Start with a simple question: can you picture yourself there in February? If the answer is a happy yes, with skis by the door and a fire going, you want a four-season cottage. If your cottage dream is docks, sunsets and closing up after Thanksgiving, a seasonal place may be the smarter buy.
They come with different prices and different mortgage rules. Lenders call them Type A and Type B. If you want the detailed version, read Type A vs Type B cottages.
What makes a cottage four-season
- Real heat. A furnace, baseboards or a heat pump that keeps the place warm without someone feeding a wood stove all night.
- Insulation and protected plumbing. Pipes that do not freeze, so you can leave the water on.
- A road you can drive in winter. Plowed by the township, or by a road association that clears it all winter.
- A solid foundation. Not perched on blocks or piers.
A seasonal cottage is missing one or more of these. It often has a lake intake you drain each fall, wood heat for chilly evenings, and a road that is not ploughed after the leaves drop.
How the money changes
| Four-season | Seasonal | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum insured down payment | 5% of the first $500,000, 10% above | 10% (Sagen only) |
| Typical uninsured down payment | 20% | Property-specific; confirm the proposed structure |
| Lender choice | Wide | Narrower |
| Insurance | Simpler | Vacancy and freeze conditions |
| Use | All year | Roughly May to October |
| Yearly costs | Heat, ploughing, more hydro | Opening and closing, draining |
On an illustrative $631,100 cottage, the minimum insured down payment is $38,110 for a four-season place and $63,110 for a seasonal one. That gap surprises a lot of buyers.
Year-round demand is real
Use recent completed sales of comparable properties on the same lake or nearby competing lakes. Match road access, waterfront quality, lot size, condition and permitted use. Provincial reports and asking prices cannot establish what one cottage is worth.
Talk to Jeff and Emily
Torn between a winter-ready cottage and a summer place? Tell us how you would use it and we will show you what each one means for your budget.
Or call or text 416-628-9682
Insurance is different too
Seasonal policies generally come with vacancy and freeze rules: keep the heat on, or shut off and drain the water when you leave. Freeze damage is a common exclusion. Wood heat as the main source can raise your premium, and insurers usually want a WETT inspection. Ask for these conditions in writing before you close. More in our cottage insurance guide.
Winterizing a seasonal cottage later
Often, yes, and plenty of families do. Winterizing usually means insulation, a permanent heat source, frost-protected water lines and sometimes a new foundation. Costs vary widely with the building, so get a contractor's quote before you count on it. If the road is not ploughed, no amount of insulation turns it into a winter place.
If you plan to upgrade right after closing, a renovation mortgage or your home equity can sometimes fund the work.
Yearly costs look different
The purchase price is only part of it. A four-season cottage that sits empty from January to March still burns heat, and someone has to plow the driveway after every storm. A seasonal cottage skips those bills but adds two jobs a year: opening it in spring and closing it in fall.
- Four-season extras: winter heat (electric, propane or oil), ploughing, higher hydro, and sometimes a monitoring system that texts you if the heat fails.
- Seasonal extras: draining the water lines, pumping out or shutting down systems in fall, and checking for frost or animal damage each spring.
- Both: property tax, insurance, septic pump-outs, dock repairs and the drive up.
A furnace that quits in a February cold snap at an empty cottage can burst pipes. Many four-season owners keep a neighbour on call or install a temperature alarm. Ask your insurer what they require when nobody is there.
Questions to ask the seller
- What heats the cottage, and what did heat cost last January?
- Who plows the road and the driveway, and what does it cost?
- Is the water from a well or the lake, and is the line protected from freezing?
- How do you close it up in fall, and has anything ever frozen?
- Has anyone used it in winter in the last few years?
The answers tell you, and your lender, which kind of cottage it really is. Listings sometimes call a place four-season because it has a wood stove and a road that is ploughed most years. Lenders look closer than that.
Picking the one that fits how you will use it
- Pick four-season if you ski, snowmobile, work remotely, plan to retire there, or want the option to rent it in winter.
- Pick seasonal if summer is the whole point, you want a lower price, and you are happy to open in May and close in October.
- Either way, run the yearly numbers first with our cost of owning calculator.
Questions people ask
What makes a cottage four-season?
Can you get a mortgage on a three-season cottage?
Is a four-season cottage easier to finance?
Is a seasonal cottage cheaper to own?
Can I winterize a seasonal cottage after I buy it?
Sources
- Sagen: Vacation/Secondary Homes program (checked 2026-10-12)
- Canada Guaranty: Lifestyle Advantage product sheet (Nov 2025) (checked 2026-10-12)