The Urban Development Institute and others in the industry say they would rather see the province remove purchase taxes or cover part of the price.<\/p>\n
Real estate developers are pushing back against claims that a new federal-provincial program to buy up empty condos is something the industry asked for, with the Urban Development Institute and others saying that it won\u2019t help their sector.<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, Premier David Eby and Prime Minister Mark Carney said they were putting together a plan to buy more than 2,200 unsold condos and provide them as affordable housing.<\/p>\n
They later provided more details, saying the program will have a total budget of $1.45 billion, with B.C. and Ottawa each providing $145 million. The rest of the money will come through financing, and the units will be entered into a rent-to-own program where occupants can pay part of their monthly rent toward a down payment.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Eby likened the plan to buying something \u201con liquidation,\u201d and said there are no plans to purchase units in Vancouver because \u201cthe numbers just don\u2019t work\u201d to convert them to affordable housing.<\/p>\n
While opponents have described the plan as a bailout for developers, Eby said that description doesn\u2019t fit.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re hearing directly from developers that this is not what they asked for and it is not from their perspective a bailout,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you buy something that\u2019s on liquidation, you don\u2019t say to yourself, \u2018I\u2019m supporting a bailout for the store.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an opportunity for us to recognize the reality that people can\u2019t wait for housing. We can buy housing at below our construction cost and make it available affordably, and if we don\u2019t do it, someone else will do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carney said buying unsold condos under the plan will only take place if it makes sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf those opportunities present themselves \u2014 we\u2019ve created the flexibility in order to get affordable housing to people at a cheaper price than could be built \u2014 we\u2019ll do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the market shifts, if the opportunity doesn\u2019t present itself, then it won\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The plan was part of $5-billion infrastructure spending announcement the federal and provincial governments announced last month that will be implemented over the next decade.<\/p>\n
Rick Ilich, CEO of Townline Homes and chair of the Urban Development Institute, said he is not aware of any developer who spoke to the government about the program before its unveiling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe complexity of a province buying homes, and then creating a structure wrapped around that, and then playing landlord around the rent-to-own program \u2014 like if anybody can make rent-to-own work, government can, because they can give away money where they feel like it. But why create such complexity?\u201d said Ilich.<\/p>\n
He said he would rather the provincial government implement its campaign promise from 2024 to cover up to 40 per cent of the purchase price on 25,000 new units over five years to help middle-income families break into the market. The loan would be repaid through appreciation when the owner sells the unit or over the course of 25 years.<\/p>\n
B.C. Housing Minister Christine Boyle said the goal of the condo program is to allow people to purchase a home who would not have been able to do so previously.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hear often from people who are working a good job, they\u2019re making a good income, often they\u2019re paying in rent what they would be paying on a mortgage. But because they don\u2019t have help from the \u2018bank of mom and dad\u2019 or other sources to be able to save for down payments, they\u2019re locked out of home ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs said the campaign promise to cover 40 per cent of the purchase price is being tried out on the Heather Lands project, a collaboration with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. The Heather Lands are about 8.5 hectares between West 33rd Avenue and West 37th Avenue at Heather Street, according to the City of Vancouver.<\/p>\n
The partnership is expected to create more than 2,600 strata leasehold homes for eligible middle-income buyers, with priority for first-time homebuyers, a ministry spokesperson said. The homes would be available at below-market prices for middle-income earners, the city says on its website.<\/p>\n
Mark Goodman, principal at real estate agency Goodman Commercial, called the empty condos program a waste of taxpayers\u2019 money that won\u2019t do much to improve housing affordability.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne could argue that they, in theory, could be buying these units below replacement costs. OK, so that\u2019s a positive thing, but everything is selling below replacement costs right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he would rather see the province and Ottawa remove taxes from home sales, in a B.C. version of a recent agreement between Ottawa and Ontario that saves Ontario residents up to $130,000 on homes valued up to $1.5 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Urban Development Institute and others in the industry say they would rather see the province remove purchase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":779308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-779307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}