A Real Estate Tour of Canada’s Hottest Ski Country

Perfect travel opportunities are waiting for you in terms of the latest and greatest Canadian resorts where you can own a recreational real estate property. This article was written by B.D. Maxwell for the Ski Press Magazine on Global Snow Culture Volume 21, No. 3.

You don’t have it all until you have one of these. G.D. Maxwell sees what your money will buy in Canada’s ski country.

If not now, when? If not you, who? Let’s face it, the economy is booming, the dollar is high and the drive home is… ah, the drive home.

If ever there was a compelling reason to think about buying ski-country real estate, it’s that long drive home. Whether your drive is Autoroute 15 between Tremblant and Montreal, Highway 400 from Blue Mountain to Toronto, the Trans Canada from Banff to Calgary or the scenic construction zone known as the Sea-to-Sky Highway from Whistler to Vancouver, long days, tired muscles, heavy eyes, and gridlock have a way of diminishing the high you felt on the mountain.

Wouldn’t it all be so much easier and gratifying if it were just a short hop – or even shorter ski – to your own slice of heaven? Wouldn’t your day trips turn into weekend trips? Excuses to call in well on Mondays? You can almost feel your commuter cares melting away in your own hottub. So if now’s your time to buy, what’ll your spare loonies get you at your favourite Canadian ski-country playground?

Tremblant, Quebec

Like so many places graced by the Midas touch of Intrawest, Tremblant has grown from a regional ski hill to a destination resort bustling with great skiing, great shopping, oodles of accommodation and that Quebecois je ne sais quoi. Steven Lefave, director of sales for Intrawest at Tremblant, thinks this is the time to acquire. “It’s a buyer’s market,” he says. “there’s a lot of inventory right now.”

Opportunities in Tremblant run the gamut from timeshare to stratospheric – sometimes in the same property. You can, for example, buy a quarter share interest in a well-appointed, three-bedroom, three-bath, 1,252 square foot getaway in Le Sommet des Neiges, a condo-hotel just steps to the chairlift, for $223,000. It’s yours one week in four. But if you’re a gotta-have-it all kind of person, you can pick up all four quarter shares of a one-of-a kind, 1,567 square foot three bed, three and a half bath palacio in the same building for $1,495,000. Go for it!

What if you’re not keen on being right at the base of Tremblant mountain? Cottages near Tremblant offer space, lakeside living and more for your money. Thirty minutes away on Lac Cameron, you can get a four-season, 1,020 square foot, three bedroom, one bath cottage with some serious waterfront and gardens for $375,000.

But hey, High Roller, if ya got it, flaunt it. How does six bedrooms, six baths, your own indoor swimming pool, indoor and outdoor hot tubs, three double garages, a wine cellar and all the status you can handle sound? On beautiful Lac Quimet – yes we’ll even throw in a lake – all 33 rooms can be yours for $11.9 million. At that price, we don’t even bother with zeros?

Blue Mountain – Collingwood, Ontario

If you live in Toronto, and don’t have the great fortune to belong to one of the many private ski hills dotting the Niagara Escarpment, Blue Mountain is probably your playground. Since Intrawest arrived on the scene in 1999, Blue Mountain has undergone the development spree typical of Intrawest resorts.

But Ian Hunter of Royal LePage says the driving force in the real estate market right now is lifestyle. “WE’re seeing a lot of people buying into the area for a lifestyle change. They’re cashing out of the city and buying into a less hurried way of life.”

If you’re hurriedly looking for a place to hang your skis though, you can enjoy liftside living at the Weider Lodge. $199,900 will get you a furnished studio in this condo-hotel and a spot in the hot tub when you walk in off the slopes.

If you can walk in ski boots, you can get more space, say, a 1,756 square foot three bedroom, two bathroom townhome in Snowbridge, just east of Blue Mountain, for $495,000. Still within walking distance of Blue Mountain’s northern lifts, you can après in a 1,900 square foot, four bedroom, two and a half bath log-and-stucco chalet for $430,000. It might be 28 years old, but it’s got its own indoor hot tub. Party on, dude.

And if you don’t mind dodging golf balls in the offseason, you can swing a three bedroom, two and a half bathroom condo on the first fairway of Monterra golf course for a mere $349,900.

Canmore, Alberta

As usual, they do things differently in Alberta. With Banff and Lake Louise in national parkland and sever ownership/resident restrictions in place, Canmore is Alberta’s ski-country boomtown.

“We’ve been on fire the past few years,” says Doug Topp, associate broker at ReMax Alpine Realty in Banff and Canmore. “Recreational ownership of real estate from Calgary is driving our boom and while inventory is creeping up, it’s still a sellers’ and builders’ market.”

If your needs are small, $119,500 gets you into a 410 square foot studio near downtown Canmore. The 17-year-old bachelor pad has been remodelled and comes unfurnished. Nudging upmarket, a two bedroom, one bath condo within walking distance of Canmore’s main drag is furnished and is part of an active rental pool. At $150,000 it typifies properties in older buildings … at least those not undergoing renovations.

A recently remodelled three bedroom on bathroom 1,110 square foot unfurnished apartment with underground parking is listed at $366,000 and is a reflection of the discount you can find in an older real estate building. Compare it to nearby, five year old, 700 square foot apartment with two small bedrooms that goes for $229,000, also unfurnished.

Of course, Alberta’s not Alberta without wide open spaces. Like 3,169 square feet of living on a quiet street with four bedrooms, three baths, a double garage and the high-touch amenities you need to feel pampered for $1,498,000.

Whistler, British Columbia

Whistler is ski-resort real estate for travelers. The ersatz Eurovillage would never have gotten off the ground if it weren’t for the dream of travel skiers to avoid the drive home. Dean Linnell and his team at Whistler Real Estate are still calling Canada’s big mountain resort a buyers market. “But we’ve been seeing prices firm up for the past six months. All price points are selling well,” he says.

As befits Intrawest’s first foray into mountain travel resorts, you can find everything in Whistler, from one bedroom in the middle of the village for $361,900 to a one bedroom right next to Blackcomb’s Wizard lift for $379,000. If that’s too busy, you can buy a lot at Kadenwood, above the Creekside base, for $2.3 million and build your own starter castle.

The bargains – such as they are – are in the residential parts of town. A 2,203 square foot five bedroom, four bathroom home in Twin Lakes is listed for $689,000. If that doesn’t seem like a bargain, consider a 30 year old, 900 square foot one and a half bedroom, one bathroom knockdown in Alpine Meadows – the other end of town – for $598,000. That’s a bargain … in Whistler.

At least compared to log beauty perched on Blueberry Hill. Modest, with three bedrooms and three and a half baths, the 3,494 square foot home with the million dollar view is, well, $4.5 million dollars. What are you waiting for?

For more information about real estate Whistler and other Whistler properties and travel packages, please click here.