You either love or hate corner lots. There’s no other way to feel about them. Either way, people are always curious about the pros and cons of buying a corner lot, so let’s take a look!

What are the pros of a corner lot?

For the people that love corner lots, there are a few pros. First, the lots are usually much bigger and that’s something that people are ALWAYS looking for when buying a home. Ideally, the larger space will come in the form of a larger backyard rather than a larger front yard. 

Often, this can allow the backyard to be multi-purpose as a shed or garden can be built on the side of the backyard while the main backyard area can be used for a variety of activities including the space to accommodate a pool.

These days less and less homebuyers are opting to have a pool, but if a pool is a priority than a corner lot may be best for you. Especially when you consider that home lots are made much smaller these days and can often not accommodate a pool.

Second, there can be more privacy if a corner lot backs onto a quieter street. Others home will have a neighbour on each side, but a corner lot can and will often simply share space with the street. With a high enough fence (depending on the city by-laws), that’s one less neighbour to worry about (if you’re the more private kind).

Third, you’ll generally be pretty close to your neighbourhood mailbox. It’s definitely not a major consideration when buying a home, but it’s nice to have a short walk to the mailbox since most of us don’t get it delivered to our homes anymore.

What are the cons of a corner lot?

Many of the pros of a corner lot can easily be turned into a con.

First, many corner lots have most of their lot space in the front or side yard making most the land unusable from a recreation standpoint. We play and entertain in our backyards and our front yards are to be kept clean and free. That’s just the way it is, isn’t it? That way it’s easier to ensure the kids and dog don’t run away!

Second, if you have that large corner lot that is all front or side yard, then you’re having to do A LOT of maintenance and not getting enjoyment out of it. That’s a lot of grass to cut!

Third, your property taxes will be higher because you have more land. You may be okay with that if you get the enjoyment of the extra space, but if not what are you paying for?

Fourth, certain cities have a fence height by-law for the sideyard fence. If this is too low, privacy becomes an issue.

Should I buy a corner lot?

Not all corner lots are created equally. It all depends on how the lot is divided and the design of the floorplan of the house that sits on it. 

I’ve seen some corner lots that are a lot of sideyard, but the floorplan of the home is designed well so that the living backs right onto and provides tons of recreational space.

I’ve also seen ones where you have no privacy because the height of the fence is too low. There are also the lots that are very shallow but extremely wide and your backyard ends up being on gigantic L. That’s really not a practical use of space.

Basically, there are good corner lots and bad corner lots. But, it’s important to keep in mind that you shouldn’t rule it out one way or the other. There are situations where I’ve had clients dead set against a corner lot only to find a home that they absolutely loved and were willing to make some small sacrifices. Others think it will be a nuisance but are surprised to find out you can actually create quite a bit of privacy with a fence and tree (again depending on by-laws).

Let me know how you feel about corner lots in the comments below! And if you have any questions about them feel free to leave a comment below as well or contact me directly!