$19.8M for a Pender Island mansion with working farm and vineyard

A custom-designed home on Pender Island that is on sale for $19.8 million is seen in this photo by Lionel Trudel Photography for Sotheby's International Realty.

A custom-designed waterfront mansion on Pender Island has just hit the market for $19,800,000 and it comes with a sprawling 105-acre property – impeccably maintained by a live-in caretaker named Terry.

The primary home on the property at 3200 Clam Bay Rd. is only one of a number of buildings on the site – which features trails winding through old-growth trees, an organic farm complete with a large farmhouse, a vineyard, a barn that has been converted to an event space with a stage and dancefloor, a sawmill, and a handful of historical structures.

The listing agents, who are with Sotheby's International Realty, say the property has evolved over time but has been a working farm since the 1870s. Evidence of that history remains, Realtor Paul Hague says.

"On the beach are the original settler homes – little tiny shacks that they built back in the day to live on the edge of the water while they cut the forest down and got the land prepared," he told CTV News. There are three of these small cabins, one of which has been maintained as a one-bedroom accommodation heated by a wood-burning stove.

The sawmill that was used to cut the trees from which those small shacks were built also remains on site, and is still operational.

The property has passed through a series of owners over the years, and after the latest purchase in 2011 the owner hired Blue Sky Architecture to design a 7,000-square-foot west coast modern home overlooking the bay.

"They took the site and designed a home specifically to fit on the site and fit with the land and created, I would call it, a work of art," Realtor Nicole Eastman says, noting the lack of sharp angles, the use of local woods and massive windows designed to bring the outdoors in as some of the elements inspired by the landscape.

"It blends quite seamlessly with the trees and it doesn't look out of place."

A massive pier and commercial-grade dock allow access by either boat or float plane and the waterfront portion of the property spans just under a kilometre. Orcas, humpbacks and other marine life are said to be occasional visitors.

Before the new home was built, a farmhouse was the main residence on the property. It's still there, and Hague says it might be his favourite place on the lot.

"I love it. It's so welcoming and warm. The kitchen is like an old-style Italian, big house kitchen where you would go and have a bunch of pasta and sauce and wine and have all your friends at the table. It's just so inviting," he says.

"The house has got a wrap- around veranda which overlooks the vineyard. You get on the property and really never want to leave."

A pond with a fountain in its centre overlooked by a cedar gazebo that is currently set up as a home gym are also located on this part of the property.

The vineyard is leased to a local winery, which employs staff to harvest the grapes.

The remainder of the farm produces Haskap berries which are sold to a local cidery, as well as plums, apples, and pears.

"It's a lot of land,” Eastman admits.

Hague points out that's where Terry comes in.

"It is so clean and so well-maintained. There's nothing out of place, honestly. The caretaker Terry lives on the property and he keeps it dialled in, it's beautiful," he says, adding that there are two other caretakers who live off-site.

"There are three people total who are making sure everything's always at its best," Eastman says.

The sheer scale of the property and everything on it makes it almost defy description.

"We can say all we want about the house but there's nothing like being on the property and the experience of being there," Eastman says.