A one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver has been listed for an exuberant monthly cost: $5,100.
The rental is on the 19th floor of the new Butterfly building on Nelson Street.
According to the Facebook Marketplace listing, it's roughly 850 square feet, has a large balcony and the amenities include an Olympic-size lap pool and gym.
Brandon Blue, a realtor with Blue Real Estate Group, says "$5,100 for a one bedroom is something that is definitely up there."
"It’s a brand new building, it's downtown, it definitely caters to a certain type of... renter, but I have seen worse in this city,” he tells Glacier Media.
The Butterfly is a 57-storey skyscraper designed by architect Bing Thom and is one of the tallest buildings in Vancouver.
Metro Vancouver rent prices remain among Canada’s highest in January 2025. The average rent price for an unfurnished, one bedroom is $2,293.
Keaton Bessey, a managing broker at Greater Vancouver Tenant and Property Management Ltd., says the unit won’t likely rent for that much.
"It's either really sad and like desperate, or it is really lazy and just somebody that has a lot of money and they bought it, and they just don't really care if it rents or not,” says Bessey.
A number of photographs have been shared showing the inside of the rental unit. The person who posted the listing did read Glacier Media's request for comment but did not respond to questions about how they came to the $5,100 price tag.
Blue suspects it could be a landlord that is really trying to maximize the amount of money they're getting.
“Simply because their own carrying costs on it and their own mortgage prices, as well as strata fees, are so high that they're going to try and get as much as they can just to potentially be cash flow-neutral or not lose any money,” says Blue.
A similar one bedroom in the area, at a 43-storey tower designed by architect Kengo Kuma on Alberni Street, was rented for $3,200 in December 2023, according to Bessey.
He adds the owner could add incentives if he wants to get more than the going rent.
"If they call it a corporate rental and wanted to include utilities and weekly cleaning, furniture, three- to six- to nine-month terms, laundry service, all that kind of stuff, they could probably get $7,000, $8,000 a month. But even that market's very soft," he says.
Blue adds that a building such as the Butterfly has amenities and features that people are paying a premium for.
"I've done real estate in Vancouver for a really long time and just because somebody's advertising their place for that amount doesn't necessarily mean they're going to get it, of course, but it's pretty common to see people trying for the stars,” says Blue.
When it comes to Vancouver real estate, he says "people want to be here."
"With it being a global city, that’s just going to attract more projects, more people and of course more exuberance."
Merging the old with the new
Darrell Johnson, the former pastor of the First Baptist Church of Vancouver, remembers speaking with Thom about the development during his seven-year tenure.
“He asked, ‘What do you want this new building to say to the city?’ And so I said, ‘It should say that we have good news,’” explains Johnson.
The church has a pipe organ that Thom listened to and took inspiration from.
"He proposed that this building [The Butterfly] looked like three organ pipes that are put together. The intent is, as you walk up the street, you see reflected in this glass of a modern building, this older church that is still declaring good news to the city,” says Johnson.
Previously, the church owned five lots and was looking to expand.
“It was so prohibitive financially, so we entered into a partnership with the developer who developed this building that's the financial engine to make everything else happen for the church,” he says.
This included building a homeless shelter in the basement, a children's centre, redoing the whole sanctuary, more Sunday school space and more office space in the church.
"I mean, the office space of this church is to die for,” Johnson says with a laugh.
He believes the finished product is fantastic.
"It's amazing. The difference between the architecture of the older sanctuary and the architecture of the new building is stark, but it makes a great statement."
