Carney defends plan to buy vacant apartments in British Columbia

Ottawa —
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney defended a government proposal to convert thousands of vacant apartments in British Columbia into affordable housing, emphasizing that the plan aims to support families seeking housing, not to rescue struggling real estate developers.

Carney said that the federal government and the British Columbia government are studying the use of financing tools to convert more than 2,200 vacant housing units in priority areas into affordable housing, which can be offered to Canadians under a rent-to-own framework.

He explained that the federal government may contribute about 10% of a potential total expenditure estimated at around 1.45 billion dollars, while the provincial government bears the majority of the funding, stressing that the proposal is still under study and no specific deal is currently on the table.

Carney’s clarification came after criticism from the opposition, which described the plan as an indirect bailout for developers who built more units than the market can absorb, especially amid slowing demand and rising interest rates.

Carney rejected this accusation, saying that any potential intervention would be directed at individuals and families who cannot save for a down payment to buy a home in one of Canada’s most expensive housing markets, not in the interest of developers.

He pointed out that the existence of a large number of unsold apartments may open an opportunity for the government to purchase units at discounted prices, then convert them into affordable housing through a model that allows tenants to gradually move toward ownership.

Housing data shows thousands of unsold housing units in British Columbia, most of them in the Metro Vancouver area, reflecting a mismatch between the type of housing supply and buyers’ ability to enter the market.

On the other hand, critics believe that government intervention may weaken the natural market mechanism, because the high prices of unsold units are supposed to decrease over time until buyers are found, while government purchases of these units may encourage developers to hold on to higher prices.

The plan is part of a broader package that includes investments in infrastructure in British Columbia over ten years, linking part of the funding to municipal measures to reduce development fees and accelerate housing construction.

The debate over the proposal reflects the increasing tension in the Canadian housing file between the need for urgent solutions to provide affordable housing and concerns about using public money to support real estate projects that failed to sell under current market conditions.