What a buyer asks about a BC lot

Check whether a BC property is in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), and what the reserve means for homes, suites, subdividing and fill.

How the Province's maps rate a BC lot's soil for farming, class 1 (best) to 7 (none), what limits it, and what drainage or irrigation would change.

Check whether a mapped road runs along a BC property or how far the nearest public road is, and what to confirm on title before you buy a lot with no road.

How much of a BC lot is clear of slopes over 30% and the 30 m strip along mapped water, measured on lidar where it covers the lot, and what that leaves out.

Check the BC Conservation Data Centre's species and ecosystems at risk on and within 500 m of a BC property, and designated wildlife areas over it.

In BC towns over 5,000 people, most lots zoned for houses must allow 3 to 6 homes; elsewhere a suite or garden suite. The rule for any address and by place.

Every titled lot in BC drawn on a map from ParcelMap BC, with its size, PID and plan, and why the legal boundary is the survey plan and the posts, not the map.

1,565 reserves lie in or beside 169 BC places. On reserve land the First Nation decides land use, not the local zoning bylaw.

About 20,000 lots lie in the Islands Trust's 13 local trust areas, where a local trust committee zones the land and the Province's housing minimums don't apply.

The smallest new lot for 1,368 BC zones in plain words, and what else decides a subdivision: the approving officer, the ALR, access, water and septic.

Most BC house zones must allow a suite or a second small home; on ALR land a second home is 90 m² or less on lots up to 40 ha. Homes in 1,443 zones.

A manufactured home on a BC lot is the zone's call; it must be registered to be sold or moved, and the ALR limits a second home. 36 zones named for them.

Whether a BC property is in a development permit area for steep slopes, wildfire, flood, streams or building form, where councils map them, and what that means.

BC's 33 heritage conservation areas in 17 places, and what a heritage alteration permit means for building, subdividing or altering a property in one.

Which rural BC electoral areas need building permits, from each regional district's own bylaw, and what still applies where there's no building inspection.

Transit-oriented areas reach 800 m from 64 SkyTrain stations and 400 m from 40 bus exchanges and West Coast Express stations, with minimums of 4 to 20 storeys.

Check whether a BC property is on one of the province's designated floodplain maps, what that usually means for building, and what the maps don't cover.

About 1,035 km of mapped dikes in 119 BC places, who maintains each, and what living behind one does and doesn't mean for a property.

2,308 dams on the Province's list in 229 BC places, 387 classed High or above: what the class means and what a dam on the land brings.

Check the wildfire history of a BC property: fires mapped on the lot and within 2 km since 1919, from the BC Wildfire Service's fire perimeters.

The 2020 National Building Code's earthquake shaking values for any BC property, compared with Victoria, Vancouver, Kelowna and Prince George.

BC's coast has five tsunami notification zones, A to E. For any lot within 2 km of the sea: its zone, its distance to the shore and its height above sea level.

Known landslides within 5 km of any BC lot from the Preliminary Canadian Landslide Database: kind, date and distance, and what to ask a geotechnical engineer.

Federal contaminated sites within 2 km of any BC lot, open ones within 500 m flagged, and where to search the Province's own Site Registry.

The share of homes at or above Health Canada's radon guideline in each BC health region, from its national survey, and how to test a home you buy.

Check whether a BC property has been under an evacuation order or alert since April 2017, for wildfire, flood or landslide, and any in effect now.

How far a BC property is from the nearest fire hall, and whether it's in a fire protection area where the regional district maps them: what home insurers ask.

Check for mapped streams, lakes, wetlands and shoreline within 30 m of a BC property, and how riparian rules and local setbacks limit building.

See the water-supply wells on record within 2 km of a BC property, their typical depth, yield and water level, and what to ask the seller about a well.

466 designated community watersheds in 146 BC places: what the designation means for logging, roads and a landowner, and whose water each is.

The Province maps 6,449 licences on springs. A water licence tied to the land passes with it when it's sold; the seller must tell the Province first.

Check the province's water-quality record for the lake by a BC property: summer clarity, phosphorus and algae, compared with other sampled BC lakes.

The shore below the high water mark is Crown land in BC: when a small private dock needs no application, and the moorage tenures within 50 m of a lot.

The Province's septic setbacks from wells, water and lot lines and its slope limits, measured against a BC property, and who designs and files a septic system.

Whether a BC property is in a community water or sewer service area, or beside a city main, where the council maps them, and what to ask where it doesn't.

Check whether a mineral, placer or coal title covers a BC property, how many are within 1 km, and what a claim under private land means for the owner.

Check for high-voltage power lines within 200 m of a BC property, what a right of way means for building and trees, and what Health Canada says.

About 13,950 km of active oil and gas pipeline in 196 BC places: who holds each line, the 30 m digging rule and rights of way on title.

Check for mines, pipelines, dams, power plants and other major projects within 10 km of a BC property on the Province's environmental assessment register.

Check for cutblocks applied for, approved or logged within 1 km of a BC property, and Crown land applications and tenures nearby: quarries, industry, towers.

1,393 Crown grazing and hay tenures reach into 126 BC places. Outside a pound district, fencing cattle out is the owner's job.

2,362 registered traplines reach into 159 BC electoral areas. On titled land, anyone but the owner or occupier needs their written permission to trap.

Check how far a BC property is from the nearest railway, highway or major road, and airport or airstrip, within 2 km, and what to ask before you buy.

Whether a BC property is in the speculation and vacancy tax area, the 2026 rates, who pays and the main exemptions, with every taxable place listed.

Whether BC's principal residence rule for short-term rentals applies to a property, what it allows, registration, and the zoning rules for the lot.

2026 residential property tax rates for every BC municipality and electoral area, per $1,000 of assessed value, with a calculator and the home owner grant.

The best internet speed providers report near any BC lot, wired and fixed wireless, and LTE coverage, with the places where most homes lack 50/10 Mbps.

The plant hardiness zone of any BC lot on Natural Resources Canada's 2025 map, the zones of every BC place, and what a zone does and doesn't tell a gardener.

Average last spring and first fall frost dates and the frost-free season for BC towns and rural areas, from the nearest weather station's 30-year normals.

Average yearly snowfall and days with snow on the ground for BC towns and rural areas, from the nearest weather station's 30-year normals.

The elementary and secondary school catchment a BC property falls in, from the school district's map, and what a catchment does and doesn't promise.

How many hours of direct sun the hills around a BC property leave on the shortest day, the equinox and the longest day, and when the noon sun comes back.

Police-reported crime for BC towns and rural areas: each police service's 2025 crime severity index against BC's, its ten-year change, and what isn't public.

The nearest hospital and its straight-line distance for each of BC's 319 places, and for any property by address or PID, from the Province's list.

915 provincial parks, ecological reserves and protected areas reach into 190 BC places. Check any property, and what a park beside it means.