Derek and I have been looking around to invest in a vacation retreat. Something modest to match our budget. A little place near water we can spruce up and customize. Our summer home when we’re ready to become snowbirds. We’re looking everywhere – from other provinces to other countries. Nothing is off the table. If you’ve explored the cottage areas of Ontario and you don’t have a million dollars to spend, you know how difficult it is to find something affordable close to home.
When small family cottages sell, they’re often bulldozed to make way for monster homes. Unless you’re literally grandfathered in to a cottage property, you need a lot of cash to gain entry. We thought we might have found a perfect spot at a provincial park. (I’m withholding its name because I didn’t ask permission to publish the contents of an email below.) Cottages are reasonably priced, on the water, and not too far from London. But they’re on leased provincial land (leased land is fairly common in Ontario) and the lease was recently extended only until the end of 2019. So I wrote to the Cottage Owners’ Association for more information. This is part of the response I received:
“We lobbied for a short-term interim lease extension through 2019 to give us more time to discuss terms of the 21-years to follow. By comparison, leaseholders in Algonquin Park wanted the immediate security of 21-years right off the bat — which they received but at a tremendous cost. The province jacked their lease fees up by 600-1100% to the point where very few Algonquin families can afford the payments. We didn’t want that to happen to us.”
However, it’s clear that it’s going to happen anyway.
“We do expect lease and service fees to increase substantially as part of a standard 21-year lease, as well as new usage restrictions that will severely limit enjoyment of our cottages. (Our landlord hates us and will do everything possible to make our time here miserable.) I expect to see most cottages in the park go up for sale in the next 3-5 years because current owners won’t be able to afford the new fees. We will fight this but when your landlord writes the laws it’s an uphill battle all the way.”
This is the province of Ontario. The government that claims to want everyone to make a living wage only wants the super-wealthy to own homes in its parks. And it aims to push out the families that have been there for generations. A provincial election is coming in June but I doubt it matters much who’s at the helm to manage this issue. It’s disgusting. And our search continues.