Skip to content

Queen’s Park home sale “historic” in New West

A quaint 1909 cottage in the Queen’s Park neighbourhood may have made history when it recently sold far above its listed price. Darcy Schlechtleitner of Team ReThink said the three-bedroom home at 217 St. Patrick St.
house St. Patrick Street
A 1909 house in the Queen's Park neighbourhood recently sold for $710,000 above its asking price.

A quaint 1909 cottage in the Queen’s Park neighbourhood may have made history when it recently sold far above its listed price.

Darcy Schlechtleitner of Team ReThink said the three-bedroom home at 217 St. Patrick St. was listed at $1,199,000 and sold for $1,909,000.

“We had 11 offers, and it sold for $710,000 above list price,” she told the Record. “I am pretty sure it is historic in New West.”

A day before the house sold, Schlechtleitner said a Vancouver home made headlines after it sold for $750,000 above its listed price. The Queen’s Park home was listed on Feb. 15 and Schlechtleitner accepted offers on Feb. 24.

“We were aiming for the stars. This was higher than we expected, for sure,” she said. “There were three offers that were surprisingly high. Every single one of them was a Queen’s Park family. They understand the value of having their grandparents close by, etc. It’s trying to grab the land before people from out of the city can grab it.”

The owners of the home are moving to a larger home in the neighbourhood, while another Queen’s Park resident has purchased the home.

Although the successful purchaser already lives in New Westminster, Schlechtleitner said three offers appeared to have been from offshore or overseas’ purchasers, a trend she’s seen develop in New Westminster in the past year.  She estimated 80 per cent of people attending her New West open houses are from mainland China.

While there was considerable interest from near and far for the house on St. Patrick’s Street, its fate is uncertain.

“It’s a tiny little bungalow,” Schlechtleitner said. “The footprint of the home is 1,255 square feet in total. It is smaller than most condos downtown.”

Schlechtleitner’s hope is the city will allow the new owners to move the small home to the back of the property and use it as a laneway home and build a new home as part of a heritage revitalization agreement.

Like Gastown, Port Moody and the Hastings corridor of six or seven years ago, Schlechtleitner said New Westminster’s time has come for those looking to buy homes. She said the city’s revitalization is shaking people’s perceptions of it as being a less than desirable place to live.

“It’s a complete change,” she said. “We are on the map. We have become a hip hot spot.”