Research on relocating to Canada
 

Hi everyone,

I am currently living in the UK and i want to buy land in British Colombia and build a few houses on the land. The idea is to relocate my family as we are all tired of living in different countries as we never get to see each other.

One main house (2 bed) ideally is required along with 4 "granny flats" that or outbuildings (not sure what its called in canada) which are 2 bedrooms each.

The land looks cheap but i am clueless as to how to proceed. I know planning permission is required, but does anyone know the process of this ? Can you recommend contractors ? what will be a rough cost to put this up and how long will it take ?

Thank you.
:starsmile:

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

Cart before the horse perhaps?

What immigration status do you and your family have? Assuming that you are not Canadian citizens nor have Permanent Residency, how do you plan to obtain those things to enable you to enter the country to live on your property?

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

Apologies i should have re-iterated as the subject line does say its "research"

I am currently applying for my visa (in the process of gathering documents etc).

But i just wanted to see what the cost of this project would be. This will weight up if i should move over once my visa is approved or if i should stay in the UK for a little while to build our home before we move.

But thanks for the post.

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

That could be a how long is a piece of string scenario.... All I do know for sure is that unless you are personally are a builder the average home could cost more to build yourself than to buy already built and lived in by someone before you. I found this out by researching building our own home.
In short land purchase costs, clear cutting, water, sewage, hook up to electrical and gas if using, municiple fees of the area are just the start up to consider. If you dont have legal status in BC you may not get financing or it would be more expensive....
This is my take as an average person with little to zero technical knowledge in this area....

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

The Zoning of the land will determine if you can build any sort of house on it.

If it is zoned for housing, the price of the land will reflect this.

For construction cost you are looking at an typical $250 per square foot or $2400/m2 of floor space.

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

Land is usually cheap in remote locations Land in BC in urban areas is anything but cheap. Farmland in the Lower Mainland is around $100,000 an acre right now. Land zoned for building in LM cities, more like $1m an acre and up.
West Georgia Chevron gas station sold for $72 million | Daily Hive Vancouver


Building costs around $200 a square foot. Farm land is unlikely to be taken our of the Agricultural Land Reserve. Subdividing land for building and rezoning to residential is pretty pricey too. Buying a small lot and having your own house built is doable.

Look up:
Subdividing BC
Rezoning property BC
Agricultural Land Reserve
Foreign buyers tax BC

If you have millions behind you this is doable.

From your research methodology, I would be doing a lot more leg work, on the ground before proceeding with a project like this.

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

From past experience of ourselves and friends .......... it could be possible to buy say 10 acres zoned recreational land in BC

BUT you then have to jump all the hoops of getting that land zoned to have more than one house built on it. This would then be followed by getting all the municipal licenses to build what you what as you want ........ and that can be harder and more expensive to obtain for recreational property as licence fees are a source of income for the local council. The local town council that we came under for our cabin insisted that any improvements that cost more than $400 needed a permit and several inspections by an inspector who had to travel 120km round trip ............ we of course would have to pay for the permit and for the inspector's time.

Local contractors made sure that no job they did for anyone cost more than $400 even if it had to be done in stages! :nod:

You would be thinking in terms of installling a sewage system such as sewage field or tank, both require much testing before you even start building to ensure that there is an adequate drainage ratio of the ground, depth of install the tank. After the sewage field or tank is built then you enter the delightful world of keeping it working, finding a company to empty the tank.

Next step would be to install a well ........ if no available stream that you can access (permits from local and provincial authorities needed, and determination of whether it is or might be a fish-bearing stream), then you have to drill a well, install water lines to each of the houses, and a generator to raise the water and take

All this because you are unlikely to find a plot of land which has services laid to it or easily laid.

As an example ........... we owned 20 acres with no services. There was no way to get sewage or water lines, but there was a telephone line about 3 km away. Ten years ago, we were quoted $1,000 per km to extend the line to the property line .

There are several "compounds" around BC that I know of.

Then you should think about what might happen if you decide to (or have to) sell the property. It could be much more difficult to find other people who want such a property, and subdivision of the land into separate properties for each house could be very complicated and expensive

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

I do agree with Atlantic Xpat that this is "cart before the horse" as I assume from your post that your kids are adults and ALL of you need visas.

Howefamily is a typical experience. It can cost a lot more to build your own home. It will cost substantially more as a foreign family new to the area. I would suggest you spend 2, 3, maybe even 4 years in the proposed location first. Small towns run on word-of-mouth and that is how the best land gets sold too, off-listing and through people talking, not through a brokerage listing. That is also how you find the best contractors and so on.

You will see what the people who have been there 100 years do. Do what they do but it will take time to build those relationships to access that information.

