Land for sale in Ottawa, Ontario

About Ottawa

The area

The City of Ottawa, on the Ottawa River at Ontario's border with Quebec, had about 1,017,000 people in 2021 on about 2,790 km² of land. Most people live in the urban core and suburbs such as Kanata, Barrhaven and Orléans, but the rural area makes up about 80% of the city's land: anything from untouched natural areas to cultivated farmland, plus villages such as Carp, Richmond, Greely, Metcalfe and North Gower. Since amalgamation on January 1, 2001, it takes in the former townships of West Carleton, Goulbourn, Rideau and Osgoode and the former municipality of Cumberland, along with Nepean, Kanata and Gloucester.

History

The city recognizes that it sits on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe, who have lived here for millennia. Farm settlement on the Ontario side began in 1809-10, and British soldiers' families founded Richmond in 1818; many early settlers mixed farming with work in the timber trade. The town of Bytown grew from the construction camp for the Rideau Canal in 1826, became Ottawa in 1855 and was named the capital in 1867.

Services and access

The Ottawa Hospital runs three main campuses (Civic, General and Riverside), and Queensway Carleton Hospital has an emergency department. Ottawa International Airport has scheduled flights. The federal government has been the dominant employer since the 1940s and high tech is the other big sector; farming is spread over about 1,000 farm holdings, mostly cash crops and livestock.

Land and climate

Most rural homes are not connected to city water and sewer, so they rely on a private well and septic system. The city offers free well water testing, including for fluoride, and its Rural Clean Water Program gives grants for well decommissioning and for fixing faulty septic systems near watercourses. Six villages or subdivisions, including Carp, Richmond and Vars, draw on city-run communal wells.

Before you buy

The City of Ottawa issues building permits and sets rural zoning directly. Septic permits anywhere in the city go through the Ottawa Septic System Office of the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority. Farmland, about 40% of the rural area, is designated Agricultural Resource Area, where a new lot can generally be severed only to separate a surplus farmhouse after farms are consolidated. The official plan bars new development in the 1-in-100-year flood plain, which the conservation authorities regulate, and warns that sensitive marine clays near deep valleys and embankments can fail in large landslides; its maps of unstable slopes are not complete, so a site study may be needed.

Sources

• Statistics Canada, 2021 Census population and dwelling counts (table 98-10-0007)
• City of Ottawa, Official Plan (sections 1, 5, 9 and 10)
• City of Ottawa, rural building permits and approvals
• City of Ottawa, wells and septic systems
• The Canadian Encyclopedia, Ottawa
• The Ottawa Hospital, campuses
• Queensway Carleton Hospital
• Ottawa International Airport

Written by AcreScout from the sources listed; facts checked September 30, 2026. Rules change: confirm anything that matters with the municipality.