar went to par and above, right, so.

Denny: Is anything slow right now? And like is the high end luxury stuff that’s 6-7-8 $9 million. Is that slower? Was not affected at all by the foreign buyer ban in January 2022?

Nick: Well no, because we don’t have it. Whistler’s exempt. Whistler, we don’t have, we don’t have the foreign buyer ban. We don’t have the vacancy tax, we don’t like, we have nothing like Whistler and Pemberton are, we don’t, we weren’t affected by any of that. So…

Denny: For some reason I thought the foreign buyer ban was all across Canada. 

Nick: It is. Except for Whistler and Pemberton.

Denny: Huh. How does that work?

Nick: It’s a population thing. And I think because honestly I think Whistler is like the crown jewel. I mean, from, I don’t know this, I don’t don’t quote me on this but I from what I’ve heard or I mean, Whistler – Blackcome basically leases the land for the ski hill and the Crown gets a royalty from every, from every lift pass and lift ticket and everything else like it’s you know,

Denny: So it’s in their favor to keep it…

Nick: To keep it busy. Right I mean, that’s, that’s what they want. So, but yeah, so we don’t there’s no, there’s no foreign buyer ban. There’s no, we don’t have any of that. So neither does Pemberton.

Denny: How is there much new construction? Outside of what’s there now? Like, how does it grow? It seems like they’re the problem like Greater Vancouver is there’s very low supply.

Nick: Yeah. Yeah, there’s nowhere really I mean, there’s a couple of little pockets throughout Whistler that you know, there’s single family home construction, but there’s no real new development. There’s a development that’s been in the works, where the tennis center is in Whistler, kind of near Montebello and stuff in that vacant area. It’s gone through a couple of different developers and there’s all sorts of talk all the time about it, but nothing is ever.

I think eventually you’ll start to see some stuff open up especially, I mean, they need to adjust, address the housing issue especially for locals and all of that. There’s  I don’t know if you know we’re WedgeWoods is north of the village, past Emerald.

Denny: Okay.

Nick:  It’s about what would be 10 minutes, nine minutes from the village. So they’ve got I think they’re starting their fifth and sixth phase up there.

Denny: Is that kind of around Green Lake?

Nick: Past Green Lake.Yeah, but like on the Green River. I mean, when they first started that oh man, like, I mean, lots in there. They sold as low as $275,000. Like $350,000. We couldn’t even like give it away and now everything was just, you know, just gets bought up and they build these nice big homes, you get great value. Of like, a house out there the cost. There was one that sold $4.0 or sorry, $5.0. It sold for $5.1. $4.8 or $5.1 just before Christmas. 

I mean that house in Whistler, right in the main village would be $8.0 to $10. Like there’s that much of a difference of like, do you want to do that drive? The 10 minute drive to the because if you’re not, if you don’t ski in, ski out, you’re driving anyway. 

Denny: Exactly. 

Nick: You know, so just depends on on what you want. Then it’s nice because you can do ,you can do Airbnb out there as well.

Denny: Why is there no, why is there no new development? Is it the municipality, they don’t want it?

Nick:  Bed units. Yeah, 

Denny: What does that mean?

Nick: So basically, when the municipality was created, they created a certain number of bed units per complex, per neighborhood. And they set a cap on it. So there’s certain areas that have more allowable bed units. So for development to be built, but we’re not creating any more of it.

Denny: So they talked about adjusting those numbers like as population grows?

Nick: They’re pretty sticky when it comes to that. There’s really not a lot of like unless it’s there. You know, like and there’s like I said, there’s certain pockets in and around Whistler, but they’re not, they’re not like oh, here’s, here’s more.

Denny: Is there anything on the outskirts of Whistler that is just at the beginning, where they’re starting to subdivide property where they’re starting to sell off pieces of land, like let’s say, whatever that neighborhood around Green Lake was, 10 years ago?

