How to live like a laird without breaking the bank

published 7 November 2007

We've all dreamed of owning a country estate with plenty of land and ideally a lake or ocean nearby to fish in or play on. But you'll need at least £2m to find anything like that in the UK, and outside the Highlands, wide open spaces are few and far between. However, don't give up you can still live like a laird, you just have to venture a little further than Scotland to do it.

"With a pristine natural environment", Nova Scotia is "perfect for outdoor types", says Andrea Watson in the Daily Express. Far from being cold it "is actually more a Canadian extension of New England, sharing its gentler climate", says Andrew Moody in The Observer.

It lies on the same latitude as Milan, so summer temperatures often sit around 29C, the autumns are long and mild and while winter temperatures can drop below -20C, it's only for around a month. And the best thing about Nova Scotia? It offers all this for a tenth of the price of New England.

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Even better, Nova Scotia is actually a lot easier to reach than most of the destinations that are being touted as the next big thing in property. Air Canada flies to Halifax daily from Heathrow, with flights taking around six hours. Budget airline Zoom does the trip for as little as £250 return.

So it's no surprise the British are discovering Nova Scotia. "Around 10% of our enquiries now come from the UK, from virtually nothing three or four years ago," Tim Harris, founder of Tradewinds Realty, tells The Observer. But be careful where you buy. As with any property market, location is the key to value for money. Avoid Chester even though there is little to do outside of the summer season, its popularity with Americans means "property there does not represent the best value for money", says Moody. Better bets are Annapolis Royal, which has the Cape Cod lifestyle at a fraction of the price. Lunenburg also offers reasonable prices, all within a Unesco World Heritage Site.

There are some downsides to buying in Nova Scotia. Prices in the area rose 12.3% in the year to June, says the Canadian Real Estate Association, but the impact of the subprime crisis could hit demand from US buyers going forward. Rental yields are also low and competition for summer lets is high, so don't expect instant profits buying a place here should be as much about the lifestyle as investment potential.

As for the buying process, the market is tightly regulated, warns Watson, "with rigorously enforced rules protecting both buyers and sellers". But given the current scandals involving British buyers in Spain and now Bulgaria, tight regulation has its appeal. The cost of buying is also high. There is a 14% harmonised sales tax to pay on newly built properties and estate agents typically charge 6% of the sale price compared with 1-1.5% in the UK.

All the same, "Nova Scotia represents an opportunity for the UK investor to get in on the ground floor before prices begin to take off", says Kilmeny Fane-Saunders of Second Home Nova Scotia. If it's space you're after and a climate that compares favourably with the year-round dampness of the Scottish Highlands, you can't go far wrong at these prices.