Data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has found that 4,376 finished condos in Metro Vancouver are empty, representing a 76 percent increase from last year.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is planning to acquire thousands of unsold condominium units in Metro Vancouver and convert them into affordable housing, a proposal that critics have characterized as a bailout for struggling developers.
The move comes as thousands of newly completed condos remain vacant amid a slowdown in Canada’s housing market. Developers are facing mounting pressure, with some at risk of insolvency.
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"Condos that have been built, that are unoccupied, that are going to sit there potentially for another couple of years. We're going to go use the right financing mechanisms, convert those into affordable housing," Carney said during press conference.
Data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has found that 4,376 finished condos in Metro Vancouver are empty, representing a 76 percent increase from last year. In response, the federal and provincial governments are exploring the possibility of purchasing some of these units and incorporating them into affordable housing programs. The initiative could cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
"How much of this is really a way of helping out the industry versus, I think, a bailout in terms of bad business decisions by some of these developers?" Andy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University's City Program, told CBC.
John Rustad, former leader of the conservative party in BC, said that overregulation by the government of the housing market has contributed to high prices by driving up developer costs.
"Only government can tax and regulate an industry into a crisis and then give them a bailout. It's absolutely ludicrous," he said.
Carney said this week that the government would use the "right financial mechanisms” to obtain unused condo units that would otherwise remain vacant for "potentially for another couple of years" and instead make them available for affordable housing. The prime minister did not specify whether the government would acquire the units below market value.
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