Real Estate

Big Fat Deal: $9 Million for Nickelback Frontman Chad Kroeger’s Crib. Again

Inside a six-bedroom, eight-bathroom, 20,135-square-foot rock-star playhouse on a 18.5-acre estate in Abbotsford

By William Tse /

BCLiving takes you inside one of the most outrageously upmarket real estate offerings in the province

Address: 30709 North Burgess Avenue, Abbotsford
Price: $ 8,848,000
MLS: R2138661

The skinny: Six-bedroom, eight-bathroom, 20,135-square-foot rock star playhouse on a 18.5-acre estate in Abbotsford.

The bling: Usually that would be simple: a house with a rock star history, every possible upgrade (an ice rink!) and all for under $10 million. Sure, it’s all the way out in Abbotsford, but Nickelback fans could hardly be called fussy, amirite? Well, apparently they are. Because this bad boy has been up for sale longer than Chad Kroeger’s blonde locks have been curling. In fact, although the current listing claims a whopping 258 days on the market, the sales history of this mega-mansion is a little opaque: in 2009, it was listed for $1,875,000 by owners K. and G. Pfenniger who had apparently held title since at least 1995. Yet in 2005, MTV shot an episode of Cribs at the home where Chad and then girlfriend Marianne Gurick showed off the joint, revelling in the soaker tub, the three-head shower and a kitchen counter strong enough to jump up and dance on. The property did change hands in 2009, to a G. Hamilton (although there is no record of an actual sale in the MLS), who has been unsuccessfully trying to flog the place off (at a mightily inflated price) ever since. In 2014, there was a sale at $8,780,000 that fell through and the estate was put back on the market, first at $8,980,000 and now at $8,848,000. There doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with the property—the pictures, at least, display the usual excess and superfluity that regularly grace this column—so one can only surmise that the Nickelback name isn’t actually helping here. Come on, surely the chance to air guitar your way through Rockstar in Chad’s former recording studio (yes, it’s in the barn) must be worth something. Anything? No?

The hidden extras: Stables, paddock, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, separate guest suite, parking for 10 cars, wet bar, hot tub… the chance to be part of Canadian rock history (really, that’s the selling point, we’re sure of it).