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Souvenir Plots
The plots of land themselves are recognised and referred to as 'souvenir plots' in Scotland. Though souvenir plots are typically too small to be registered with the Scottish Land Registry directly, we maintain our own private records and take our arrangements with our Lords and Ladies very seriously.

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You don't own anything in reality.

That said buying actual land especially with a house is a great idea. Here in the united states you can buy land with a house in some areas for much less than the replacement cost of the house. Due to rise in material and labor costs it costs around $250 per sq ft to build, making a 1500 sq ft house have a replacement cost of $375k. Zillow lists 10 cities where homes are well below this price.

Buffalo, NY         70.94% $271,753
St. Louis, MO 67.69% $265,644
Detroit, MI         64.80% $258,238
Pittsburgh, PA 62.87% $221,249
Baltimore, MD 61.84% $394,495
Cincinnati, OH 60.79% $299,701
Indianapolis, IN 57.58% $286,468
Kansas City, MO 56.05% $316,796
Birmingham, AL 55.64% $255,600
Cleveland, OH 55.58% $239,419



There was a time in the 90s where you could still buy large chunks of the west in montana, wyoming and idaho for cheap per acre price, but that's long gone now. Buy a decent older home in a city like pittsburgh and you have a place to live and if enough people do the same the prices will start to rise. I've talked to a number of gen z who are taking this path and there are pockets of formerly depressed areas coming back.

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Since you're in Ontario, here's the picture assuming you mean Ontario Crown land specifically:

**Big caveat first:** actually *buying* (freehold purchase) Crown land is rare now — Ontario largely stopped actively selling Crown land around 2000. What's much more common today is **leasing** it long-term (typically 20 years). Whether you buy or lease, similar restrictions tend to apply.

**Things you generally can't do, even once you've acquired Crown land:**

- **Commercial use is often prohibited or heavily restricted** — you generally can't run a business, or rent the property out to others, without separate approval; leases especially often ban commercial use outright.
- **You can't just build whatever you want** — construction plans need Ministry approval before you start, covering size, setbacks, and environmental impact; you're bound by the Ontario Building Code and local zoning/planning rules on top of that.
- **Restrictive covenants may block specific uses entirely** — some parcels have conditions on title (attached for up to 40 years) that prevent certain construction or land uses altogether, regardless of what you'd otherwise be allowed to do.
- **Shoreline and environmental restrictions** — leases can restrict shoreline modification, tree removal, and dock construction; docks/boathouses that don't front your own land generally aren't permitted at all.
- **Indigenous consultation and treaty rights can block or delay approval** — the province has a legal duty to consult if a sale/lease could affect asserted Aboriginal treaty rights or land claims, which can hold up or kill an application entirely.
- **No guarantee of financing** — this isn't a "can't do" in the legal sense, but practically: conventional mortgages are extremely hard to get on Crown land/leases, since lenders want the land itself as collateral and government leases complicate that.

If you're seriously considering this — is this something concrete you're looking into for the property, or more general curiosity?

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