With winter snows on their way, and mountain property everywhere from Whistler, British Columbia, to Tremblant, Quebec, beginning to attract a blizzard of seasonal interest, it would take a canny investor to turn his or her back on the white stuff and head further north to grasp opportunities generated by the black stuff instead.

But, with the price of US light crude reaching another all-time record - US$93.53 per barrel - on Monday this week, and some experts predicting that the US$100-a-barrel barrier will be broken before the end of the year, black could be the investment colour du jour this season.

Why? Because Fort McMurray, northern Alberta, boasts greater oil reserves than the whole of Saudi Arabia, and as the oil business is becoming increasingly costly in the traditional crude hot spots, extracting black gold from the oil sands in western Canada is now looking safer, cheaper and far more lucrative in comparison.

With US$150 billion scheduled to be invested in Fort McMurray over the next decade, and predominantly male workers from all over Canada and beyond pouring into the town to get rich quick working on the massive oil sand projects, one property company has spotted an opportunity.

According to Property Frontiers, "The rapid growth in investment into the region has produced an extreme housing crisis with very limited housing stock to support the world's largest companies in the Fort McMurray developments. As a result, currently there are very high yields and low void periods. Oil Sands workers are currently being flown in from Calgary or housed in camps on site due to the lack of residential accommodation."

Property Frontiers is marketing 125 apartments in a secure community in downtown Fort McMurray, each with a price tag of CDN$375,000 (approx. £190,000). The company's forecast suggests annual appreciation levels "averaging somewhere in the region of 20 per cent and yields ranging from 18 to 27 per cent."

Not exactly a family leisure destination, Fort McMurray's nickname - Fort McMoney - tells you precisely what this town of 50,000 people is all about. If Property Frontiers' predicted appreciation levels are anywhere near accurate, property investors who back black this winter could well be in the McMoney, too.

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Article first published 31 October 2007