you don't have to buy desert. theres tons of enchanted forest land available for cheap/owner finance. the key descriptor for desirable ( read expensive) isn't vegatation or even natural water. it's ELECTRICITY. with other services ( paved roads, schoolbus, mail etc. ) bieng secondary. if a piece of land is beyond the grid it's usually cheap and not in demand much. those pieces you can get owner financed because usually a bank won't touch them. they see it as valueless too if you default. also owner finance ain't nothing like renting. it is like a bank mortgage. it's yours to do what you want. unlike renting. also you have protection against bieng evicted at the owners whim. and boonie land has few if any restrictions on it.
a friend of mine is in the process of buying my closest neighbors place. 9.5 acres FOREST with a 2br. 2ba greatroom cabin w/well water for $20K..... you can't buy a descent USED SUV for that. so it's possible. all you gotta REALLY do is quit your self defeating attitude ( AWWWW I CAN'T DO THIS) get offin your butt and start BEATING THE BUSHES until you score. make it your HOBBY. my first real estate purchase was owner financed. i made it my hobby to look at real estate ads daily. i'd set up meetings EVERY weekend. i'd MAKE AN OFFER every time i found something suitable. it was sorta like that old saying about the guy who asked every good looking woman he ran across for sex.... he got his face slapped a lot but he also got a lot of sex.... i got rejected a LOT! more times than i can count. since i had t make the offers on MY TERMS it took awhile. i always lowballed but finally i scored. i finally got an old trailer for zero down owner finance. lived in it five years while saving and still looking. found a repo MANSION in country club. zero down. barely had enopugh for closing costs etc. moved into it and rented out the trailer. kept beating bushes. few years later found 15 acres on lake ( where we are now) that we call skyranch. sold trailer and bought it cash ( with our savings too ) after a couple years saving built a cabin CASH. sold mansion and bought 85 acres in boonies on top of mountain with net CASH. moved into skyranch FREE. now we're taliking. no mortgage etc. it's passive solar low utilities etc. so now we're building an alternative cheap shelter ( the big box) for cash as we can afford. thats my story. hope it helps.
ps. i left out the keys. thats we WORK. we live a SANE, sensible, simple, frugal lifestyle so we can SAVE. we've not done anything illegal for it. we've not gotten ONE RED CENT from family. i only finished 10th grade so i've never had a JOB. only SELF employed all my life. if we can do it ANYBODY CAN. but you have to FOCUS. forget all the toys etc. we've never rented a video etc. for decades we only had one vehicle. never paid over $500 for one. now we have two late model ( bought new) paid for etc. once you get your first place paid for you can afford the toys. we have many now.

I had my library inter-library loan this book from another library (which was free!).
I think it's great.
I'm not sure that that the author's desert homestead is a really practical model to emulate, but I'm really enjoying reading it all the same.

can anyone do this or just canadian citizens? also approx. how much is the lease?

you could start here.
www.realtor.com/search/sea...esults.aspx

what about squatter's rights? does that still exist?

Actually it's not zoning. Zoning only dictates if a tract of land os comercial, residential or combination. But it is building codes and most cities have restrictions onthe number of buildings and family units on a lot. You might have to tear it down and pay a fine. You have to check first.

William's idea might work.

You don't have to build on the back half of the lot. Just build something with wheels under it and park it in the back half. If you don't connect electricity or water, I don't know how it could be considered a "building".

Doesn't make a difference. The bilding codes covers number of square feet built on the size of the lot. Number of buildings built on the size of the lot. Every county is different and you have to check. And some get very picky and love to enforce their building codes. At $1000 fines for every day you are in violation they get big pats on the back by city officials. Some like San Diego county have created such a firestorm that neighbors turn in neighbors so getting caught is pretty easy. It's a mess out there and if you live in one of the counties that has a screwed up building department you get screwed. Ever tried to get a 'homemade' set of planes through a building department? Ever tried to get an alternative design through a building department? Ever tried to put up a structure and get hit with a fine?

Land's cheap out here.