Clearly the 700k is what they’ve determined the land itself is worth, which is interesting since you can likely buy another property, with a liveable house on it, on the same street for maybe 800-900k max.

Meanwhile, for this plot, after you’ve forked over 700k, you then have to demolish the house (which is essentially unlivable), figure out if the land is even stable enough to rebuild on – if it’s not, you’re screwed. If it is somehow, you still have to fork over the additional cost to build, which, is probably more complicated than on a similar, flat and stable plot.

Even with all that, you probably won’t get permission to build a house that is substantially larger than what was there before or than others on the street (the neighbors will likely challenge the zoning application), AND you’re further limited by the fact that it’s a semi.

All that is to say that any buyer is likely going to pay, at a minimum, twice as much to get a house on that property than for a similar property on the same street. Forget whether or not you think a 3bed 2 bath semi on Shaw is worth 800 or 900k, the fact is that THIS particular property will cost a purchaser substantially more than a comparable (if not better, since the land will be more stable) property on the same street.

That makes no sense whatsoever, which of course, doesn’t mean it won’t happen anyway.