A U.S. developer is aiming to attract B.C. recreational buyers into Washington state by offering waterfront cottages at a fraction of the cost on the Canadian side of the border.
Lower taxes sweeten the deal, according to Wayne Knowles of Orca Shores LLC.
The Cottages at Seabright Farm, a waterfront development 50 minutes drive from Vancouver at Point Roberts, WA, has won approval from Whatcom County to begin work on the 58-lot cottage community to be built on 62 acres.
The resort community of Point Roberts can be reached by road only through the U.S.-Canada border crossing in South Delta, B.C.
Knowles said Seabright is the largest Point Roberts development in decades. Orca Shores conducted site tours last year for hundreds of potential buyers, most of them Metro Vancouver residents, and developed a pre-registration list of over 100 families interested in reserving lots once the approval was granted, he said.
A big draw is prices. A one-quarter acre lot starts at US$199,000 and the cottages on in the waterfront community start at $399,000. In Greater Vancouver, the average detached house price in January was $929,700 and waterfront home prices can easily be three times that.
Also, as an Orca marketing official noted, “there is no GST, PST or land transfer tax that [home buyers] pay in B.C.”
Point Roberts, which has a population of 1,300, already has a lot to offer, according to Knowles. “The community boasts an 18-hole championship golf course, a 900-boat marina, four public beaches and a slowed-down rural lifestyle. The Point has restaurants, a grocery store and other amenities offering goods and services at lower U.S. prices.”