Nick: Yeah, not I mean, really not. Not particularly there are like I looked on the, I guess like on the SLRD website and the maps and everything just to kind of see what you know, exploring. There’s a cut like I mean, Cheakamus which is just as you get into Whistler. So you got Function Junction on the left which is the industrial area and then Cheakamus  on the right, they are, they’re opening up certain pockets in there, but nothing of like significance. Right. 

So I mean, also like, it’s tough to, they don’t want to either just because of the infrastructure like there’s just not. Yeah, you could, they probably could if they wanted to, but where are you going to put everybody? Like Whistler’s busting at the seams as it is. And there’s such a housing shortage and a worker shortage, you know, like, restaurants are, they’re closing one or two days a week because they can’t staff, right? So there’s all of this. I think eventually it’s going to, it should, figure it out. But right now, everybody’s got different ideas. about things. 

Denny: It’s probably never been as busy as it is. Right? With tourism. 

Nick. No.

Denny: With people Airbnb’ing, with nightly rentals. And the, it’s funny not being able to staff a restaurant and having to close two days a week. 

Nick: Yeah, it’s, I mean, I was saying to someone the other day like when I first moved to a Whistler in like, 2006 even up to like, I don’t know, say even like 2013, 2014 you could walk down the village stroll in September at the end of September. You’d see four people and you know three of them, right? Like, now you like, walk down at the end of September and it’s just like another weekend and you’re like “What is going on?” like you know, it’s just again, it’s not just like, excuse me, it’s not a ski town anymore.

Like our summer visits, exceed our winter visits, we get more sun. I mean, winter is still the money making time. That’s when you’re getting people coming in for a week to two weeks doing you know, doing their ski trips and everything. But you know, we’re not, we’re not a ski town. We’re easy to access with that highway now. So it’s just, it’s very appealing, right? 

Denny:  Where do employees rent because you were talking about rental numbers recently and like, the only people that can afford these monthly rental numbers that are like super wealthy people renting a house for seven or $8,000 a month, or in some cases significantly more than that.

Nick:  Yeah.

Denny:  Like where do the employees stay? Is there a designated like long term rental for their lease? 

Nick: There is. Well, I mean, a lot of like the Fairmont they have their own staff housing, up on base two. The Four Seasons has a little bit of staff housing in their, their complex. You see ads in The Peak, which is our local newspaper, you see ads in The Peak of, you know, businesses like we need staff housing, right, like there’s just, so there’s pockets around but I mean, it’s pretty crazy, you know, people are paying $1,000 a month to share a bed in some cases. Or at least share a room. So a lot of people like, I mean, some don’t want to rent their places out but it sits vacant and empty. And so there is a, there’s definitely a bit of an issue with that. Right now.

Denny: Is there any like basement suites or do some employees live in Squamish? Maybe rent like basements suites?

Nick: More, more in Pemberton. If you were, Squamish is a bit I find,  there are people that do the commute more kind of the business business professionals. I mean, that’s kind of what happened like all the people that I kind of grew up with and came up with in Whistler when we all got there in 2004 to 2008 You know, we’re all you know, I came, I worked at the Four Seasons, you know, and Buffalo Bills. First of all, for a short stint, bartended there. So everybody that kind of came up at that time, all kind of either moved to Squamish or Pemberton because that’s what they could afford. So it’s kind of like here in Vancouver, everything just keeps getting pushed further and further east. You know, same thing in Whistler. It’s just like, kind of get pushed. You get pushed north. I mean, that’s where, you know, Pemberton, you know, I just have clients that just bought an awesome, three bedroom, three bathroom, double car garage, end unit townhouse in Pioneer Junction for $855,000. You know, the average price of a Phase One townhouse in Whistler is $ 2.2 million. Right. So and that’s, and that’s basically the same size without the garage. 

Denny: What’s the drive to Pemberton? 

NIck: 30 minutes.

Denny:  30. 

Nick: Yeah. 

