In Whistler, virtually anything can be had for the right price. And if that something happens to be a secure, underground parking spot just steps away from the gondola, that can be had, too—provided you’ve got a spare six figures laying around.
Last month, realtor Dave Brown with the Whistler Real Estate Company listed a stall in Glacier Lodge’s underground parkade near the base of Blackcomb Mountain for $110,000, a premium deep-pocketed buyers are willing to pay to avoid the frustration of finding a parking spot on a busy ski day.
“For somebody with the discretionary income, spending $110,000 isn’t a big deal compared to the headache of racing to get a parking spot and getting disappointed,” said Brown. “It’s a luxury some people can afford.”
Increasingly, that luxury is coming at a steeper cost. Brown said stalls at Glacier Lodge were selling for between $50,000 and $60,000 in 2021. In 2024 alone, he said there were about five sales at Glacier Lodge in the $110,000 range.
That is still below Whistler’s record-high of $195,000 set in September 2023 for a stall at the Pan Pacific Mountainside, where parking spots rarely come up for sale, Brown said.
The realtor theorized that the COVID-19 pandemic may have helped to boost prices as the skiing public became accustomed with booking their trip in advance.
But the major driver remains location, with stalls in close proximity to the slopes fetching far higher prices than those even just a few minutes further away. Brown said stalls sold at First Tracks Lodge in Creekside, for instance, have gone for between $35,000 and $39,000, although the most recent sale there was from 2021. Parking spots at the Delta Suites, meanwhile, tend to sell in the $19,000-to-$22,000 range, noted Brown.
A lack of available spots is another factor, particularly with Upper Lot 7 at Blackcomb Base II and P1 at the Creekside garage reserved for vehicles with four or more passengers during peak periods, a carpool incentive program Whistler Blackcomb launched this ski season.
“Parking has gotten tighter, with less spots to park,” Brown said. “If you’re not at lots 6, 7 or 8 or Creekside nowadays by 7:45 a.m., you might not get parking.”
The resort will have a fuller picture of its parking situation following the completion of a yearlong study Whistler Blackcomb is required to complete as a condition of the Resort Municipality of Whistler’s (RMOW) approval, in 2023, of the upgraded Fitzsimmons Express. The results of that study must be shared with the municipality to improve the understanding of parking utilization in the community, quantify how parking is being used, and develop a database to inform the design of future solutions.
Whistler Blackcomb is also required to pay the RMOW $200,000 annually—funds that will go toward transit and active-transportation improvements—until it implements pay parking on the lots it owns, which would likely put an even higher premium on Whistler’s remaining ski-side parking spots.
“I don’t see the prices going backwards,” said Brown.
The Glacier Lodge listing can be found here.
