A tale of two abodes: It was the age of extravagance, it was the age of frugality

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This article was published 04/06/2015 (3794 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s the most expensive home ever listed on the Winnipeg MLS market, and it can be yours for the princely sum of $11 million.

That’s the asking price for a sprawling “art-deco, European, gated estate” now for sale on Winnipeg’s most prestigious street — Wellington Crescent.

According to the listing agent — Glen Sytnyk, of Re/Max Performance Realty — the modern-day mansion at 1063 Wellington Cres. boasts about 23,000 square feet of living space if you include the approximately 1,000-square-foot guest house/cottage at the rear of the riverside property.

The home itself, which also includes two storeys and a raised lower level, boasts 24 rooms. The list of rooms/amenities includes six bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, two dens, two offices, a kitchen, a dining room, a great room, a family room, a living room, a recreation room, a games room, a hobby room, a wine cellar, and two in-ground pools — one indoor, the other outdoor.

The retail market analyst for the Winnipeg Realtors association (WRA), which operates the local Multiple Listing Service, said Thursday it’s not only the most expensive home to ever appear on the local MLS market, it’s also the largest.

“We’ve had expensive listings before, but never anything of this magnitude,” Peter Squire said in an interview. “This takes it to a whole new level.”

Before this, the most expensive home ever listed on the local MLS was a two-year-old, 13,000-square-foot raised bungalow that faced onto a man-made lake in Tuxedo. It first came onto the market in 2010 at $7.45 million. The asking price was later dropped to $5 million, and Sytnyk said it eventually sold privately for a price north of three million dollars.

Squire said the highest sale price ever recorded on the local MLS was $2.2 million. There were two homes that sold for that sum — an 8,000-square-foot home on Jaymorr Crescent in Charleswood which sold in 2013, and a 6,000-square-foot home on Hansard Boulevard in Tuxedo, which changed hands in December 2013.

Sytnyk wouldn’t reveal the names of the owners of the nine-year-old Wellington Crescent mansion, saying “they’re quite private people.”

He said the land used to belong to former media mogul Izzy Asper. The couple bought it from him, tore down the home that was there, and built their own “dream home” on the site. It took two years to design the home and six years to build it. The only thing they kept from the original property was the guest house/cottage and the two chrome doors to the former home’s wine cellar.

Sytnyk said the owners realize that with an asking price of $11 million, it might take several years to find a buyer.

“We’ve kind of pulled our hair out just wondering where the buyer is going to come from,” he added.

He figures the odds are “about 50-50” as to whether it will be a local buyer, or an outsider looking to move here. He noted it’s also being marketed nationally and internationally.

Winnipeg Realtors Association president David Mackenzie said he’s been inside the home, and it’s impressive.

“It’s extremely well built. It’s a great home.”

He wouldn’t speculate on how long it might take to sell it, or where the buyer might come from.

“We’ll see what happens. But it’s definitely one that people will be watching.”

If $11 million happens to be way outside your price range, don’t despair. Realtor.ca also has a listing that’s at the opposite end of the price scale — a three-room, 674-square-foot, home at 464 Boyd Ave. The asking price for the North End bungalow is a much-more-manageable $69,900.

The estimated 2015 property tax bill is also a lot easier to handle — $1,006.83 versus $51,241.42 for the Wellington Crescent digs.

 

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

A tale of two houses

The Free Press takes a closer look at houses on opposite ends of Winnipeg's real-estate price spectrum.

Photo of 464 Boyd: realtor.ca; photo of 1036 Wellington: Ingrid Misner / Artistic Impressions Photography