Music superstar Michael Bublé’s house at 7868 Government Road in Burnaby has skyrocketed in value in the past year. The home, which is listed by BC Assessment as having seven bedrooms and 15 bathrooms, has been assessed at $22,279,000 – more than a $1.7 million jump from the $20,506,000 it was assessed at the beginning of 2020.
Bublé’s house is ranked in the top 50 of B.C.’s most valuable residential properties in the province, but the crooner is not the only B.C. homeowner who has seen a dramatic increase in the value of their home.
Lower Mainland residential values increased by a total of $50 billion over the past year, despite a worldwide pandemic and the highest B.C. unemployment rate in decades.
In Greater Vancouver, the typical detached-house selling price rose by $150,000 between March, when the pandemic began, and December 2020. On the West Side of Vancouver, the average detached house price increased by $320,000 to north $3.62 million in the same period, according to data crunched by veteran Vancouver real estate company Dexter Associates.
Bublé’s house, built in 2015, sits on a 100,000-square-foot lot, according to BC Assessment, with the land being worth more than $7 million and the buildings more than $15 million, based on a market assessment in July 2020;
The rise is part of an overall increase in assessment values in Burnaby of 6 per cent for single-family homes over the last year, according to BC Assessment.
In 2016, Bublé told TV host Kelly Ripa he was building a hockey rink in the basement of his new home.
“Oh, you are so rich,” Ripa responded.
“I want my kids to be able to have fun and, for me, it’s great exercise,” Bublé told Ripa.
The underground skating rink is now being used.
In the summer of 2020, Bublé was featured on an episode of Celebrity IOU, in which the Property Brothers – Drew and Jonathan Scott – renovated the singer’s old family home in Burnaby.
"Despite COVID-19, the Lower Mainland residential real estate market has been resilient," understated BC Assessment deputy assessor Bryan Murao. " This incredible strength is a stark contrast to last spring when the market came to a temporary standstill whereas the remainder of the year had a very steady and rapid recovery."
