Friendly and active, this quaint farming community in the middle of the Saanich Peninsula offers a comfortable rural lifestyle for those seeking refuge from the inner city’s hustle and bustle. The short 20-minute commute from Victoria's city core makes Central Saanich an easy transition for any city dweller. The municipality remains committed to celebrating and preserving its rural roots, boasting the highest concentration of agricultural production in the region.

REAL ESTATE
Whether searching for a private acreage or an ocean front home, Central Saanich will not leave buyers disappointed. Many properties available on the market offer the potential for full custom builds, rezoning, subdivision, and industrial or commercial development.

LIFESTYLE & RECREATION
Brentwood Bay Village is host to all amenities including waterfront restaurants, marina’s, shopping, and accommodation, while Saanichton boasts a collection of bed and breakfasts, stables, campgrounds, and small farms amongst its famous flower and rose gardens.

More than a million visitors a year flock to the Butchart Gardens to experience fireworks, light displays, ocean views, and spectacular floral displays featured in multiple character gardens, along the paths, and beside the estate’s beautiful lawns. For a more exotic adventure, Victoria Butterfly Gardens offers visitors the chance to explore an indoor tropical rainforest full of free roaming butterfly’s, insects, birds, and plants.

There is no shortage of outdoor adventure in Central Saanich. From the expansive hiking trails of Gowlland Tod Provincial Park, to the elevated lakes of Mount Work Regional park, residents are blessed with a huge variety of natural beauty, and a fascinating variety of flora and fauna. Centennial Park also offers those with a more competitive streak access to a lacrosse box, soccer pitches, baseball and softball fields, picnic shelters, horseshoe pitches, tennis courts, a bowling green, a children’s playground, and the Centennial Park Fieldhouse.

To the east sits Island View Beach Regional Park, an incredible, easy-walking trail with sandy beach access, and public boat launch. Boasting stunning view of Haro Strait, as well as James and Sidney Islands, it is one of the best places to see Mount Baker on the island. Island View Beach is a favorite of bird watchers and paleontologists alike as many fossils have been discovered on the shores. To the west of the community is the Saanich Inlet, a well-studied marine environment that is helping to expand scientists understanding of our oceans.

Central Saanich is a tight knit community that hosts many events throughout the year. A highlight during the early summer is the Brentwood Bay Festival, a community event boasting a parade with a full market of local crafts, artisans and produce. The festival also features a stage with performers from around British Columbia. Music in the park is a weekly event that occurs in July and August featuring musicians, food vendors and a great sense of community. The most notable even of the year is the Saanich Fair, one of the longest running fairs in British Columbia, and the West Coast's oldest agricultural fair. Established in 1871, it is held in Saanichton every September, drawing in people from all over the greater Victoria area.

AMENITIES & TRANSPORTATION
With a population of approximately 16,000, this semi-rural community has over 30 restaurants, bars and coffee shops. Central Saanich has an average Walk Score of 35, meaning most errands will require a car. That being said, residents enjoy easy access by car or public transit to Victoria, the Victoria International Airport, and the BC Ferries terminals at Swartz Bay and Brentwood/Mill Bay. For the adventurous, the northern trailhead of the Lochside Trail, a former railway line converted to bike path, stretches from Swartz Bay to Victoria, passing through some of the islands most beautiful countryside.

HISTORY
Home to the Tsawout and Tsartlip First Nations for thousands of years, the name Saanich means "elevated" in the Salish language, possibly in reference to nearby Mount Newton. The first European settlers arrived in what is now Central Saanich in 1855. By the early 1900’s, both the Victoria and Sidney Railway (V&S), and BC Electric Railway were in operation, with service to Victoria, Sydney, and Saanichton, while barges carried cement from the BC Cement factory at Tod Inlet (now the famous Canadian National Historic Site, Butchart Gardens) around the Saanich Peninsula to Victoria’s Inner Harbour to be shipped off to international markets. Incorporated as a district municipality in 1950, The area’s highly fertile soil, prized by its early community of mostly farmers, rewarded their toils growing hops, fruit, grain, and berries, finally resulting in the bustling district of homes, businesses, small working farms, vineyards, and cideries of today.

