Zeballos

Let’s be clear about Zeballos. Don’t be misled by the 17.8% population bump in the last census; this is not a growth centre or a lifestyle destination for weekenders. It’s a remote, end-of-the-road resource town on the rugged northwest coast of Vancouver Island, and it carries all the risk that implies. The drive in from Campbell River is two-and-a-half hours, and once you’re there, you’re there. For a certain type of buyer—someone seeking true isolation and rugged wilderness for hiking the Nootka Trail or accessing remote fishing spots—it has a niche appeal. But this doesn’t translate to broad market demand.

The gold rush stories are history. Today, the town’s pulse is tied directly to the timber industry. When forestry is up, things are stable. When it’s down, the impact is immediate and town-wide. While there’s some talk of ecotourism and sport fishing, these are small-scale supports, not primary economic drivers. We assess this as a single-industry town. The official 0.0% unemployment rate isn’t a sign of a booming economy; in a labour force this small, it likely points to underreporting or a lack of active job seekers. The population is tiny at just 126 people, and the demographic skews old, with a median age of 50.8 and nearly a quarter of residents over 65. It’s a tight-knit community, including a strong Ehattesaht Chinehkint First Nation presence, for people deeply committed to a remote lifestyle.

From a lending perspective, the market is microscopic and fraught with risk. The housing stock consists of just 109 dwellings, with nearly 86% being single-detached houses and a complete absence of apartment-style buildings. This structure guarantees extremely low liquidity. Compounding this is the geography. The entire village sits on a river fan-delta flanked by steep mountain slopes, creating a documented risk of both coastal flooding and debris flows. New development is a non-starter; the terrain simply doesn’t allow for it. In an exit scenario, a lender faces an extremely small pool of potential buyers—mostly locals, as there’s no professional class to draw from, with census data showing 0.0% of the population holds a bachelor’s degree or higher. A sale would almost certainly involve a prolonged timeline.

This combination of extreme geographic isolation, a single-industry economy, natural hazard risk, and a highly illiquid real estate market demands a deeply conservative approach. For Zeballos, our maximum loan-to-value is 35.0%. There’s no ambiguity there. We will consider a deal in Zeballos, but the equity position has to be unassailable and the borrower’s story has to make perfect sense for this specific place. This isn’t a market for speculative investment; it’s for well-capitalized locals or those with an established, pressing reason to own property here.