Three months into a crown land sales program, the Saskatchewan government has already completed sales for about 7,000 acres.
“Sales are brisk,” associate deputy agriculture minister Nithi Govindasamy told a recent Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association meeting.
Gloria Parisien, lands branch director, agreed with that assessment.
“We’ve had a phenomenal level of interest,” she said.
The government announced last November that it would offer existing leaseholders the opportunity to buy land if it met eligibility requirements.
The province administers about 7.2 million acres of crown land, most of it pasture. About 1.6 million acres are available under the sale program.
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About 600,000 acres of the total crown holdings are cultivated land, acquired mainly under the old land bank program of the 1970s.
Parisien said the government never intended to retain ownership of that land.
Of the sales so far, more than half has been cultivated land, she said.
The ministry has received more than 3,000 inquiries, sent out nearly 2,000 applications and received back almost 600 of those.
Parisien said applicants must have a signature from their rural municipality on the application. The land is subject to an environmental checklist and is checked for any encumbrances such as heritage sites.
She said about half of the parcels that lessees have inquired about have not been eligible for sale because they are protected under the Saskatchewan Wildlife Habitat Protection Act.
“The majority of lessees are aware” of that designation, she said.
Potential buyers can obtain a free land appraisal from Saskatchewan Agriculture staff or they can hire an accredited land appraiser. The cost of that appraisal is deducted from the sale price, if a sale proceeds.
The sale program allows for a 10 percent discount on the price if the land is purchased in the first year. The discount declines by two percentage points each year for five years.
Parisien said the ministry is also able to offer an alternative financing option for buyers. They can arrange through their financial institutions to put 50 percent down and make payments over four years. The government will guarantee the loan.
