What does good hunting land go for in the differnt Provinces??????My son and I are interested in a Section or more depending on price.Mainly for Deer and Bear .thanks,OB

Olbiker,

The prices vary wildly within one province let alone the entire country. This summer, a section of land in the Alberta foothills next to or near Crown land would have cost over $1 million, maybe quite a bit more unless you were really lucky. I`ve been told by people who have looked into it that Montana is a Hell of a lot cheaper. Try www.mls.ca/splash.aspx. This summer, my wife and I bought a place in central Alberta parkland that we found on this site. The realtor we used mentioned selling sections of pasture in the area we bought in for $900k. He thought that was over priced and it made us ask what was wrong with the half section of native grass and trees we ended up buying. Been here 3 months and still can`t find a reason for it being under valued so I guess he was right and the previous owner was just motivated.

We had been looking for the right place for a long time. I'd suggest you spend a lot of time thinking about exactly what you'd like to hunt and do with the land. How much time will you be spending out on this land? If you are only looking for hunting, you are probably better off money wise paying for guides and outfitters than buying land. If you are looking for a secure investment as well, it may still be worthwhile to buy land, but there is another layer of complexity to understand. Also take a hard look at the hunting regs to find out what a non-resident can hunt. This too will vary wildly from area to area, even within a province and may dictate where you want to look.

If you want to be on the power grid, look closely at the cost of getting power to an undeveloped site. We looked at one piece of land in southern Alberta where the cost of bringing in power was $40k/mile. My jaw hit the floor when I heard that number. Also look at the water supply, you can't always get a supply and may have to build a surface catchment, which can be mighty hard to do on the side of a mountain. Lots of cheap land in the interior of B.C. with that problem.

Do your homework, think explicitly, soberly and clearly about what you want and put in the time looking for what is right for you. If you'd like to hear about what my wife and I did, sent me a PM and I can give you some details as sort of a case study.

Good luck,
Dean

A foreigner may purchase land in BC, however, you CANNOT hunt here, even on the land you buy UNLESS you are a legal BC resident.

This entails either obtaining "landed immigrant" status OR perhaps a "work permit" and you MUST LIVE here for the greater part of each of the twelve months prior to applying for each year's licences and cannot simply fly back and forth between a foreign country and your BC holdings and still hunt here.

In short, your primary residence must be in Canada or in BC, not in another country. This is on page 3 of the current regs. synopsis.

The price of any worthwhile large piece of land near good hunting is high and going up continually. Access can be costly, hydro and water are serious concerns and it is not an "easy" situation...which is why most of we residents don't do it.

Dewey's post reminded me of the major brain cramp I had while writing my first post. In Alberta, you would need the services of a guide or hunter host (basically a friend who would go hunting with you and remain "within easy verbal communication distance" while not accepting renumeration)to hunt deer, black bear or other big game on your land. Birds can be hunted without a guide or host. The same rules apply to Canadian residents of other provinces hunting in Ab btw. It has been a long time, but I believe the same would apply in Saskatchewan, except I don't think they have a hunter host program.

The legal concept as I understand it (and I won't be offended if and when I get corrected) is that no one owns wild animals in Canada. They simply exist and are managed by the provincial and territorial governments on behalf of, and for the bennefit of, the residents of the province or territory. I think that system works pretty well in a big, thinly populated and wealthy country where wildlife laws are generally followed and enforced. Unless you are a resident, owning land in Alberta doesn't get you any advantages wrt hunting opportunities other than permission to hunt your own land. Residents can get the odd supplimental tag.

Montana is probaly starting to look better from your point of view about now. BTW, I had a real quick look at the MLS listings in Alberta and Sask and figure the numbers mentioned above are still reasonable. Prices are somewhat lower on dry prairie grazing land and on the northern fringes of the agriculture belt. North of that is almost entirely Crown land and native reserves.

Dean

of course if you buy land in BC, don't let Dewey know if you build a house on it because you are a hated foreigner and he might burn your house down.- just kidding( i think). of course i remember well when Canada opened it's doors to Hong Kong residents when the Brits gave HK back to the CHICOMS- all it took to gain Canadian resident alien status, followed quickly by citizenship was X number of dollars in the bank. i guess times have changed and good luck with your project.

