Chetwynd

Lending in Chetwynd, BC

Chetwynd calls itself the “Chainsaw Sculpture Capital of the World,” and that’s a pretty good summary of its character. This isn’t a lifestyle town; it’s a working town, built on forestry and natural gas in the foothills of the Rockies. Those sculptures lining the streets are a direct nod to the logging industry that has been the town’s backbone for decades. For brokers, this means looking at a market driven by industrial fundamentals, not tourism or retiree demand.

The town’s economy is pure resource extraction, and the numbers tell the story. One in five people works in manufacturing, and another one in ten is in mining, quarrying, or oil and gas. Chetwynd is also a key service centre for the mining operations in nearby Tumbler Ridge. The demographics confirm this is a place people come to work: the median age is a young 36.0, and over 71% of the population is of working age. While this provides a stable employment base, it creates serious concentration risk. A downturn in forestry or a shift in the energy sector doesn’t just affect a few jobs; it hits the entire town’s economic health, which directly impacts property values and how long it might take to sell a home.

That concentration risk, combined with a population that has shrunk by 8% since 2016, informs our lending position. A declining population is a hard data point we can’t ignore, as it signals weak demand and can lengthen the time it takes to liquidate a property if we have to foreclose. For this reason, our maximum loan-to-value in Chetwynd is 45.0%. This isn’t an arbitrary number; it’s a conservative position that protects us against the boom-and-bust cycles of a resource-based economy.

The housing stock is exactly what you’d expect for an industrial town. Single-detached houses make up the majority (about 58%), but a notable 13.6% of the housing stock is movable dwellings, which is typical for a community with a transient workforce. There is no significant retiree or recreational market here to buffer property values. The harsh northern climate, a Plant Hardiness Zone 3b, limits its appeal for anyone not tied to local industry, further softening resale potential. The market is for locals, supported by a median household income of $104,000 that’s solid but remains vulnerable to those sector-specific downturns.

We see opportunities in Chetwynd, but only for well-qualified borrowers with significant equity. We will look at deals here, but the fundamentals have to be bulletproof. For brokers with a file that fits—a borrower with a stable job in a key local industry and a substantial down payment—we’re ready to have a conversation. But the deal has to make sense on its own, with a clear and defensible exit strategy from day one.