A property owner is trying to sell two lots that are ‘presently underwater.’ Could more listings like these pop up in the future?
Near Chatham-Kent, Ont., a man is selling two pieces of land underneath Lake Erie.
What could a buyer do with it? In one listing, the realtor says there are endless possibilities." Experts disagree. Why did the owner buy it? He didn't realize what he was getting into.
About three years ago, Joe Cher bought two underwater lots from the municipality of Chatham-Kent, roughly three hours west of Toronto. One, in Shrewsbury, Ont., is 19 acres, the other is a square kilometre in Wheatley, Ont.
The former begins at the end of a residential street, which leads into Rondeau Bay. The latter is just past the last home on a road, slightly off the beaten path, and takes up a slice of a small body of water near Holiday Harbour. Both lots are pressed right up against dry land, but do not occupy any of it.
I thought they were partially underwater, I only found out after purchasing them they were (fully) underwater," Cher said. I blame myself. I had to do more due diligence. Who am I going to hold responsible, the city? I'd never win."
Both lots are listed for sale for $99,000. According to property records, Cher bought the Shrewsbury lot for $12,500 and the Wheatley lot for $12,000, both in 2018.
Both are advertised as being presently" underwater.
Water lots are rare, but as climate change takes hold and lake levels fluctuate, experts say more property owners in the area may be faced with the conundrum of having more or less land than they originally purchased, as Lake Erie especially either swallows or recedes from the shoreline in the coming decades.
And what can you do with an underwater lot? Not much, experts say, noting any buyers with grand ambitions are likely to find themselves in a financial, logistical and regulatory nightmare.
Cher says he's only intending to sell the lots to people who wish to use them for aquatic purposes - such as fish farms, floating homes or boat stows, noting the Wheatley lot used to be owned by a yacht club.
You lose 99.9 per cent of buyers as soon as they find out it's underwater," said Cher. But I'm sure somebody has the right plan for it. I'm getting lots of inquiries. When they're interested, we direct them to the city to make sure they can do what they have in mind. Then they can come back and give us an offer."
Tim Byrne, chief administrative officer of the Essex Region Conservation Authority, which manages natural resources, such as water, in the area, said doing anything at all with the properties poses several logistical problems.
Firstly, the lots are entirely underwater - they don't come with ownership of any of the nearby dry land - meaning the buyer wouldn't be able to access their boat, if they chose to anchor it there.
What about waste disposal? For a boat, if the property is all underwater, there's no mechanism to put a septic system in there," he said. You need an area of terra firma. A boat has a head on it and has storage of effluent on it. You've got to go to a proper onshore pump-out station."
A float house might not even be feasible on the lot, never mind the waste disposal concerns.
Dramatically fluctuating lake levels significantly impact the viability of those kinds of structures near the Great Lakes," Byrne said. A storm will elevate lake levels four or five feet. How do you design for an anchorage to fluctuate that much? Humankind has amazing capabilities to design and account for things like that, but there are limits."
That's why Byrne said Lake Erie has no float homes in it, unlike Lake Ontario, which is less volatile.
Given the term presently underwater" in the listing, Byrne said someone might be attracted to the land thinking there could be a way to remove the water from the lot.
But any notion the lots could be dried is technologically preposterous, he said, adding he thinks that kind of listing shouldn't be allowed.
There are certain areas that a simply not appropriate for development," he said.
When asked what the municipality of Chatham-Kent anticipated a buyer would do with the two underwater lots when it sold them, it didn't provide a clear answer.
The municipality of Chatham-Kent follows the legislation set out within the Municipal Act., 2001 as it relates to Sale of Land for Tax Arrears," said Amy McLellan, manager of revenue for the municipality.
We have no further comment on this story."
Underwater lots are rare. Rarer still is seeing them on the market.
Honestly, we've known about them but never considered anyone would actually try to sell them for a profit," said Jason Wintermute, watershed manager for the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority.
Nothing happens with them," he said. Typically, a request is made to (the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) saying that there's no actual land there and request a reduction of taxes. Then the current owners just keep them on paper as being owned."
(Cher said he pays property taxes on both lots.)
Wintermute added that Rondeau Bay, where the Shrewsbury lot is located, is well known as critical habitat for species at risk," which he believes would make development there challenging as the area is likely under heavy government regulation.
As climate change erodes shorelines, particularly around Lake Erie, where land is highly erodible," Byrne said, some previously dry land may be converted into more underwater lots by nature.
TVO reported that in 2019, a Wheatley resident lost the entire 15-metre beach on his property within a year.
As land becomes water, property owners may try, as Cher is, to make the best of their situation by selling their sunken lots. Conversely, it's also possible that in a few decades time, if nothing is done about climate change, that these areas could dry up.
For now, these water lots or submerged lots are not common," said Laura Tourangeau, broker of record for Re/Max Chatham-Kent. But geographical considerations would play a factor in where these types of properties would present themselves over time with rising water levels with climate change.
These types of lots can present a unique opportunity for buyers who have a vision," she added.
While sea levels have seen constant, gradual rise because of climate change, lakes have been subject to historic volatility in recent years. A warming atmosphere creates more precipitation, which floods lakes, but higher temperatures also evaporate them.
It is possible that during times of drought, the higher temperatures would drive evaporation more strongly," said Richard Rood, professor of climate and space sciences and engineering at the University of Michigan. Hence, there might be rapid decline and, ultimately, very low lakes levels."
Rood said the worst-case scenario, if little is done to address climate change, would be significant evaporation of the Great Lakes in several decades. For now though, residents near Lake Erie are losing their beaches to historic floods. Rood points out Lake Erie behaves differently from Lake Ontario," as there is more ability to control water levels on Lake Ontario," such as through the Moses-Saunders Power Dam.
There have been very large increases in precipitation across the Great Lakes basin in the past two decades, with the most recent decade being historic," said Rood. The influence of the precipitation increases is amplified, for example, by periods of lake ice, which reduce evaporation from the lakes. There are, also, large influences from snow melt coming earlier.
In short, all of these effects are influenced by a warming climate," said Rood. I tell people to imagine increased variability, with higher highs, lower lows in the coming decades."
Ben Cohen is a Toronto-based staff reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @bcohenn