Around here, the land that brings the most money, is that has the last chance of being productve. Where I live, which is decent agricultural land, mixed trees and pasture or crop, you can buy a quarter for about 600 grand. Go across the highway a few miles, where its basically trees, swamp, or rocks and you'll have to pay another 400, 000. I think the ownership of Wildlife resides in the Crown, whatever that means.
Grizz

If I were you, Olbiker, I'd be looking in Montana, in the North Western area if possible.

quote:

Originally posted by OLBIKER:
What does good hunting land go for in the differnt Provinces??????My son and I are interested in a Section or more depending on price.Mainly for Deer and Bear .thanks,OB

Still need to hunt thru a registered Outfitter with allocations for the species you want to hunt. The land you may want to purchase will not be your primary residence - plus you would be considered a NON-RESIDENT ALIEN when hunting in ALberta and probably BC and Saskatchewan.

Good Luck

That is definitely the case here in BC and it seems a rather costly method of attempting to hunt here. With the US economy as it is, there are now some serious "deals" being offered by BC GOs and probably in other provinces, as well. I would take advantage of this and not spend a LOT of money on land I was not going to make a permanent home on as hunting will not be an option.

Ol'Biker,

land just north of me, north of Sault Ste. Marie, is not over priced in the least. It is certainly not farm country, there are a lot of bears, deer (some), moose (better), great grouse, and some dang fine fishing as well.

I'd start looking at the classified in the Sault Star SSM, Ontario paper). Last i checked, at least some of the classifieds where on line, and if not, certainly there are some realtors there.

do we want to raise the specter of what you will be doing with your firearms collection before you move? I can store them here in Idaho for a very reasonable fee.

Rich

Don't listen to Don! He's an honorary Jackpine Savage!! Don't try to deny it either buddy!

Moving firearms to Canada is a rather simple task. There are some restrictions but none that should be a problem for most.

Thanks for all the input.I will probably look around the Sault Ste. Marie area as that is only 200 miles away.I am looking for a get away place to hunt Whitetails and Bear.Big parcels around here are way too expensive for me.Thanks again.OB

Having never hunted out east, what are the regs for non-residents in Ont?

Dean

I checked into purchasing land in Alberta 4 years ago. Bottom line, a US citizen cannot purchase more than 3 acres of "farmland" in Alberta, farmland would be hunting land. I was told that keeps foreigners from purchasing and taking over the farming business. If you move there and become a citizen than you can do a deal.
The US would sell the whole state of Kansas to the chinese if the price was right. Kind of makes up my mind who is smarter but I still wish I could own a couple of quarters up there.

Could look into Ontario.

I know there are areas there where non-residents can hunt without a guide (friend just did a month ago). Not sure about bear hunting though (without guides). I think the bear hunts there now are fall only too.

Was an ad in our local paper here awhile ago where someone on the Ontario side was selling something like 200 acres for around 40,000.00.
Cheap!! Guessing it was all swamp land or very hard to access.

If it were me looking for inexpensive hunting land...I would look in Northern Michigan.....land is cheap, deer are plentiful and big, fishing is astounding, people are friendly, pasties are great, country is gorgeous.

every time i hear of countries having laws that keep non-citizens from owning land it bothers me. protectionist, nationalist policies like that just keep the same money in the same people's hands. what a shame.

I could not possibly disagree more and would ban ALL non-Canadian "ownership" of even a square inch of Canadian territory by ANY foreign entity or person. I have SEEN what foreigner "ownership" has done to some of BC's finest hunting/fishing areas and am totally against such a self-destructive policy.

Nationalist policies have done very well for those nations, such as Japan which have them and protectionist policies also have their proper place, as in selling raw resources and energy, for example.

quote:

Originally posted by 390ish:
every time i hear of countries having laws that keep non-citizens from owning land it bothers me. protectionist, nationalist policies like that just keep the same money in the same people's hands. what a shame.

Well, I guess you could look at Cuba. At one time, Americans owned most of the arable land, in the country. Only way to get it back, was the Castro method and they're still feuding about it.
Grizz

quote:

Originally posted :
a US citizen cannot purchase more than 3 acres of "farmland" in Alberta, farmland would be hunting land. I was told that keeps foreigners from purchasing and taking over the farming business. If you move there and become a citizen than you can do a deal.
.

Sorry, but I don't believe you are quite correct. You have to be a legal Canadian resident , OR apply for and receive government clearance to buy certain businesses and/or natural resources, but you do NOT have to be a citizen. A landed immigrant (same thing as a "resident alien" in the U.S.), cannot generally become a citizen until he/she has resided a certain period of time in Canada but they can certainly buy land.

My wife's brother is QC (Queen's Counsel) in Edmonton, Alberta, and he assists clients in such endeavors as a major part of his business.