What is the Value of a View
“View Property!” “Great View!” “Water and Mountain View!” scream the property ads. A buyer says they want a “view”. Sounds pretty common, right? I mean, when you go on vacation you don’t choose a hotel that faces an alley, do you? Everybody wants a view. Something to gaze out at and contemplate life, perhaps, or maybe something to impress friends. No doubt about it, when you walk into a place for the first time and it has a great view it can take your breath away. You stop looking at everything else the home has to offer and spend a lot of time imagining the ownership of this “view”.
And there is no doubt that views help sell properties. In fact, there have been times when it was strongly suggested to me by a listing realtor not to bring my client to the home on a requested day because the weather was not cooperating with maximizing the impact of the view. You see, they aren’t just selling a home. No. they are selling a view. Take two homes of completely comparable quality and you will often find a premium on the view home in the 20-30% range. Two condos, one with a water and mountain view can easily ask $100,000 more than the samefloor plan facing the city. Two homes, one with an unobstructed view asking as much as $1million over its tree shadowed neighbour. I see this all the time.
So we know what the financial cost of a view is. But what is the value? I don’t have a view from my place. Everytime I see one I love it. Maybe it’s envy or jealousy but it is indeed a coveted feature. Funny thing is when you talk to people who live there (or anyone with a view of note) they have got used to it. I have some friends who used to completely ignore their fantastic view down Georgia St into Stanley Park and all those trees/mountains. They lived on a high floor and were unimpeded from seeing their view from all rooms. And they didn’t care. My wife and I couldn’t understand that.
Why do I bring this up? Because I had a client in town recently. While on a drive over the Lions gate Bridge she asked if I still recognized that I live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I said I did but I know that what she meant was did I truly see it the way fresh eyes do. I must admit that I am so used to it that I no longer can. Sure a spectacular sunset will still make me pause and when the clouds part to display the snow capped mountains in the near distance I comment how beautiful it is but for the most part I do not have the same awe I had when I first came here. A member of her party commented on much the same. He has a piece of property with a view that all his guests comment on. However, it’s not until those fresh eyes praise his view that he reflects on just how magnificent it is.
We just seem to become accustomed to our surroundings. We take for granted what we have be it a world class resort like Whistler so close by, a wealth of incredible restaurants featuring cuisine from around the world, or an amazing view.
So my question becomes, since the effect of having such a view will wear off with time is it worth paying for? Would you buy a home for much more money just to have a view or buy a better looking home without one? Now if you can afford both features then it’s no question. But if you could choose just one, view or quality of home, which would you choose?
Vancouver, BC 
Will, the view from my Google Reader does not include your whole post which mean I actually come over here and look at your ugly mug. LOL! Why can’t(don’t) you just send the whole post to my reader?
Thanks for coming by, Matt. We’ll have to catch up at one of the meetups coming up.
Three main reasons why I don’t. First is efficiency in getting through reader posts. Yeah, pushing “J” is easy enough but I like to scan headlines and read what is interesting. Second is that, as you can see with quite a few posts, there are many features which you can only see by viewing the post on site (galleries, embedded PDFs, etc). The third reason is to stymie potential splog scrapers who love to build spam blogs off of RSS feeds.
A fourth reason, which will hopefully gain traction, is to encourage an active comment community.
Were you referring to me when you mentioned friends who used to completely ignore their fantastic view down Georgia St into Stanley Park and all those trees/mountains?
In answer to your question, I think the quality of a home is far more important than what sort of view it has. As you alluded to in your post, you can always get used to your view no matter how spectacular it is. Besides that, a view could get worse over time due to new development that may change or obstruct the view. However, it is difficult to get used to an exceptionally long commute, a poor home layout, or dealing with problems that come with an older home. That’s why it’s important to evaluate a home based on unchangeables such as location, layout, and age rather than things you change or live without such as anything that you can renovate or the home’s view.
I think the only time I would consider a view is if I was purchasing the home as an investment property to be rented or flipped
As you noted in your post, the difference in financial value could make this type of purchase worth it!
Oh… did you have a view which most people would kill for?
But you’re absolutely right to focus on the quality of the home and to ignore the things you do not like but can change or live without. As to considering a view only to flip or rent out, well, for rent I’d say that a view can get you a lot more in the market but it may not be enough to cover the initial cost/financing of that view. As to flipping it I think it’s safer to say selling it.
Flipping (which is really just in reference to a short-term position) is only succesful when, no matter the property, when you pick up the property for less than what you can sell for (view or not view).
Thing is that some people feel they cannot live without a view…. until they want to sell.
long before you were born..back in the good ole days of the ’80s…! buyers who couldn’t afford another $30K to enjoy the beautiful view of english bay would say to me “maggie, most of the time in vancouver you cant see the view because of the weather and when the weather’s good i can just walk to the beach and view it myself”
on a more serious note…when the market tanks…and it always does at some point….waterfront and waterviews hold their value better than any other piece of real estate