The Bay Area is never lacking in strange, often mind-boggling real estate stories, so selling plots of San Francisco land that are literally beneath the Bay shouldn’t be surprising.
What might be surprising is that one underwater plot is listed for only $8,500.
The underwater housing lot off the Candlestick Point Recreation Area is 5,001 square feet at 610 Egbert Avenue.
The land is listed by real estate agent Trent Zhu, who purchased 40 of these underwater lots at auction from the City of San Francisco for $5,000 around six years ago. Zhu said when he first heard about the auction back then they were just too cheap to resist, so he set up a computer program to do the bidding for him and later found out he had won the lots.
Now, he said the housing market is so good, he is trying to see if he could make his money back. He said he sees potential in the site, though he knows there are no guarantees. “San Francisco has a rich history of waterfront development. Much of the Marina District started off as water plots before 1915,” the listing says. “…Seller is not sure if this tide land can be developed into a yacht harbor, houseboat park, a pier or anything at all. Buyer is encouraged to check with State, County and City agencies for the highest and best use of the lot.”
An underwater home lot is for sale in San Francisco for $8,500.
Trent ZhuZhu would prefer to sell his 40 lots all at once to a developer, but he said he’s becoming more open to selling them off parcel by parcel. He said with all the residential and commercial development coming to the Hunter’s Point area in the next 10 years, the space could be important to the neighborhood.
$375,000, which is a relative steal considering the median single-family home price in San Francisco is $1.5 million.
Zhu said he’s had plenty of bids on the parcels individually, so he’s not worried about selling them one by one if it comes to that. “It’s a plan B,” Zhu said.