View Royal

Let’s be clear: View Royal isn’t a destination. It’s a bedroom community for Victoria, and that’s precisely its strength from a lending perspective. It doesn’t have a quaint downtown or a unique cultural hook to hang its hat on. What it has is proximity, stability, and a steady demand from people who work in the provincial capital but want more space for their money.

The borrower profile here is straightforward. With a median household income of $98,000 and a highly educated population where over 72% have post-secondary training, the financial foundation is solid. You won’t find a single dominant industry carrying the town. Instead, you get the predictable hum of public administration and healthcare, which account for nearly a third of all jobs. That stable base is supported by healthy retail, professional services, and construction sectors. This isn’t a boom-and-bust town tied to a single commodity. This kind of diversified economic base doesn’t make for exciting headlines, but it’s exactly what we look for when assessing long-term risk. It’s resilient.

The housing market reflects this pragmatism. It’s a healthy mix, not a monoculture of high-rise condos that can flood the market in a downturn. Single-family homes make up 36% of the stock, with row houses and duplexes covering another 38%. This composition caters directly to the local demographic: the median age is a mature 44.8, and seniors over 65 make up nearly 21% of residents. This isn’t a market driven by transient renters or seasonal demand; these are primary residences for a population that has grown over 11% since 2016, creating real, sustained pressure for housing.

Beyond the numbers, View Royal has a quality-of-life appeal that solidifies its property values. It offers “island vibes” without the isolation, making it a magnet for retirees and families. The community has 71 parks, 27 kilometers of trails, and significant shoreline access. These aren’t just nice-to-have features; they are hard assets that create demand. The mild climate, a Zone 9a, is another key draw, promising comfortable living that underpins the area’s desirability. Even in a contracting market, a location with this much lifestyle appeal will always have a floor on its value because people actively want to live there.

This combination of predictable demand, a stable employment base, and strong lifestyle appeal is why we’re comfortable here. It fits our safety-first lending model, which is always stress-tested against a worst-case recovery scenario. A property in View Royal has a deep and varied pool of potential buyers, from government workers to healthcare professionals to retirees. That depth shortens our hypothetical sale duration in the event of a foreclosure. For the right property and borrower, our max LTV in View Royal is 70.0%. It’s a workhorse of a community, and we see it as a reliable market to place funds.