While most Canadians resent having to pay for parking at hospitals, airports or simply to go to work there are some who won’t bat an eye at shelling out over $100,000 just to park closer to a ski hill.
Such is the case in Whistler, B.C., where there are currently four parking spots for sale in the underground garage of a condo building only a few minutes walk from the base of Whistler Blackcomb and the gondolas taking skiers and snowboarders up its 2,200-plus metres of runs.
The cheapest of the three spots beneath Glacier Lodge — corner stall No. 106 — is listed for $110,000 by realtor Dave Brown of the Whistler Real Estate Company.
“For most of the people buying these things, it’s a lifestyle purchase,” he told the National Post. “They know they have parking. They know that they’re not going to have their wife or kids screaming as they’re driving around trying to find a parking spot or having to hike from a long distance.”
The asking price for two others is $115,000 and a fourth is commanding $120,000.
Parking within proximity of the slopes, Brown explains, is at a premium. Even for those willing to pay.
When owners Vail Resorts implemented a strict gondola reservation system during the COVID-19 pandemic, it created congestion at the mountain’s base and led to more people arriving early to secure parking and shorten their wait times. Eventually, he said, it became the norm.
This year, he added, Whistler Blackcomb implemented a carpooling rule that required four occupants in vehicles being parked before 11 a.m. on weekends and holidays in one of the three free lots on the mountain.
With his daughter competing in ski races, Brown is there regularly and said it’s not uncommon for the lots to be full before 8 a.m. on many days, especially the busier ones.
“It just makes parking even more valuable,” he explained.
Unlike in the Greater Toronto Area, where similarly priced garage parking listings require the purchaser to be a current or eventual occupant of a condo in the same building, Glacier Lodge’s developers created two parking areas — one for residents, another with spots for sale.
A spot in a similar garage at the nearby Pan Pacific Whistler Mountainside set the record for the highest sale price when it moved for $195,000 in September 2023.
Brown’s current ask of $110,000 was the selling price for four of the six spots sold in 2024, all but one of which was located in Glacier Lodge. Another 11 spots sold in 2022 and 2023, including one for $105,000.
Most of the spots moved within a week of being posted.
Brown’s current listing, just the second parking spot he’s sold, has been on the market for about a month, but he’s confident it’ll move soon.
Prior to speaking with the National Post, Brown was responding to another inquiry.
“I’ve got one agent who’s indicated that they’ve got somebody who potentially is going to bring an offer,” he said Tuesday morning. “So I expect it to go this month.”
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