Land due diligence — everything you need to know about a lot, in one place
Parcela pulls the parcel, zoning bylaw, hazard and servicing data for a Canadian lot into a single clear report. Instead of clicking through a dozen municipal and provincial map portals, you check what you can build, the constraints and the development potential in about 30 seconds.
Check my lot →How to run land due diligence with Parcela
- 1Pick the lot. Enter the address, the PID / roll number, or click the lot on the map. Parcela finds its boundary and area from the provincial cadastre / municipal parcel layer.
- 2Run the analysis. The app automatically pulls the zoning bylaw, flood and slope hazards, servicing, and overlay constraints (such as BC ALR or Ontario Greenbelt) for that location.
- 3Get the report. In seconds you get a report with the zoning, key bylaw limits, hazards and a buildable envelope — plus a 3D shadow study and A/B/C development scenarios.
Why do due diligence before buying land?
A restrictive zoning bylaw, a flood plain, a steep-slope hazard, an Agricultural Land Reserve designation or no road and servicing access can quietly kill a project — and that information is public but scattered across municipal, provincial and federal portals. Parcela brings it together before you sign the offer.
What happens after the analysis?
From the report you can open the 3D sun and shadow study, generate A/B/C development scenarios, export the boundary and setback lines to DXF, and sketch a first house on your lot with the AI assistant.
Frequently asked questions
What is land due diligence?
It is the gathering and reading of every relevant fact about a lot — parcel, zoning bylaw, environmental and geotechnical hazards, servicing and overlays — to understand what can be built, how, and whether the purchase makes sense.
What data does the Parcela report cover?
The parcel (boundary, area), the applicable zoning bylaw and its limits (use, FSR/FAR, height, setbacks, lot coverage), flood and slope hazard layers, servicing, and overlays such as the Agricultural Land Reserve (BC) or the Greenbelt (Ontario).
Does coverage work across Canada?
Cadastre and zoning are provincial and municipal — there is no single national parcel layer. Parcela uses each province’s open data and the local municipality, with the strongest coverage in BC and Ontario; where a municipal layer is not machine-readable, it falls back to a deep link rather than blocking the report.
Does the report replace a geotechnical or legal review?
No. It is a decision-support layer built from official open data. A soil/geotechnical investigation, a survey, and a title and zoning review by qualified professionals are still required before you buy or build.