Land for sale in Prince Edward County, Ontario

About Prince Edward County

The area

Prince Edward County is a near-island in Lake Ontario, across the Bay of Quinte from Belleville. One municipality covers it all: about 25,700 people in 2021 on about 1,050 km², with over 800 km of shoreline. Picton (about 4,500) is the main town; Wellington (about 1,500) and Bloomfield are smaller. About half the land was farmed in 2011 and over a third is natural cover: marsh, swamp, alvar and cedar on thin limestone soils. Sandbanks Provincial Park protects the world's largest baymouth barrier dunes.

History

The county's plan names Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte and Huron-Wendat heritage; Mississauga people living here in the late 1700s were devastated by European diseases. Loyalists began settling at Prinyer's Cove in 1784. Barley sold to the United States paid for farms until the 1890 McKinley Tariff; farmers then turned to dairy and canning crops, and by 1902 the county supplied about a third of Canada's canned fruit and vegetables.

Services and access

Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital in Picton has a 24-hour emergency department; Belleville General Hospital takes patients needing emergency surgery, intensive care or MRI. Highway 62 comes from Belleville, Highway 49 from the Deseronto side and Highway 33 from the Trenton side, and the provincial Glenora ferry crosses to Adolphustown all year (status on 511 Ontario). The nearest airports with scheduled flights are Toronto Pearson, about 213 km away, and Ottawa, about 270 km. Health care, retail, construction, and accommodation and food services led jobs in 2016; farming, wine and tourism drive the economy.

Land and climate

The climate and soils support grapes for VQA wine, orchards and mixed farms. Soils are mostly under 1 m deep over limestone. Many rural homes use private wells in fractured limestone; a 2004 regional study found low-yield wells more common here than in most of the Quinte area, sulphur water common, salty water more likely below about 30 m, and water levels that fall in drought.

Before you buy

The County of Prince Edward issues building and septic permits and sets zoning. Its Official Plan allows at most two lots, counting the one kept, from a rural or shoreland holding as it stood on January 23, 1998; a new lot on a well and septic needs a hydrogeological study and usually at least 0.8 ha. The plan keeps a 30 m natural buffer from the high-water mark of Lake Ontario, the Bay of Quinte and inland lakes, sets new buildings and septic beds 30 m back where possible, and bars new building below the regulatory flood elevation. Quinte Conservation regulates work near shorelines, wetlands and watercourses; it merges into the Eastern Lake Ontario Regional Conservation Authority on February 1, 2027. The plan also maps old gas wells.

Sources

• Statistics Canada, 2021 Census population and dwelling counts, census subdivisions (table 98-10-0002)
• Statistics Canada, 2021 Census population and dwelling counts, population centres (table 98-10-0011)
• County of Prince Edward Official Plan, 2026 consolidation
• County of Prince Edward, planning
• County of Prince Edward, building and septic permit submissions
• County of Prince Edward, History and Cultural Landscape
• Quinte Conservation, permits and planning
• Quinte Regional Groundwater Study, 2004
• Quinte Health, emergency departments
• Government of Ontario, ferry services
• Ontario Parks, Sandbanks Provincial Park
• Visit The County, getting here

Written by AcreScout from the sources listed; facts checked October 1, 2026. Rules change: confirm anything that matters with the municipality.