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

Slightly o/t but did you know that you can buy a house from a chain of hardware stores pretty much anywhere in Canada? It rather surprised us, and you might find it useful to get a vague idea of hardware costs - though you need to find someone to put it up.
Beaver Homes and Cottages - Bungalow
I should stress that we've not used them and have no idea what the quality is like! I guess that will also depend on how many bits are left over when the contractor puts it together...

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

I didn't know that!

I've seen these (which include smaller properties) - they offer complete packages including set up - there are companies that offer a similar service in BC

Browse New Home Floor plans

Land costs would be extra, of course.

:)

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

not only land costs .............but permits from the local council, inspector fees, installation of sewage, water, electricity etc if not already supplied to the land.

There are lots of companies around that build log cottages and homes, and some are actually cheaper than Beaver ....... finding a local company means less spent on cartage fees.

For example, there were at least 5 log home builders within a 100 km range of our cottage ...... and that includes the 60 km distance between it and the nearest "large" town (ca 5,000 people)

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

One other thing that most of us do not investigate before buying recreational property, whether it be ¼ acre, 1 acre or 100 acres, is the question of insurance.

Most recreational property is not covered by services such as ambulance, first responders, fire protection, etc, because it lies outside the boundaries of service by the local village that has such services. Remember that most fire services (in BC at least) are voluntary firemen.

Even the RCMP wouldn't come and inspect our property when we had a break-in ...... we had to go to the local detachment at the town 60 km away, make a full declaration of what was missing, they gave us a case number based on that and said they would keep an eye open.

We could have used the case number to make a claim from the insurance company, except that no insurance company would cover the property because we had no fire coverage or a hydrant within 100'.

Talk about a catch 22!

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

Within 1000' of a hydrant and 5 km from a fire hall.

http://www.news1130.com/2015/08/17/a...r-rural-homes/

https://www.tdinsurance.com/products...m-calculations

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

There was a place in southern Nova Scotia for sale a couple of years ago. It consisted of 5 little houses, all in beautiful condition on a few acres on a lake front.
They only wanted approx $800,000, if not less, I can't quite remember.

Maybe you should look at something like that?

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

OK, I was trying to remember back 10 years .......

..... 100' or 1000' makes no difference when you are 60 km from the nearest hydrant!!

Even the First Nations Reserve plus 2 of the 3 small communities between our property and the "big" town did not have hydrants.

There was a Volunteer Fire Brigade in the community 40 km away.

That brigade had a small water tanker truck, the "big" city had a large water tanker truck but only went about 5-10 km outside its boundaries.


The point is that few of us even think about such things when we see the "coveted" piece of property.

Neither do we think about what would happen if a member of the family or a visitor had an accident while there. In some cases, it could be as difficult as walking to the farm gate, and waiting for someone to drive by on the way to the little community on the lake or to the summer picking ground of the First Nations ........ that could be within 5 minutes or 5 hours.


Plus there wasn't any cell phone service, as is also the situation in many areas of BC.


I've posted as I have because we had the experience of buying a piece of property that could indeed have been able to support several cabins or cottages, did have dealings with the local council re permits, discovered the problems of living off grid. We had that property for 17 years, loved all our time there ........... and learnt a lot!


........ and I am not sure that the OP is aware of what their dream means in real life, or if they have even been to BC.

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

The OP did specify BC ................. and it would be darn near impossible to find that kind of place for that amount of money.

You would be looking at $2 million to $3 million or more!

A recreational property with a 4 bedroom house (described as "cabin" as usual here) on an ½ acre lake waterfront about 25 km from our property was sold for $1 million in 2013. :eek:


Just as I could sell my house in Vancouver and buy 3 in Halifax :nod:


I drool every time I look at real estate in Nova Scotia!

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

When we saw that this place was being foreclosed we were driving past to 25 acres we had in the country. We had got as far as arranging for someone to erect a Viceroy house there (I'd previously lived in a Viceroy house and had been suitably impressed). We were coming from a house where we had cut off the roof and added a floor so we were not entirely naïve about building. I suppose that was around four years ago.

Issues we had to deal with included:

- negotiation with the Conservation Authority over possible changes to drainage due to the house
- permit for the septic system
- cost of power connection, it's either so much per pole or an astronomical amount to have buried cable
- need to buy the land for cash (banks don't lend on unimproved land) leaving no cash for anything else

It was a daunting project but one I think we could have completed (though not for $200 a square foot). We changed direction because Foreclosure Farm offered more land, closer in, than we had thought possible. We subsequently sold the 25 acres and someone is just now building on it. I would not be surprised if it took them that 3 years to get all the permissions in place.

