Open for business, but don’t expect any fire sales.

Some realtors and insurers down B.C.’s Columbia Valley are reassuring potential buyers that all is well despite fears of an insurance backlash following the devastating forest fires in the province’s tinder-dry
interior.

But they say it’s still too early to tell what the fallout will be over the longer term, other than expected rising insurance rates.

“We’ve had some problems with home insurance. We’ve had a couple of instances where closing dates had to be pushed back,” says Andrea Rainbow, a realtor at Re/Max Invermere.

Rainbow said the intermittent closure of Highway 93 due to smoke from the fires has had a negative impact on what is usually a busy month.

“The last couple of weeks have been bad, but we’re expecting a bit of a pickup in the fall. People are always looking for a good deal, if they ever happen to have one around here . . . but I don’t think any of this is going to affect prices.”

While some realtors in fire-threatened areas including Kelowna and Cranbrook are reporting difficulties finding home insurance for their clients, brokers in the Columbia Valley – a resort and retirement playground for thousands of Albertans – say the situation is more positive in their region.

“The reinsurance isn’t a problem – it’s the new business that may be,” says Jane Barrett, manager of Lambert Insurance in Radium. “I haven’t had a problem with renewals. The companies will support people who have insurance with them. New business, the companies won’t touch it.”

Barrett said two of the major insurance companies she deals with are refusing to write new policies, while the others will do it “with discretion,” meaning that they may refuse if there’s a fire burning anywhere in the region.

She added that while some horror stories are circulating about companies not renewing policies in B.C., she believes in some cases it could be a reflection of a client’s past history with the company and previous claims that may have been made on the policy.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada says the Canadian insurance industry is facing its biggest-ever payout for fire claims this year – in excess of $220 million – in part due to the infernos in the tinder-dry B.C. Interior and the Crowsnest Pass.

IBC is recommending that anybody who has already bought a home near a fire area who is trying to arrange for insurance try to postpone the closing date on their purchase.

It adds that it is common for those who have foregone insurance in the past to now wish to insure their premises, but that insurers are “understandably” not interested in taking on these risks in the face of imminent loss when people have made the choice not to participate in the risk pool previously.

But will prospective buyers now be scared away from putting in an offer on their dream home in the B.C. woods?

Even in some areas of fire-scarred Kelowna, luxury developments are moving fast.

“There was probably a period of about three or four days
during the heavy part of the fire when the smoke was in the city and the ashes were falling, that we didn’t have sales,” says David Howe, president of the Royal Private Residence Club, a high-end condo project being built near the Grand Okanagan Resort on the shores of Lake Okanagan.

“Then the fire flared up again over the last weekend – and that was our biggest weekend of sales that we’ve had, and we moved just under $2 million over three days.”

Howe noted that as bad as the fires have been, insurance companies should feel confident in writing new policies in any areas where there have been major fires – because there’s not much risk of another one for quite some time. “The fire danger in Kelowna, once this fire has burned out, is history for the next 10 years.”

For now, says Lambert Insurance’s Barrett, everybody in the Columbia Valley – and certainly points south – is looking forward to the change of seasons. “Once it snows,” she says, “it should be all right.”