Little interest in buying the largest home in Canada

On the shores of Lake Temiskaming, about 140 kilometres north of North Bay, Ont., lies a mansion about 10,000 square feet bigger than the White House.

It has an art gallery, squash court, two elevators, gym, boathouse and it is proving just about impossible to sell.

At 65,000 square feet, or roughly the size of Bill Gates' estate, it is believed to be the largest home in Canada. With a price tag of $25 million, the house has been for sale for more than a year without a decent offer, according to a Globe and Mail article.

Now Ernst & Young, the court-appointed monitor handling the sale, is trying to increase interest by advertising in newspapers.

The house used to be owned by Peter Grant, who was listed as the 87th richest person in Canada in 2004.

He founded a family owned business in 1980 that at its peak was North America's third-largest maker of oriented strand board (OSB), a product used in house construction. The business grew with the housing bubble and in 2005, Grant started building the Haileybury house.

He wanted the house to showcase his products, but in 2007 the housing market and demand for OSB began to collapse, causing revenues to plummet.

In 2009, the company was nearly $600 million in debt and filed for court protection. Ernst & Young is selling the company's assets.

At $25 million, there are only four properties listed in Canada that are more expensive. Two are near Vancouver, one is near Montreal and one is in Toronto, although two of these properties have not been finished either.

For those interested, a real estate agent handling the sale told the Globe and Mail last year he estimated it would cost at least $1 million to finish construction.

The beginning of this somewhat shaky YouTube video shows the size of the mansion.