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

1. Maybe the OP.might consider NS
2. What's stopping you from moving to NS?

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

He would certainly find property one heck of a lot cheaper in NS than here!


As to what is stopping us ........ mainly the fact that everything that we need and all our interests and friends are here in BC. I addition, it would put more pressure on daughter and s-i-l if we moved over there, in addition to the pressure they're under from his side.

We have our support group(s) here, would have to start from scratch

and TBH ........ I don't like much of the weather over in NS, I much prefer being in banana land :lol:

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

In the fire zone, loads of people had no coverage and folks already buying a house in those areas could not buy insurance of they were 10km or closer to an active fire. If we have a rumble in the ground, cannot buy earthquake insurance for something like 60 days after the last rumble.

We can now buy flood insurance in parts of Canada. There is also provincial aid for uninsured flood losses. It is very limited and only available to those who could not buy flood insurance. Insurable losses are not covered by the provincial emergency aid program.
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/s...ial-assistance

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

If my small terraced house in Bristol had sold without delays I could have bought three detached houses here.

As it was, I had to make do with two. :rofl:

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

we've had flood and earthquake insurance for at least 30 years or as soon as it became available ........... we are not down near a river or on a flood plain, but are covered in case a torrent comes pouring down from the higher streets around.


TBH ............ I've never understood how someone could or would build, or buy, a house on a flood plain. It only seems to make sense that a flood plain might well flood reasonably regularly!!

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

Two types of flood insurance in Canada. The type that covers for sewer backup and burst pipes, which has been around for a long time. Overland flood insurance, which covers for major events, such as rivers bursting their banks is a new concept in Canada in the last year or so. Not all insurers offer it, premiums are pretty hefty too.

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

Flood and storm surge premiums are the result of calculations in another league of complication compared to other domestic and small commercial risks. They depend on statistical data from multiple sources, data which is constantly being refined. Accordingly, there's much more scope in this area for premium variation between companies and between renewals at the same company than there is for other types of coverage. Even before commercial considerations are taken into account. If multiple insurers cover your location it's well worth getting them all to quote.

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

I live in a place like that now.

Bushfires are of course a huge risk. The farmers around us all equip their properties and spend a huge amount of time each year before bushfire season prepping to "actively defend" but of course that involves things like constructing fire breaks, etc and having your own massive supply of stored water. All that takes $$$$$$.

You also need to make sure you know your escape routes (and have multiple escape routes in different directions) like the back of your hand.

A lot of people screw up if they get caught up in a bushfire by going up to higher ground - bushfires spread easily up. You need to go DOWN to lower ground. I used to be in our volunteer bushfire brigade and that was a common way people got killed - hilly area, they needed to flee, guessed wrong and went up the hill instead of down.

City folk don't understand the risk; you aren't in danger when the flames arrive, the danger point arrives way before that. Wind blowing the embers etc your house will be on fire way before the main fire wall arrives.

Anyways where I live we do get a lot of big-city types buying "holiday homes" thinking they are going to be in a low-maintenance idyllic setting only to, after a few months, realise the huge amount of labour involved in living in the country and they stop coming and sell up pretty quick or just leave the place to rot.

One big-city couple actually bought an enormous rainwater tank on someone's farm and converted it into a studio flat with all mod-cons - including a washer and kitchen. Looked beautiful and they did a great job. But they got bored real fast and sold within the year. Tried first at big-city prices and that didn't fly at all.

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

Yep, the Disaster Financial Assistance program (DFA) is only available when the province has declared a disaster and only to uninsurable losses. Declaration of a disaster is done on a case-by-case basis and even 10 homes being wiped off the map may not be deemed a disaster, dependant on individual circumstances and financial impact. The municipality will likely be doing everything they can though, to present the case to the Province for a disaster to be declared.

It’s worth asking an insurer if they cover overland flooding, a quick check on your postcode will soon answer that. DFA also has a financial cap and only covers the necessities of life. If your $5k Italian leather sofa was ruined, you’re getting coverage for the best value replacement so you don’t have to sit on the floor. It isn’t really a “build back better” scenario for private residents (infrastructure, maybe), but more of a helping hand to get back on your feet and get used to your new normal.

Also, I am a Local FireSmart representative & can help communities become officially recognized as FireSmart. Spurred on to do this as I work in emergency management and live in a place outside of the city with no municipal fire protection. This year was very worrying due to having a couple of hours of rain, a couple of times in something like 3 months.

I guess though that now the OP has opened this can of worms and not returned since, they’re not that interested anymore...

Re: Research on relocating to Canada
 

Thank you everyone for the detailed responses. Much appreciated, this has been very informative. Thank you for the websites - i have had a look at some of them and they are very insightful.

Thank you again :)