Eby said the focus of the program will be on areas outside Vancouver like the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, and the Okanagan.
Article content
After days of questions, Premier David Eby and Prime Minister Mark Carney provided more details Thursday on a new program to buy up empty condos and use them as affordable housing. But some experts say it is still unclear how the program will work.
Article content
According to Eby and Carney, Ottawa and the province will provide $145 million each towards the program’s total $1.45 billion cost, with the rest coming through “financing.” Neither provided any details about how this financing would come about.
Article content
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
Carney said the governments were targeting “distressed condos” that could be bought at a discount.
Article content
Sunrise
Article content
“What we see as an opportunity right now is the chance to buy condos below the cost of construction, below the cost of what government can build it for, and make them available through a rent-to-own program for British Columbians,” said Eby.
Article content
Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley said the program still sounds like a bailout, although if the province and Ottawa can get condos at 70 cents on the dollar that might make it a bit more palatable.
Article content
Eby did say the focus of the program will be on areas outside of city of Vancouver, though some other parts of Metro Vancouver could be eligible.
Article content
“The numbers don’t work in Vancouver, but they do work in places like the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, and the Okanagan.”
Article content
Units purchased will be entered into a rent-to-own program, typically where residents put part of their rent payments towards a down payment on a mortgage. No details have been provided by either Ottawa or the province on how this program will use that concept.
Article content
Eby admitted that it would have been wise for the province and Ottawa to have hammered out more of the details before the announcement last week with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
He took issue with the opposition B.C. Conservatives and housing experts who have called it a bailout for developers who built thousands of condos in places like Vancouver and now can’t sell them.
Article content
Read More
Article content
“The proposal being advanced by the developers themselves is that we eliminate the GST on people who already own homes that are seeking to buy another home, and that’s just not our priority. That would be a bailout,” said Eby.
Article content
“The market is going to correct in Vancouver. This program will not assist Vancouver developers.”
Article content
Carney said Thursday that the program was something that B.C. asked for, not a program planned out by the federal government. He also said it was not something lobbied for by developers.
Article content
“The province of British Columbia, which initiated the idea, sees an opportunity, potentially given what’s happening in that market, to convert some of these condos that are lying unsold to affordable housing, particularly rent-to-buy affordable housing … people who don’t have money for a down payment but can build that equity over time,” said Carney.
Article content
Andy Yan, director of the City Program at SFU, said there remain many unanswered questions about how the rent-to-own program will actually work.
