Hi All,

I spent some time at Royal LePage site looking at what could we get if moved to Ontario. It seems that lots of acceptable size (meaning that 500 sq.m., with all implications, can be easily found in Europe too, no need to move then) are away from bigger cities and often have no utilities connected, like water, gas, electricity, phone line etc. I tried to search through the forum but found nothing.

Anyone has an idea how much can that cost? My interest would be not completely away, as I think that having municipal water is better, so this is included in my question.

Thanks!

I can only comment on my experience of the electric as the house has oil and wood furnace and its own well. I contacted the power company whilst still in the UK and apart from a $100 deposit, which we received as a bill within 2 weeks of signing for the house, we had nothing else to pay. They did everything over the phone and because they needed info I couldn't give or didn't know they contacted my realtor and then rang me back to say everything sorted and hope the move to Canada went well

Thanks, but to make it more precise: I didn't mean getting a contract for existing line. But getting the line (or municipal water pipes, cables, etc) when nothing is there and you are buying just a piece of land. Sorry I have no idea how this process is called, to get this all connected. Or are lots mostly sold with all things ready? I doubt...

I have no idea, I'm sure it depends how near/far you are. But wrt googling, I think they're called "serviced lots" or "unserviced lots". Hope that helps you find some information.

Unless you've a specific scenario, you'll never get an accurate quote. I've built a new house and needed a new hydro pole, underground cabling for electric, cable and phone, a gas line, plus water and sewerage. As Biiiink says, it'll depend on how near you are to existing sewers, electricity poles etc, whether you go above or underground with services etc.

Rich, do you mind sharing the info? Just approximately.

It all depends but one wrinkle that may be of interest is that if Ontario Hydro has to install a new line to reach you you then have rights over that supply. While I was working there I heard much gossip about someone who'd paid the $100,000 to have power supplied to an island and who was then making a bundle on selling connectivity.

Municipal water isn't common in Ontario at locations where people build on significant lots, is 500m2 approximately an acre, 10, 50, that is, is that the sort of size that implies being in the country or is it a size common in cities?

500m2 is a city sized lot approx 50' x 107'.

Oh, then connection charges won't be ruinous relative to the cost of demolishing whatever house is in place and starting again. The neighbour in the Beach said he paid "a coupla grand" for disconnecting and reconnecting.

Here's my scenario:

Existing hydro pole on my property, approx 100m from where I wanted to build. An additional pole was erected 10 meters from it, from which electricity supply was taken underground to the new house (therefore 90m underground cabling required). 200 amp supply to new house/garage/workshop provided. Cost approx $5,000 (haven't got a breakdown for trench digging cost, but that's a reasonable estimate).

The same trench was used for cable/telephone line, Shaw Cable charged a couple of hundred dollars for their work, and Telus a similar amount.

Gas - mains gas line already existed within 25m of property, so trench and extension of line required. Cost approx $2,500 (includes hook up/meter installation charge by Terasen Gas)

Water - city water already on property (I have a business and second residence here too). Water line c100m from new house site, so trench and pipework needed. Cost c$2,500

Sewerage - septic field already in existence. An existing septic tank needed expanding by an additional 50% capacity. Cost c$12,500

So all in, close to $25k for a very straightforward scenario. If you need to create a sewerage system from scratch, that price could easily double. It'll depend on the nature of the land too - amount of excavation required, whether the spoil needs hauling away or not etc etc. I was able to re-use any spoil and digging work here was relatively easy, so machinery time was low.

Hope that helps.

OP, whereabouts are you looking in Ontario that you can only find 50 x 107 ft lots miles away from connected services?

it cost us $2oo for gas and $200 electric and $100 for water.

I think he's (or she's) just being silly by trying to confuse all the metrically challenged folk.

500 sq. m. is fairly tiny.

More likely he or she is looking at decent sized lots out of town and for some reason tried to convert whatever size it is to metricals for posting but cocked up the conversion.

Or that.