Esquimalt

Lending in Esquimalt

Esquimalt is not Victoria, and the locals will be the first to correct you if you mix them up. It is a compact peninsula just a few minutes west of downtown Victoria, but it has a completely different feel. The town is dominated by CFB Esquimalt, home to Canada’s Pacific naval fleet. The base is the primary economic driver here, shaping both local demographics and neighborhood culture. For brokers putting together deals on Vancouver Island, Esquimalt represents a rare pocket of steady, insulated value. For us at Tekamar, it is exactly the kind of predictable market we look for outside the Lower Mainland.

You won’t find suburban sprawl here because there is simply nowhere left to build. Bounded by water on three sides—the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Esquimalt Harbour, and the Gorge waterway—the land supply is physically capped. Growth only happens when someone knocks something down to build upward. Right now, about half of the housing stock consists of low-rise apartments, sitting alongside duplexes and mid-century bungalows. Esquimalt used to be seen as the blue-collar, unpretentious alternative to upscale neighbors like Oak Bay. Today, that secret is out. Young professionals and military families are moving in for the walkable streets and prices that actually make sense compared to the rest of Greater Victoria.

For underwriters, the economic fundamentals are exceptionally stable. This isn’t a seasonal tourism town that shuts down in November. Over 20% of the local workforce is employed directly in public administration. With the naval base and shipyard trades driving employment alongside provincial workers making the short commute into Victoria, your borrowers have highly reliable incomes. It is also an area with massive rental demand, which keeps property values steady and attracts plenty of residential investors.

We often joke that Tekamar is the MIC for towns without stoplights, but we aggressively target strong, urban-adjacent pockets like this. Because geography caps the housing supply, properties here move fast. When we underwrite a file, we always look at the worst-case scenario. If we ever have to take a property back in Esquimalt, we know it won’t sit on the market collecting dust while interest piles up. That predictable exit strategy is why the township scores a perfect 10 out of 10 on our internal desirability index, which lets us offer our maximum loan to value of 70% in this community.

We source our capital from friends and family, so keeping their principal safe dictates every decision we make. But when the underlying real estate is this reliable, we have the confidence to step in where conventional lenders walk away. Whether your client needs a second mortgage to update a 1960s bungalow, a bridge loan to secure a waterfront condo, or an equity-based debt consolidation to clean up their credit, we have funds ready to deploy. Give us the full picture, explain the borrower’s exit strategy, and if the equity makes sense, we will help you get the deal closed.