This 80-year-old Ottawa home is on the market for $1.649 million

A home built in 1942 in Ottawa's Westboro neighbourhood is on the market for $1,649,000. (Photo courtesy: Realtor.ca)

An 80-year-old home in Ottawa's Westboro neighbourhood is on the market for $1.649 million, with the agent saying the home is being sold primarily for the land.

The two-storey, four-bedroom home is located on Princeton Avenue, one block west of Churchill Avenue North. The home, built in 1942, is located on a property 20 metres by 30 metres, with a detached garage.

"Welcome to 370 Princeton. This property is being sold primarily for land value," says the listing on Realtor.ca

Rocco Manfredi of Royal LePage Team Realty Brokerage in Ottawa, who is one of the owners of the property, says they haven't had much luck renting it out lately, and one of his partners decided it was a "better idea" to sell the property instead of building "what we wanted to build on it."

If a buyer wanted to keep the home, Manfredi says the house is "very livable." 

The property is zoned by the city of Ottawa for two eight-unit buildings.

"The city changed the zoning from R3 to R4-U, so what we have designed for that with verbal city approval is two eight-unit buildings. That zoning allows two eight-unit buildings," Manfredi said.

The home includes two main floor bedrooms, with a family room and two additional bedrooms on the second floor.  There is also an unfinished basement.

"I've had people that want to buy it to move in, but they find it a little bit expensive. I've had people that want to buy it to subdivide into two houses to build for two single-family homes and they find it a little expensive for that," Manfredi said.

In 2020, council approved a zoning amendment to encourage new eight-to-12-unit low-rise apartment buildings in neighbourhoods like Westboro.  The zoning rules for R4 allow an eight-unit building on a lot 12 metres wide and 12-unit buildings built on 15-metre wide lots.

Manfredi says with the city pushing for higher-density properties, the R4 zoning for the property is "huge" for development opportunity.

"For an R3 zoning you would have got a triplex out of it, while with an R4 zoning you're going to go anywhere from four to eight units."

A property on nearby Roosevelt Avenue is on the market for $1,655,000, with the listing say it is a "prime west facing development lot." The 20 metres by 36 metres land is zoned R3, with the listing saying it could be home to a single-family home, two single-family homes, conventional semis or a front-to-back semis.