Waterfront land going for up to $300,000
Published Wednesday July 29th, 2009
Real estate Such properties are scarce, but many owners don't want to sell them
ROTHESAY - Waterfront land is drying up in the Kennebecasis Valley.
According to recent real estate listings, there are just two plots of land for sale on the banks of the Kennebecasis River and they cost up to $295,000 to purchase.
Ron Young, owner of Exit Realty Specialists, said living on the water is a dream of many buyers.
"It's a big draw," he said. "We typically get people that call all the time and want to buy waterfront land in the Quispamsis and Rothesay area. They think it's $100,000 or $80,000 and when we tell them a piece sold for $300,000, it knocks them off their chair a bit and they say they won't be pursuing that."
Young said waterfront land has been scarce in the valley for the last decade.
"One of the problems is there isn't really the land to develop," he said. "Some people that own the land do not want to sell it."
Young said he knows of landowners who have been offered millions of dollars for their waterfront property, but refuse to sell.
The two pieces of land for sale now are on Gondola Point Road, one on the Quispamsis side of the boundary, the other in Rothesay. The first, in Quispamsis, is $149,000 and is 10,871 square feet. The next is $295,000, in Rothesay, and is 1.79 acres.
Young said waterfront property is in demand, but because of the high price tags, some lots stay on the market for more than a year.
"There are not very many people with $200,000 to buy a piece of land before putting a house on it," he said. "I would say a lot of people would like to but there are not a lot of people who can afford it."
Another challenge with the waterfront lots, he said, is they are not always easy to build on.
"There's sometimes no yard with it," he said. "Sometimes there's no backyard down to the water. They're technically waterfront lots but not what's considered a really nice lot."
Young said the last boom of waterfront properties sold in the valley were in the Hastings and Meenan's Cove areas 10 to 20 years ago.
He said the price is about right on the properties, noting that suburbs surrounding a larger city such as Toronto would see waterfront lots for sale at five times the price the valley lots are listed for.
He said without waterfront properties, real estate agents still have a booming market in the valley.
"The Kennebecasis Valley is still responsible for about 40 per cent of the real estate sales in the Greater Saint John market," Young said. "It hasn't really affected things."
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