VANCOUVER - If I had a million dollars ... I’d buy you a house (And a new survey suggests I would probably buy you that house with big yard in the suburbs.)

When asked what type of housing they’d buy if given $1 million, 34 per cent of renters and property owners in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley surveyed would rather have a large house and property in a suburban setting, compared with just 12 per cent who would opt for a luxury apartment in the city, according to a Mustel Research Group poll.

The poll, conducted for REW.ca, a real estate search website owned by Glacier Media Inc., surveyed 561 adults between Feb. 28 and March 12.

Twenty per cent would buy a small detached house and 10 per cent favoured a townhouse or duplex in the city, while 23 per cent would just keep the cash and rent.

Vancouver, Langley and Burnaby were the most popular places to live.

“We were a bit surprised that, despite all the talk about densification and walkability, despite the fact that condos have taken over from houses in many parts of our region, the overwhelming choice was for a large house on a big suburban property,” said Elizabeth Wilson, content editor for REW.

Another surprising find, she said, was that the younger folks — or the so-called GenYs — were the most keen to own a big house and property.

The poll shows 47 per cent of those aged 18 to 34 preferred a large house and property over all other options, while most of those over 55 chose to keep the money and rent.

Families with children were the hottest to buy and least likely to keep the money, “They know a million bucks doesn’t go that far when you’ve got kids,” said Wilson.

The survey shows big differences depending on where people live, and indicates suburbanites are more likely than city slickers to desire the white picket fence life. More than half of the respondents who said they’d buy a big house in the ’burbs already live in Surrey, Delta and Langley.

Of the folks who live in the city of Vancouver, most would go for the cash or the small detached house in the city, and only about 10 per cent said they’d rather have an estate in the burbs.

Those most likely to keep the money live in Abbotsford and Chilliwack or the North Shore.

As for the location, Langley was the winner for the big house and property while Vancouver was the main choice for those who wanted a condo.

In Vancouver, $1 million could buy, for example, a small two-bedroom house in Dunbar or a four-bedroom house in East Vancouver with a tiny backyard. according to REW.ca.

In Langley, however, the most popular location among respondents, a million bucks could buy a sprawling five-acre farm with a four-bedroom house or a 5,000 square-foot, six-bedroom house in an upscale neighbourhood. In Burnaby, $1 million could fetch a five-bedroom house with water views of Burrard Inlet on Capitol Hill.