Natural Beauty & Cheat Real Estate Make "The Rock" Worth A Visit

Byron Lutz

"I've looked at real estate in many parts of the world, and nothing I've seen comes close to the bargains I found in Newfoundland," says Byron.

"Larger than Ireland, the Canadian island in the icy Atlantic is often simply called "The Rock." It astouns visitors with natural beauty at every turn - fishing cove after fishing cove, herds of caribou roaming the barrens, whales offshore and a summer parade of icebergs floating by.

Real Estate Opportunities

What impressed me most on my recent visit is the great value I found in real estate. I saw a furnished two bedroom cottage with an ocean and lighthouse view on offer for C$15,000 – that’s US$10,000. When you can buy any building, including the land, for one quarter of building cost, that’s usually a pretty good deal

I also saw a two-bedroom house with a view of the harbor from the second floor that needed a little bit of fixing up, but the owner only wanted C$5,000 – about $3,200 in U.S. funds. And bargain property seems to be everywhere in the countryside, too many bargains to mention here.

You can find some good deals on the Internet, like I did before I first decided to trek there in June, but the best opportunities aren’t advertised. You just pull your car into a little village and ask if anyone has property for sale. The market is so soft in Newfoundland that often people don’t even bother to put up a for-sale sign.

The exception is St. John’s – Newfoundland’s capital city – a charming town of about 150,000 that’s on the cusp of a boom. Glorious New England-style homes dot the hills above the city’s gorgeous harbor, and there’s lots to do downtown for tourists and the oilmen who are pouring into town in increasing numbers. Water Street, the main street downtown, is the oldest street in North America

Restaurants are numerous, and bars are even more so. In recent years St. John’s was said to have the world’s highest ratio of bars per capita. It doesn’t claim the title anymore, but it’s hard to believe it isn’t still true. On a three-block stretch of George Street there must be 40 or 50 bars, some buildings with three different establishments in them – one in the basement, another at ground level and a third on the second floor. Dozens of the bars have live music, and at night the downtown area has a college feel to it, even though the local university is a few miles away. “In St. John’s the weekend is Wednesday through Sunday,” someone said in an effort to explain the busy nightlife.

Along the coastal regions you can wind your car down local roads and take in some of the most beautiful vistas in the world. Each time I saw a stunning view or picturesque village, I would continue on to find an even more incredible view over the next hill. In Newfoundland it seems like everyone has an ocean view – at least everyone who wants one, because Newfoundland has more than double the coastline of New England and a population of only about half a million

I think there are a number of reasons why real estate is so cheap in Newfoundland. One is Canada’s economy, which remains in the doldrums, compounded by the fact that the Canadian dollar is only worth 65 cents in U.S. funds. The fishing industry has been particularly hard hit in recent years. You can hardly pick up the newspaper without reading about another fishing operation or processing plant closing. There simply aren’t enough jobs to go around, at least not enough good-paying jobs, and among males the jobless rate is well over 20 percent.

Ferry Crossing with Porpoises & Whales

Another factor is geography. Newfoundland isnt a place people pass through on their way to somewhere else. Its too hard to get there, and therefore a final destination. No one comes to Newfoundland by mistake, one local told me. If theyre here its because they want to be. Flying there from the U.S. can be more expensive thanflying to Europe. Its a two- or three-day drive from New York, and you have to make a lengthy ferry crossing from Nova Scotia.

When I took the ferry in July, it cost US$120 one way for myself and the vehicle. The crossing was 14 hours, but pleasant. A small school of whales appeared off the portside, and porpoises chased us part of the way.

Once in Newfoundland, youll need a car to get around since the island is so vast. If you fly in and rent a car you can easily end up paying US$300 to $500 a week because you get charged mileage for your travel. Gasoline is high. I was paying about $2 a gallon in Newfoundland when it was hovering at $1.40 to $1.50 in most U.S towns.

The third reason for depressing property values in Newfoundland is weather. Winter is brutal. The island was particularly hammered this past year, residents were subjected to 24 feet in total snowfall. Freezing temperatures for much of the year keep Newfoundland from having the retirement appeal of Florida, the Carolinas, Arizona or Mexico. Even in June and July the temperature sometimes struggles to reach the 60s.

Newfoundlanders are a unique breed. The traditional accent is closer to Irish than the form of English you hear in Toronto, and when you talk to folks from rural areas you have to struggle to understand their dialect. I found them to be friendly and helpful once they open up to you, and quick to tell a joke.

