Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun, May 12, 2016

When we think of waterfront homes, we often think big: The palatial mansion on the expansive lot with the eye-popping price tag.

And while there are many teeny tiny places squeezed onto precious seaside land, there are indeed some impressively large homes to tell you about.

There are 275 oceanfront homes bigger than 5,000 square feet — 16 of them condos. The majority of the big homes (148) are in West Vancouver, with a surprising few in Vancouver (30), North Vancouver (26) and White Rock (24).

There are also 61 single-family detached homes sitting on oceanfront properties that are at least one acre in size. Those massive lots are spread out, mainly in White Rock (15), West Vancouver (13), Surrey (10) and Delta (9).

Landcor Data Corp provided The Sun with a spreadsheet of 9,518 properties — homes, parks and businesses — that sit along the ocean between Lions Bay and South Surrey. The Sun analyzed that data to create interactive charts and maps with fun facts about our waterfront.

Below is a colour-coded map of the 275 houses and condos larger than 5,000 square feet. Hover over a dot for more information about the home’s size, location, value and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. (To move the map around, under the arrow menu chose the cross with the pointy ends then click on the map and slide your mouse left or right, up or down.)

And this is a map of the 61 detached homes sitting on seaside properties more than one acre in size.

Did you know? The largest oceanfront parking lot is six acres in size and includes 900 stalls on Granville Island, worth $30 million. The largest seaside farm is 146 acres on 40 Avenue in Surrey, valued at only $332,972.

Tomorrow we will map out where to find the least expensive and the smallest oceanfront properties.

In an effort to define our oceanfront, The Sun asked for help from Landcor, a New Westminster-based firm that specializes in analyzing real estate data. Landcor matched B.C. Assessment data with other shoreline data sets to create a spreadsheet of 9,518 oceanfront properties between Lions Bay and South Surrey. Landcor excluded all addresses that were separated from the coast by another property, a road or railway (with the exception of the BNSF Railway in White Rock.) The Sun then analyzed that data to produce the maps and graphics for this series.