Former estate of Nickelback frontman is most expensive home in Abbotsford

The former home of Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger is the most valuable residential property in Abbotsford, according to BC Assessment.

The 20,000-square-foot house and 18-acre property – which comes with its own horse barn and indoor hockey rink – was assessed at $5.8 million last year. But it’s actual market value may be considerably higher, with the property changing hands in late 2017 for more than $8 million.

The estate, which Kroeger showed off in a 2005 episode of the MTV show Cribs, is located on North Burgess Avenue, in rural northern Abbotsford near the Fraser River.

Its assessed value increased by 35 per cent, meaning the new owner is likely to see his or her property tax bill – which was $21,626 in 2017 – go up considerably. That increased assessment is partially due to the property’s loss of farm status. But BC Assessment continues to value that home millions of dollars below the sale price of the estate.

According to BC Assessment, the house – which had been on the market for years – changed hands on Dec. 23, 2017 for $8.25 million. That sum is 45 per cent higher than its current assessed value.

Next door to the old Kroeger home, another of the city’s priciest residential properties changed hands last May for $4.2 million. Its assessment, though, came in at $3.1 million, about three-quarters of the sale price. The News also found that of the priciest homes currently up for sale in Abbotsford, most were listed at prices nearly double theiwr assessed values.

If estate homes were consistently undervalued by assessments, that would mean their owners were paying less taxes on each dollar of actual home value than average Abbotsford residents.

But assessment BC deputy assessor Brian Smith said he was confident that the assessments were not consistently undervaluing large estates in Abbotsford and thereby resulting in inadvertent tax breaks for the city’s wealthiest homeowners.

“With any of the high-end homes, you’re probably going to deal with a wider range,” he said. “They are not your standard typical house … but I would feel confident that when the actual property does sell, we will have an assessment that will be, on average, within our acceptable standards.”

An analysis by The News showed that recently sold estate homes were undervalued by Assessment BC – but not dramatically so.

The News looked at the the assessments and sale prices of 14 estate homes that sold last year for more than $1.5 million. The assessment values were – as a whole – 95 per cent the sale value of the properties.

A similar analysis of 19 average Abbotsford homes that sold for around $750,000 found their combined assessments to be 98 per cent of sale value.

The priciest commercial property in Abbotsford was HighStreet, which was valued at $227 million. Sevenoaks Shopping Centre was slightly less and valued at $210 million.

The single most valuable property in the city was Abbotsford Regional Hospital, which was valued at $338 million.

@ty_olsen
tolsen@abbynews.com
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