Want... A mansion in Vancouver's affluent Point Grey neighborhood has been sold to a Chinese Canadian businessman for US$51.8 million, marking one of the most expensive residential house deals in local history, reports Shanghai's the Paper.
The mansion was formerly owned by Vancouver entrepreneur Don Mattrick, CEO of social gaming company Zynga and former Electronic Arts executive.
The 1.09-hectare property that includes waterfalls, an outdoor tennis court, underground garage, a movie theater and a separate guest house is in fact three pieces of property put together. Dealer's documents reveal that the mansion was sold to a Chinese entrepreneur named Chen Mailin in Dec. 2014.
The deal is inconceivable compared to the 39 houses that were sold above US$5 million this year in the city. There are concerns as to whether Chinese investors would push up real estate prices for the area.
For people who have a house to sell, it is a good thing, "but for everybody else, I don't think it's a good thing, because the ratio between the price of housing and what people earn has got out of whack," the local CBC News quoted developer Michael Geller saying.
Chen is the founder and owner of the Nanjing Dingye Investment Group. Now in his mid-forties, Chen started off as a blue collar worker after dropping out of junior high school in China in 1989. A few years later, he invested all his savings into a duck farm, but it was not until he opened a hotel in Jiangsu in 1996 that he really began making money. The hotel earnings paved the way for his investment in construction and real estate. he now owns eight subsidiaries across various industries under his group.
References:
Chen Mailin 陳脈林
Nanjing Dingye Investment Group 南京鼎業投資集團