Victoria’s surging real estate market appears to be on pace for another record-breaking month, and homeowners are getting creative to try to cash in on foreign buyers.

The sellers of a 1914-built character home near Dallas Road have set a unique price tag of $888,888, in a not-so-subtle bid to appeal to prospective Chinese buyers.

Chinese culture looks at the number eight as lucky, and realtor Daniel Clover says it’s no secret he’s trying to attract Chinese interest.

“It’s definitely caught the media attention from Vancouver right into Victoria,” Clover said. “It’s just something that’s kind of fun, is the way the seller put it, and something that is positive so, we figured we can’t go wrong.”

He said it’s part of a larger strategy to attract buyers from beyond Victoria.

“We’re trying to hit all buyers from all over the globe. We have a lot of American interest, a lot of Vancouver interest, a lot of Alberta, Ontario interest.”

Recent real estate statistics show less than one per cent of buyers in Victoria are from mainland China, but the number of buyers coming from Metro Vancouver is closing in on 10 per cent.

Realtor Tony Joe has targeted Chinese home sellers with marketing materials promoting his Chinese connections.

It’s a move that has been met with criticism as foreign home buyers have become a contentious issue across the Strait of Georgia.

“I have received a lot of backlash,” Joe said. “Let’s face it, Victoria has never been an affordable place. It’s always been expensive relative to the rest of Canada, and I would say it’s presumptuous to assume that it’s just the Chinese who are causing this to happen.”

Greater Victoria experienced its single busiest sales month in the region’s history last month.

A total of 1,286 properties were sold in April – a whopping 53 per cent jump compared to the same month last year.