One of the last vestiges of relatively affordable waterfront property in the Lower Mainland is the Woodlands-Sunshine Falls area – and if you’ve never heard of it, you’re not alone.
Ask seasoned Vancouverites if they’ve been to Woodlands-Sunshine Falls, and chances are they won’t know what you’re talking about.
In fact, it literally it wasn’t even on the map – a Google map – until recently.
“I make a point of not indulging too much when I’m out, because it’s difficult to get a cab to drive out here,” says homeowner Brent Wheeler, 37, who lives in Woodlands, right next door to Sunshine Falls. His house received an address six years ago. Prior to that, it was referred to only as “lot 143.”
“It definitely has the feel of an adolescent community,” he says. “More and more people now know about it, but some cab drivers are still a little afraid, like, ‘Where are you taking me?’ ”
There are only 91 single-family homes and about 182 people living in Woodlands-Sunshine Falls. But with the hunt hotter than ever for waterfront property, the forgotten Old World gem is getting noticed. While it was once an affordable area for middle-class families, it’s becoming increasingly high end because of its exclusivity. Microsoft co-founder and Seattle billionaire Paul Allen was rumoured to have shown an interest in a property there a couple of years ago.
Recent listings in the $1.6-million to $3.2-million range also illustrate its new-found popularity, even though the price per square foot is still far below waterfront property prices found in Vancouver or West Vancouver.
“In 2009, a house on Point Grey Road with an 80-foot frontage sold for $14.8-million,” says real estate agent Patricia Houlihan, who has listings in Woodlands-Sunshine Falls. “I sold a 33-foot frontage land value [on Point Grey Road] for $4-million last year.”
And because the district won’t allow any more development, those houses are expected hold their value.
“There are still some hippie hanger-ons in the area, and there is still a mix of fairly wealthy and middle class,” Mr. Wheeler says. “But obviously with taxes going up every year it will probably push some of those people out, unfortunately.”
Mr. Wheeler, who has been forced to relocate to California for his advertising job, has just put his 183-feet-wide waterfront Woodlands house on the market for $3.188-million. He owns another property adjacent to the lot, but he wants to hold on to it for a future second home.
Mr. Wheeler has lived in Woodlands since 2006. He built his own West Coast-style dream home – panoramic windows, cedar and fir throughout – to capitalize on a view of ocean, trees and sky. On a Friday afternoon, not one boat goes by this remote stretch of the Indian Arm.
The area is as close as you can get to living in isolation without leaving civilization, which is why its small group of inhabitants chose it. As Mr. Wheeler likes to say, “You’re in the middle of nowhere, but Starbucks is six minutes away.”
To find Woodlands-Sunshine, you first find Deep Cove and then the turnoff for Indian River Drive. A half-minute drive later, you will find yourself on a stretch of single-lane road that dips and dives and has boomerang-shaped bends in it. The air has the sharp cold pang of the wilderness that surrounds you, the first sign that you’ve left city life altogether. The houses are barely visible from the road, found at the end of long steep driveways. Almost all the houses in Woodlands-Sunshine Falls have secluded waterfronts.
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