Sapperton Real Estate & Homes For Sale
New Westminster started out as the first capital of the province and has a layered history of times of great prosperity, like its early days during the gold rush, its period of cultural blossoming during the Victorian era, and its push to strengthen neighbourhood bonds after World War II. Today, New West has entered another period of significant growth with developments in the Sapperton area heartily joining the charge toward revitalization.
New West is located at the geographic centre of the Metro Vancouver area, with the Sapperton neighbourhood of about 4,485 residents (2006) extending northeast away from East Columbia Street. It shares a border with the nearby towns of Coquitlam and Burnaby and reaches all the way from New West’s Massey Victory Heights neighbourhood to the Fraser River.
Sapperton Homes For Sale
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- Over $1,000,000
It’s approximately 19km southeast of the city of Vancouver proper, and it’s a slowly-leaking secret that New West in general and Sapperton in particular are a haven for commuters looking to invest in a home. Sapperton has more adults aged 35-49 and families with young children than the city on average. (2006)
New West shares the moderate, mild rainforest climate that’s made the Vancouver area vividly green. the city gets about 2,000 hours of sunshine annually, and 111cm of rainfall. The average temperatures peak at 22°C and dip down to 6°C in the winter.
Sapperton is named for the Royal Engineers, known as “sappers,” who were formerly headquartered there. The neighbourhood is an exciting mix of homes built on a hillside with some of the best river views in the city, the historical main street of the city formerly called “The Golden Mile,” and an exciting new commercial and residential development right next to the hospital called the Brewery District.
Employment Opportunities in Sapperton
Sapperton’s $50,083 median household income is 3% higher than the city’s average. More residents in Sapperton are employed in the business, finance industry as well as health services than the city at large.
The city’s largest employer, Sapperton’s own Royal Columbian Hospital, has created 3500 jobs in the city’s health services industry (2011).
The anchor tenant in Sapperton’s new Brewery District, TransLink, has become the city’s second largest employer with 1000 employees (2015).
Hospital and Health Services
In addition to the hospital’s planned renovations and expansions, a proposed use of part of the new brewery district is a section devoted entirely to providing the community and medical professionals with more medical services.
Shopping
East Columbia Street which defines Sapperton’s southwestern border is one of the main retail strips in the city, and also happens to be one of the city’s best spots for antique shopping.
Cap’s Bicycle Shop has been a landmark institution in the neighbourhood for over 80 years and has become a symbol of New West’s beloved long-standing family businesses.
Columbia Street also connects to nearby Lougheed Mall and Cariboo Centre shopping areas in Burnaby to the north.
Dining
Thai New West, one of TripAdvisor’s favourite New Westminster eateries, serves classic Thai in a modern setting located closeby Sapperton. Gino’s is a family-run restaurant that’s been a local Sapperton favourite for decades.
Greens and Beans Deli serves up amazing food and donates the money collected in their tip jar to various local charities.
Sapperton’s proximity to local transportation make all of New West’s eateries high accesible. The Quayside’s River Market has been topping the charts for a great night out with Wild Rice modern Chinese cuisine and Vancouver’s famous Re-Up BBQ.
Transportation and Ease of Access
It takes less than 30 minutes to get to downtown Vancouver by car or SkyTrain rapid transit link from any train station in New Westminster.
Sapperton neighbourhood is home to two of the city’s five rapid transit stations, Braid and Sapperton. Now that the SkyTrain’s been added to the city, Sapperton’s vehicle driving is down 11% since 2001 (2006).
Schools
Sapperton’s Richard McBride Elementary is a medium-sized K-5 school serving 370 students (2015). The school’s technology-focused curriculum allows students to explore unanswered questions through the use of iPads, virtual manipulatives and multimedia resources.
The Homelearners Programme at Hume Park is a teacher-led learn programme that gives families with home-educated students the opportunity to design their own learning experience.
The New Westminster Secondary School is one of the largest schools in BC and is the only high school in New West. It’s home to several well-supported academic, sports and arts programmes, most notably the rigorous International Baccalaureate Programme.
Nearby colleges include Douglas College in New West, Simon Fraser University in Burnaby and the University of British Columbia 31.7km away in Vancouver. Sapperton’s Royal Columbian Hospital is one of the region's most active teaching hospitals, so it is very closely connected to college medical programmes from all over the region.
The Arts
New West’s lively performing arts venues range from the large Massey Theatre frequented by big name performers to the Bernie Legge Theatre in Queen’s Park that’s home to BC’s oldest community theatre group.
Sapperton Residents are treated each year to the Sapperton Day Street Festival, which features live performances, family activities and delicious food.
Recreation, Sports and the Outdoors
Sapperton has several separate community parks. The largest is Hume Park, just north of Braid Street. Hume Park has wide open spaces, a grass field, a playground, native plants and access to the Brunette River as well as the Brunette-Fraser trail. Upper Hume Park has an off-leash dogpark, spraypark, outdoor pool, and lacrosse box.
Sapperton Park, near the Royal Columbian Hospital, has a large baseball diamond and soccer field with lights for night games, a children’s water park, a playground and a mini-forest of lovely old cedars.
One of the city’s newest parks, Sapperton Landing, encourages residents to take advantage of the riverfront near the new Fraserview development. The park’s design included backwater tidal channels and riparian woodland to encourage the development of natural wildlife habitats for fish and fowl.
Investing in Sapperton Real Estate
Sapperton has been dubbed by some as “The New Brooklyn” because of its status as a hip, growing neighbourhood that’s full of character and undervalued real estate. It’s one of the few suburbs in the area where you don’t need a car, even if you commute to Vancouver.
The mom-and-pop local businesses are being supplemented by all of the yoga studios, indie cafes and antique stores a young family could ever hope for, but the real value here is the authenticity of the historically rich (and shockingly affordable) architecture, which all the money in the world can’t truly replicate.
MoneySense has ranked Sapperton #53 on their 2015 list of Top Vancouver Neighbourhoods, and the city’s recently spent millions to renovate the neighbourhood’s streets, sidewalks and streetlamps. Sapperton may be undervalued right now, but it’s not likely to stay that way for long.
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