SCHOOLS
School District 63 Saanich services the Saanich Peninsula and nearby Sidney. It includes eight elementary schools, three middle schools, and three secondary schools, and proudly represents nearly 8,000 students. In addition, the district also operates a children's development centre, two individual learning centres, and an international student program.

LOCATION
Central Saanich is one of three district municipalities located on the Saanich Peninsula of Vancouver Island, about 21 km north of Victoria, and includes the communities of Saanichton and Brentwood Bay. Central Saanich is surrounded to the North by the District of North Saanich, to the South by the District of Saanich, to the east by the Haro Strait, and to the west by the Saanich Inlet.

Surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Strait of Georgia and the Inside Passage, Vancouver Island is known as “the Hawaii of the North”. With its vast wilderness, picturesque peaks, and temperate climate, this stunning locale is a paradise for those seeking serenity and natural beauty. A breadth of lifestyles are available here from charming coastal communities and pastoral estates, to busy urban centres.

Unlike much of Canada, Vancouver Island's weather is mild year-round. Spring comes early, with cherry blossom, tulip, and daffodil blooms lit by sparkling ocean sunsets. Summer is close behind, with the first sightings of migrating whales and local fishermen. In fall, a plethora of farms, vineyards, orchards, cideries, and breweries take local culinary culture to new heights. Come winter, cars loaded with kayaks, surfboards, paddle boards, skis, and snowboards come out to play, while golfers teeing off, and joggers taking to the trails remain common sights. Whatever the season, there’s plenty to enjoy on Vancouver Island.

From the remote Canadian surf-capital, Tofino in the north, to the tech-friendly historic harbour city of Victoria in the south, Vancouver Island is a mecca of world-class destinations, and facilities:

Known also as "The Garden City" for its perpetual greenery and rarely freezing temperatures, Victoria is the capital of British Columbia, and is a thriving collection of municipalities from it's historical urban centre, to it's various suburban, and rural developments both inland and oceanfront.

Located 15-minutes from Victoria in fast-growing Langford, Bear Mountain Mountain Resort is one of North-America's finest recreational developments, It is home to Canada's only 36 holes of Nicklaus Design golf, its largest indoor/outdoor red clay court tennis centre, and an extensive network of top-tier mountain bike trails. It is the headquarters of Golf Canada's National Development Team, the Canadian National Mountain Bike Team and is supported by Tennis Canada and Tennis BC.

The Victoria International Marina, completed in 2019 offers full-service premium luxury yacht moorage for yachts from 65-feet to 175-feet in the heart of Victoria. With 28-slips, upscale security and safety, amenities, concierge services and crew facilities, this is the ultimate port-of-call from which to cast off and explore North America's most spectacular cruising waters, the Pacific Northwest and Inside Passage,

Centrally situated in the lush Cowichan Valley, Vancouver Island Motorsport Circuit is Canada's only year-round motorsport circuit. This highly technical circuit features 19 corners and 11.5% in elevation changes, and is committed to providing the highest quality professional training, track-side support, and driver's education available.

Only a 45-minute drive from Victoria, the Cowichan Valley often referred to as the "Napa of the North" is home to 14 unique wineries. This cool climate viticulture is paired with a growing list of craft cideries, breweries, and distilleries located throughout the island, but mostly concentrated in the south in and around the agriculturally-rich Saanich Peninsula.

There are more than 200 islands in the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve located between Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia. Teeming with land and sea life including seals, whales, eagles, otters, and porpoises this area is home to numerous rarely explored precious ecosystems. The larger islands are serviced by BC Ferries while the smaller ones can only be reached by private boat or float plane.

Convenient international access to Vancouver Island includes numerous ferry routes to and from mainland Canada and the USA, the award-winning Victoria International Airport, as well as numerous private flight operators, airfields and heliports scattered island-wide.

Sotheby’s International Realty Canada
752 Douglas Street
Victoria, British Columbia, V8W 3M6