Should this multi-million dollar property for sale be in Okanagan Mountain Park?
There are three sections of privately owned waterfront lands surrounded by Okanagan Mountain Park that the province, in theory, wants to buy.
But a 151.7-acre parcel with more than a mile of waterfront and a couple of sandy beaches that’s on sale for $7.6 million doesn’t seem to interest them right now.
It is of interest to what seem to be squatters.
“There is some kind of nasty looking boat that stays there and it looks like they’ve moved some sea cans onto the property,” Marnie Perrier, the listing realtor with
Sotheby's International Realty Canada, told iNFOnews.ca. “Sellers are not in the area, and I can’t go tell people to leave. If I was the public, I wouldn’t want them there.”
The property listing, which has been posted for a couple of years, says the land is only accessible by boat, helicopter or float plane.
While it’s hilly, there are several flat building sites and could be subdivided, Perrier said.
It’s located just to the north of Halfway Point and touches on the Boulder Trail in the park that leads down to Wild Horse Canyon. Several trails run from the park down to the water, Perrier said.
“It’s really up to someone with a lot of money that wants a boat access only,” she said. “Along with that comes all that beautiful privacy. Someone will come along one day, I just don’t know when. The province will, probably one day, try to buy it. Now would be a good time. What a great holding property, especial knowing the province wants to buy it someday.”
Whether the province really wants to buy it or not remains to be seen.
In 2019, the Jurome Real Estate Group, which is associated with Macdonald Realty, listed one of several lots in a private holding south of Rattlesnake Island. This is one of a number of lots he’s sold there. That 6.9-acre property had 88 feet of waterfront on Scroggins Bay and was listed for $650,000.
READ MORE: Province has no plans to buy land for sale to add to Okanagan Mountain Park
“They sold every time I had a lot for sale there,” David Jurome told iNFOnews.ca today, May 6. “It’s kind of a unique area. People like it for recreation and remoteness.”
The province did make an offer on one of the lots but the process it has to go through is slow and other buyers came through faster, he said.
Perrier has talked to the province about the land she’s got listed but they seem to be in no hurry.
The Okanagan Mountain Park Master Plan, adopted in 1990, does address the private holdings (there’s a third large lot further to the north).
One of the actions listed in the plan is to “initiate immediate actions to purchase undeveloped properties that are surrounded by park land and/or the lakeshore, beginning with those currently being offered for sale,” it reads. “Lands presently for sale occupy key locations relative to future park development and if not purchased, private development of those lands could dramatically impact the effective operation and management of the park. Significant public recreation opportunities will also be lost if these properties are not purchased immediately.”
But, in more than 30 years, it seems none of that has happened.
“I’m surprised they’re not moving in on that because that would be a good one to get to add to the park,” Jurome said. “Maybe they just don’t have the money.”
See the listing and a drone video here.
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