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Fixer upper? Victoria house gutted by fire is now selling for $535K

Real estate ad shows warts and all
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This house in Victoria was gutted by a fire but is now on sale for more than half-a-million dollars. (Frank Rudge photo)

Are you looking for a fixer-upper challenge?

Then have we got the house for you. A Victoria house that was nearly destroyed in a fire is now on sale with a reasonable price tag – at least for a single-family house in the city.

The house is located at 500 Sumas St. and is listed as being 900 square feet in size on a lot that is a little over 5,000 square feet.

“House severely damaged by fire,” reads the Zillow listing by Frank Rudge with RE/MAX Camosun. “Land value only. Court-ordered sale.”

According to the listing, the house was sold in 2002 for $165,000 and was assessed in 2019 at $584,000. The listing also includes multiple photos of the inside of the house, with fire damage seen everywhere.

A total of 775 properties sold in the Victoria Real Estate Board region this past May, 1.8 per cent more than the 761 properties sold in May 2022 but a whopping 21.7 per cent increase from April 2023.

This high mark for sales comes with an increase in the inventory, according to the Victoria Real Estate Board.

Sales of condominiums were down 0.8 per cent from May 2022 with 248 units sold. Sales of single-family homes increased 8.7 per cent from May 2022 with 399 sold.

“The month of May marks the highest number of sales we’ve seen since April of last year,” said Victoria Real Estate Board chair Graden Sol, in a statement. “While we haven’t seen the number of total sales we would expect in a spring market, the month of May marks the fourth consecutive month with sales higher than the month previous. With momentum building, there’s an indication of consumer optimism in the market heading into June. However, if the ongoing lack of homes for sale persists and inventory is not added, we risk a return to an overheated market with pressure on pricing.”

There were 2,189 active listings for sale on the Victoria Real Estate Board Multiple Listing Service at the end of May 2023, an increase of 7.1 per cent compared to the previous month of April and a 23.3 per cent increase from the 1,776 active listings for sale at the end of May 2022.

READ MORE: Small Victoria house with killer view soars past $3M as market surges



Chris Campbell

About the Author: Chris Campbell

I joined the Victoria News hub as an editor in 2023, bringing with me over 30 years of experience from community newspapers in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley
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