The cuisine has its own particular twist on seafood. Fish and brewis is a sort of scrambled codfish and bread thats served for breakfast with homefries. Cod tongues is another local delight. Theyre fried like nuggets and often covered with pork cracklings, called scrunchions.

Fish and chips is on nearly every menu the word fish means cod in Newfoundland. If it isnt cod, they tell you. You can get a good fish and chips dinner for about C$6 (US$4).

Restaurant food is reasonably priced. I enjoyed a caribou steak dinner at Chuckys, a well-known downtown St. Johns haunt for locals and tourists alike, for less than US$10 including salad and fresh vegetables.

Accommodations aren't particularly cheap. Budget B&Bs and cheap hotels charge about C$69 (US$45) a night in the summer, and you can pay a lot more than that many places. The tourist season is very short, so they have to make hay while the sun shines.

I stayed at one very lovely bed and breakfast in the seaside community of East Trinity and was able to get a room without a reservation in June, although they told me it wouldnt be possible to simply show up and get a room in July or August. The Peace Cove Inn (Tel.: 709-464-3738) is never locked and the manager is rarely there. She has a sign on the front door telling you to come inside and use the telephone to call her. Thats what I did, and she arrived to greet me in about five minutes.

Furnishings in the restored turn-of-the-century sea captains home bordered on the luxurious, and breakfast was included. You could also help yourself to food left in the refrigerator by previous guests, which included bottles of wine. A bottle of good scotch sat on the kitchen counter. Itll probably still be here by the end of the summer, she told me. We dont get many serious drinkers here.

A Land Rich in Beauty

I enjoyed my drives around the countryside most of all.

One of the most interesting conversations I had was with a tall rangy woodsman, trapper and fisherman from Deer Lake who told me how much money he made fishin seals this past spring. He claimed he and a crew of three others shoot the seals on the ice with .222 scope rifles, and this year took in over 1,000 of them. Bullets are expensive, but they get C$36 a pelt and it only takes 20 seconds to skin one and drop the carcass over the side of the 40-foot boats they use for hunting them. Two dollars of the bounty is for the three inches of fat beneath the seals skin.

He said he fishes cod during cod season, seals during seal season, and snow crabs during crab season. With all the seasons combined, the hunter told me he probably gets only eight weeks to make his entire take for the year. Although the seasons are longer than that, weather is often so fierce that no hunting can be done. Sometimes government quotas are set, and once the quota is met the fishing stops so local fisherman work like mad to get as much as they can before the limit is met.

I trap beaver, snare rabbits and hunt moose and caribou, he told me.

His licenses only allow him one caribou and one moose per year, but I take as many as I want, he said. We know where the law is, we have ways, he said. I only got caught once, and paid a pretty big fine.

Salmon is another fish limited to quotas. You get four tags that lets you catch four salmon and you have to tag them after you hook them or you get fined if they catch you bringin them home without tags, he said. The tags are made so they cant be re-used, and pulling them off the fish destroys the tag.

But we found out that if you pop the tags in a microwave oven they open right up and you can use them again.

We have ways, he emphasized again with a twinkle in his eye. I get all the salmon I want.

Whether or not I like what the guy does to make a living, I did admire his independence and ability to make his living off the land. I dont know if earning my living with a computer keyboard is any more honorable.

St. Johns is a fun city to visit. On my second night there, I stopped in at a little pub called the Duke of Duckworth and struck up a conversation with some locals. One of them, Patricia Murphy, just opened a two-room B&B called the Rivers Edge B&B (47 Waterfordbridge Rd. Tel: 709-573-2176. Email: riversedge@roadrunner.nf.net), a nice little place on the river a short drive from the town center.

Before I knew it we were off to her B&B to sit on the deck by the river, sip drinks and talk with a circle of friends that included university professors, artists, bartenders and an assortment of interesting characters.

I met a lot of fascinating folks in town, because a lot of fascinating people come through on business oilmen, engineers, U.S. Navy pilots passing through. People visit Newfoundland for the natural beauty, the chance to see whales and icebergs float down the coast in summer. Kayak trips and whale-watching tours are popular, and so are tours to see the puffins and other species of sea birds.

But for me, the lure of real estate is the real draw in Newfoundland house and land for the price of a used car and as I write this Im negotiating to buy oceanfront near a nature reserve. Its like going back to the 1960s in some respects, and I think youll see more and more foreigners arriving to buy land as property prices in the rest of the world continue to escalate.