Denny: Is that very active for rentals? 

Nick: Is Pemberton very active for rentals? I mean, again, they’re kind of in the same position. I’m a member of a Big Sky Golf Club, and I know like, they’re every year they send out an email like, hey, we need staff housing. It’s  all in the same. I don’t think there’s really much difference from one to the other. 

Still housing shortage, still people need places to live and so that in basically what’s happening is they’re not able to get the workers because no one’s got anywhere to live. 

Denny: Totally. 

Nick: And that was kind of what happened when I moved here in 2006. Like, you’d open up The Peak and there’s like pages and pages of jobs and there was nowhere to live. You know, I and I got lucky. I got into the Adventures West where the original Whistler was like supposed to be, where the original Keg was. 

Denny: Yeah. 

Nick: Yeah, got in. We were right on I was right on the river of Golden Dreams. For six years.

Denny: One of our clients has a house that kind of like, backs on to that river. 

Nick: Is that right? Yeah. 

Denny: I think it’s, I think the street is called Easy Street. 

Nick: Yeah. Yeah. Easy Street. Yeah. Easy and Balsam. They’re kind of like right. Yeah.

Denny: It’s like a fairy tale. He lives on Easy Street backing onto the river of Golden Dream. 

Nick: Yeah. Yeah. I had a client that bought, they’re just finishing building a house on there. They bought, I guess probably about five or six years ago now. Old, old, A frame and everything. I mean, where I lived in Adventures West, I had a one bedroom, there’s these like, one building was all two bedrooms and then the other four buildings were one bedrooms on the end and the studios in the middle. And I think the one that I lived in sold for $275,000 back in like 2012.

I mean, my client originally I think paid $72,000 for it. 

Denny:  Crazy.

Nick: And then now he’s, you know a one bedroom in there will sell for $750,000 just to be, actually I got a good story if you want one. 

Denny: Of Course. 

Nick: So right next, so I was on in Adventures. I was in Adventures West Riverside. So that’s where the river of Golden Dreams starts. 

Denny: Okay. 

Nick: And then so next door was Adventures West, Adventurous West, Lakeside. And these are all and again, these are all built like 1968 to 1972. That was like one of the original stratas. The strata Corp wasn’t, was created. These are some of the original ones in BC.

So I get a call from a previous client of mine. She’s like I’ve got one of my good friends. She, you know, her husband has passed since passed away wants to list her property and Adventures West Lakeside, original owners, and like this unit is pretty much original. It’s like a one bedroom, was a one bedroom and loft with one bathroom with the sink outside of the bathroom basically like, the appliances original like, they filled in part of the floor but like, but you open up the patio door and you are looking at Alta Lake. Like you’re 30 feet from the shore of the lake, you know.

And again, built in 1968, like 68-72 basically a tinderbox and like and this is at the height of COVID and the whole craziness and everything. Well, what do you think we should list at? And I was like, Well, this is a tough one. I was like, You know what I said? Mike, I think $995K but I think it could go, it could go really high. And they’re like okay, we’ll do it. So we go $995K and sure enough, five offers and this thing it sold for this is like 525 square feet sold for $1.403. Five offers so it’s pretty crazy. And again, business owner like we’re talking about. Anyways, sorry, I got sidetracked there.

Denny: Where do values go from here? Like in five years from now? That one bedroom condo, maybe that was at the peak so $1.405 maybe that now is $1.25?

Nick: That one’s a tough one because like there’s this Lakefront is a different beast, it’s ski in, ski out. I don’t, somebody will always pay for that. Like to be able to open up your door and walk in, walk out onto the lake.

But you know something like a Tyndall Stone Lodge or a North Star you know, like a one bedroom in North Star recently sold for $1,000,050.

You know, over the last 10 years we’ve brought, we’ve been saying like oh it can;t go any higher, it can’t do this, it can’t do that. You know, you just, you just see it right? Like it’s just I mean, I thought our run up was done. I mean, in the last 10 years, you know, one bedroom townhouse or condo in Whistler has increased 264%.

