South Island's most expensive homes

When it comes to la crème de la crème of expensive–and expansive–houses, Oak Bay is home to 7 of the top 10 highest-assessed properties in Greater Victoria.

BC Assessment released its yearly appraisals this week, with stunning homes being gauged with staggering prices.

You can check your BC property assessment here. But if you want to know how the other half (other .001% perhaps?) lives, here’s a listing of the top Island and local residences. 

BC Assessment evaluated 2.2M+ properties provincewide, reflecting market value as of last Canada Day. Keep in mind that while price is objective, real value is subjective and the two are not synonyms.

Topping the provincial list at $82M+ is a home on Vancouver’s Point Grey Road, home to Lululemon founder Chip Wilson and, this fall, to his infamous election sign.

Disputed Gulf Island still tops Van Isle region 

Closer to home, James Island, an island off the coast of Sidney with a private airstrip and Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course is the third-highest-assessed property in BC at $57.5M. Two years ago it was appraised at $61.2M.

The Tsawout First Nation filed a title claim for the island—called ȽEL¸TOS—in court in 2018. In 2022, a BC approving officer rejected a Seattle billionaire’s attempt to subdivide the island, concluding it was not in the public interest and could impact Tsawout practices, archeological materials, and nearby seafood harvesting.

The second-priciest Island-region property is a Nanoose Bay acreage, and the Top 10 includes a trio of other Gulf Islands: Samuel, Domville, and Forrest.

When it comes to residential properties in Greater Victoria itself, see the Top 5 below:

#1: 3160 Humber in Oak Bay, at $17.3M. Specs: 5-bed, 7-bath, 11K+ square-foot house built in 1996 on a 1.9-acre property.

#2: 1850 Lands End Rd. in North Saanich, $16.8M. Specs: 4-bed, 3-bath in a 3.4K square-foot home on 24 acres. This home, the Queen Mary Bay Estate, formerly occupied the top spot.

#3: 8408 Lawrence in Central Saanich, at $14.15M. Specs: 2006-built, 13K square feet on 5.6 acres. This property set a Victoria home sale price record a few years ago.

The last of the top 5 are both more than century old.

“Riffington,” or the Andrew Wright residence, at 3185 Beach. Photo: Victoria Archives

 #4: 3175 Beach Dr., at $13.5M. Specs: 8-bedroom, 10K+ square-foot home built in 1913 and once home to the US Consul (1928-1942).

#5: 3150 Rutland, at $13.3M. Specs: 5-bed, 7-bath, 1914-built home on 2.2 acres. 

A few other notable properties:

Just outside the top 5 is 3125 Beach Dr., at $13.3M for the total property. The 11K square-foot, two-storey home itself was built in 2022 and assessed at $4.7M. The original home, Valrose mansion, was built circa 1929 (photo / info via Oak Bay).

That #1 property on Humber has a neighbour, which just missed the top 10. The Sweet Pea manor, a former consulate for the small island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, once had the highest asking price of any single-family home in Canada ($28.5M in 2009). It was listed for sale at $20M just over a decade ago and $15M just over a year ago, but has dropped out of the region's Top 5 with an assessment this year of $11.5M.

For commercial properties, the region's #1 is Uptown mall at $326.8M.

For those looking to commit to Dry January or cutting back on drinking as they kick off the new year, UVic has launched a tool to guide people on their alcohol consumption. From health risks and cost per drink to the benefits of drinking less, the new website combines years of research to help people understand the risks of consuming alcohol.

The online tool, at knowalcohol.ca, can be personalized to a specific age, sex, and number of drinks consumed to give users a glimpse of their personal health risks. It will even tell you the equivalent of cigarettes smoked per drink, a comparison that often helps people contextualize cancer risks since cigarettes have long been associated with these concerns. One UVic researcher told Capital Daily that people should consider one drink as the equivalent of one cigarette.

Site feature estimates risk of dying early 

If a 50-year-old man who consumes 10 drinks a week were to use the tool, he would find his risk of dying early from alcohol is 1.7% higher than a non-drinker, with 6.6 minutes of life lost per drink. If he were to cut back to four drinks per week, the tool estimates his risk of dying early would be 0.2% and he would lose 2.6 minutes of life per drink. At two drinks per week, his risk would be 0%.

The new UVic website says it’s common for people to underestimate how many drinks they consume each week. It also recommends that people below 25 should “delay drinking for as long as possible.”

In US, surgeon general just called for reduction of drinking guidelines

In an advisory yesterday, the surgeon general said the current limit of 10-15 drinks per week should be lowered, that warning labels should be on alcohol bottles, and that the link to cancer is well established. In 2023, Canada lowered its recommended drinking amount to two drinks per week from its previous recommendation of 10-15 drinks. 

Island researchers say municipalities & province must do more to address high drinking 

This tool could be particularly handy for residents of the Island, where drinking—including binge drinking—is higher than the rest of the province and country.

Researchers from the UVic-led Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation (CAPE) project have consistently said BC and other provinces are failing to properly enforce health-oriented alcohol policies, focusing too much on improving sales and not warning people of the growing body of evidence that alcohol is linked to several cancers.