It is a well known fact that housing in Vancouver is expensive and becoming more limited. But what may not be discussed in such great detail is that buying real estate for those that have passed on is just as expensive and even more limited. For the first time in a quarter century, prime pieces of final resting real estate will be offered at Mountain View Cemetery.
Closed to new plot buyers since 1986, it is being reopened thanks to a section of British Columbia’s Cremation, Interment and Funeral Services Act. It allows cemeteries to sell plots to new buyers, those that have been sitting since purchase and have not been occupied. Apparently in the late 1800s and well into the 1900s families would buy blocks of plots. Not all of them were used, perhaps because family members moved away for work or relationships and decided to be buried elsewhere.
Now these graves will be reclaimed. Glen Hodges moved from Saskatchewan to Vancouver to begin reopening the cemetery in 2002. First he has to contact the owners, if he can find them. Many plots were sold prior to 1940 and the listed street addresses may not even exist. If he has no luck in contacting them, the sale can go through but if the previous owner comes back to claim his spot, he must be offered a replacement space.
If you are interested in a piece of Mountain View Cemetery, a four by eight foot space will cost you $22,500. And yes, they do charge HST, at least until March of next year.