So, right ,so where does it go from there? Geez, like, does it plateau because we saw the plateau you know, when we had our run up, kind of 2017 was like the last kind of before COVID and everything was kind of our big peak, and then everything kind of plateaued to 2019 and then, you know, in September of 2020, we had 375 properties for sale in Whistler. And then COVID happened, nobody could go anywhere. Gone. Everybody just bought it up. So.

Denny: It sounds like well, I mean, it is the same issue that Greater Vancouver has. We don’t have enough doors for how many people that want to live here. And Whistler is like an interesting combination of overflow, equity build up from Greater Vancouver, plus also this worldwide recognition now. From the Olympics of this like, World Elite ski resort then now is not just a ski resort, that is now a vacation home,  that is now a summer vacation spot.

It just seems like the issue of supply versus how many people want to enjoy Whistler and spend time there, doesn’t sound like the municipality has any interest in addressing that issue. 

Nick: Not really, from from what I can see and I keep it pretty like, I watch from afar but I don’t get too too involved or anything but yeah, they seem to have their own, I don’t know if agenda is the right word, but their own kind of whatever that they’re doing. Yeah, they’re just we’re not seeing that. That,  that place to put people really so.

Denny: Last thing on this one. Do you think, I haven’t heard an update recently on the ski resort, potential ski resort in Squamish? What’s that mountain called Garibaldi? 

Nick: Yeah, they’re Garibaldi. Yeah. It’s the Gaglardi’s that, I believe are heading that up. I believe.

Denny: I thought that was Aquilini. 

Nick: Was it Aquilini?

Denny: I think it was.

Nick: Okay. 

Denny: Anyway, if that, when that, eventually comes into existence, does that diminish the demand on Whistler real estate? 

Nick: I don’t know. I, you know what’s funny, I had a client of mine I was showing property to from Ottawa. And he asked me a bunch of questions on it and I haven’t followed that one too, too much. But one of the agents in our office in Squamish has, has followed it and by the sounds of things nothing’s going to happen for a while. 

Denny: Awhile?

Nick:  Yeah, if it does, I mean, there’s just so many people coming here. I think, if anything, it just helps, right? And then it’s going to bring more people here. I mean,  it’s just so busy now like you drive up and down that highway like I come down, I leave Squamish, yesterday morning, at like 10:30 and I’m driving past the gondola, like the parking lot to the gondola – packed. It’s packed all the time, right? Like it’s just ,just people. We’re just, we just have lots of people here. I mean, it is one of the most desirable places in the world. It’s got to be top five places in the world to be, you know, and plus, with all the immigration that Canada is allowing you, you know, like I think what was it last year was 400,000? If that’s right?

Denny: I think it was more into Canada last year.

Nick: Or a millioN?

Denny: I think it was close to a million and I think into Vancouver was like 80,000 or something like that. And they, they’re estimating another million for the next five years, each year.

Nick: So where do they go right? You got to put them somewhere. 

Denny: My guess is that that resort whenever it comes in, let’s say it’s a decade or more away, but my guess is that it just becomes more of a tourist destination. Now people from like other parts of the world are planning trips to Whistler and Garibaldi, you know, whatever the ski resort is going to be called up there but…

Nick: Yeah, you can almost jump around right to do your, you can go get your night skiing in at Seymour and go up to Garibaldi and then finish the trip off in Whistler, so it’s beautiful up in that I know where it’s gonna be. It’s beautiful back there, but I mean, that’s, that’s a long way away from happening, I would think.

Denny: If you’re thinking about investing or purchasing in Whistler next podcast is going to be all about investing. The difference between Phase One, Phase Two and how to look for those properties. But questions about Whistler real estate Nick is my go to guy. Check out his Instagram, which is @NickSHWhistlerRealtor.