Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier David Eby are defending a joint plan to convert condos into affordable housing.
Carney outlined the plan during a broader funding announcement in Vancouver last week, but provided few details of how it would work.
The federal government said Ottawa and B.C. would “leverage innovative financing tools to convert more than 2,200 vacant condo units in priority growth areas into affordable homes.”
The announcement prompted criticism from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and the B.C. Conservatives, who said it amounts to a taxpayer-funded bailout for condo developers.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Thursday, Carney said B.C. proposed the plan and acknowledged the governments had not done a good job of explaining how it would work.
Carney said converting unsold condos into rent-to-buy affordable housing would benefit people who may not have money for a down payment.
“We will look at any opportunity across the country that gets more affordable housing to Canadians,” he said.
Eby also fielded questions about the controversial plan in Vancouver.
He denied it represents a bailout for developers.
“If you are a condo developer that took a bet on the high end of the market and you’re facing significant potential loss of profits, what we are proposing will not assist you,” he said.
“What we see as an opportunity right now is the chance to buy products below the cost of construction, below the cost of what government can build them for, and make them available through a rent-to-own program for British Columbians,” said Eby. “The numbers don’t work in Vancouver, but they do work in places like the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island and the Okanagan.”
Eby said the federal government would provide 10 per cent of the approximately $1.4 billion total potential cost of the program. He said B.C. would match that amount, bringing the investment to just under $300 million, while “the rest would be financing.”
“This comes at no ultimate cost to taxpayers, because the mortgage is an asset for taxpayers,” he said.
Poilievre in Ottawa on Thursday said governments should simply let condo prices fall naturally on the market until they become affordable.
“How does bidding up the cost of condos and competing with homebuyers to buy them make it more affordable? It’s exactly the opposite,” he said.
B.C. Conservative housing critic Linda Hepner also voiced concern in a statement this week that the plan would artificially prop up developers.
“Instead of wasting taxpayer money on a bailout, the government ought to unlock B.C.’s housing industry by lowering taxes, speeding up the regulatory process, and removing the policies which have escalated construction costs,” said Hepner.
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