Spallumcheen

It’s easy to confuse Spallumcheen with the City of Armstrong, but for lending purposes, you have to know the difference. Armstrong is the commercial townsite, but Spallumcheen is the working landscape that surrounds it—the vast stretch of acreages, dairy farms, and hayfields that defines this part of the North Okanagan. With a population of just over 5,300 spread across 255 square kilometers, the area is fundamentally rural. This isn’t suburbia; it’s a place where value is tied to the land itself. The market is stable and predictable, which is why we’re comfortable here.

The economy is grounded in tangible assets. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing still form the largest employment sector, a legacy visible in the Dutch dairy farms established after WWII. But it isn’t a one-trick pony. Construction, healthcare, and retail provide a decent employment base. That said, with a median household income of $84,000, this isn’t a market driven by high-paying jobs. This is a slow-and-steady community, not a boom-and-bust town built on speculation. Its proximity to Vernon provides a critical backstop for services and employment, giving it liquidity that more isolated rural areas lack. The region’s climate is also a major asset; a notable warming trend has improved its plant hardiness, creating a long and reliable growing season that reinforces its agricultural base.

The housing and the buyers reflect this identity. You won’t find condo towers here—nearly 90% of the housing stock consists of single-detached homes, most with significant acreage. The buyer profile is specific and self-selecting. With a median age of 48 and over 22% of the population aged 65 or older, this area attracts people looking for a permanent rural lifestyle, including small-scale farmers, families putting down deep roots, and retirees. They aren’t chasing trends. This creates a stable market but also a smaller, more specific buyer pool. In a downturn, a 20-acre property with a workshop takes longer to sell than a three-bedroom house in a Vernon subdivision. We factor that longer sales timeline and the associated costs directly into our risk assessment.

Because of this, our lending in Spallumcheen is straightforward and conservative. The market fundamentals are solid, and the agricultural base provides a level of stability we like to see. However, the nature of the assets—large, often specialized rural properties—requires a disciplined approach. We’ll look at deals here all day long, but the equity position has to make sense for a worst-case scenario.

For properties in Spallumcheen, our maximum loan-to-value is 65.0%. This LTV gives us the buffer needed to account for the realities of selling a rural property while protecting our investors’ principal. It’s exactly the kind of market Tekamar was built for: fundamentally sound, outside the speculative frenzy of the Lower Mainland, and a perfect fit for our common-sense approach to equity lending.