British Columbia NDP Leader David Eby said a new tax on unsold condominiums would improve housing affordability, but the election promise is drawing criticism from the Conservatives and mixed reaction from experts. The proposed tax was among the promises Eby made Friday in the first week of the snap election he called for Oct. 24. At a campaign stop in Burnaby, B.C., with a condo complex under construction behind him, Eby said his government would introduce the new tax and hike the existing speculation and vacancy tax, if his party returns to power. Eby said the condo tax would apply to finished units that have been left empty for more than a year. The leader pointed to what he said was a “damming” report from Real Property Data that estimates thousands of unsold units worth $4.4 billion are currently sitting empty across Metro Vancouver. “They are brand new,” he said. “They are ready for people to move in. They have been built.” The tax would have a starting rate of two per cent and increase by one per cent for each additional year the units remained unsold, a plan that could unlock about 5,000 condos, Eby said. B.C. residents should not have to pay sky-high prices to rent or buy homes, while developers sit on thousands of unfinished units and wait for prices to go up, he said. “We will intervene,” he said. “We will stand up for British Columbians, just like we stand up to (U.S. President Donald) Trump, stand up to developers. We will stand up for the families, who are struggling with affordability,” he added. British Columbians will support the tax, he said. “It’s very controversial for developers and their friends in the Conservative Party who say that British Columbians, should be left to the free market,” he said. “That actually leaves them free to not find a place to live.” Conservative interim leader Lorne Doerkson questioned the tax in a written statement, in which he attacked Eby’s record on housing. “There is no problem the NDP don’t think can be fixed with a tax,” Doerkson said. After nine years of NDP government, housing starts are falling, home sales are down and thousands of finished homes sit empty because nobody can afford them, he said. “Now, four weeks before an election, his answer is still more taxes.” Doerkson hasn’t held a public event since meeting with the media on the day of the election call on Tuesday. A party spokesperson said Doerkson has been doing interviews from his home riding of Cariboo-Chilcotin and was expected to be in the Lower Mainland Friday. Friday’s announcement by Eby comes amid ongoing questions about a joint federal-provincial plan to purchase more than 2,220 vacant condominiums in B.C. to convert them into affordable housing. When the plan was announced in June alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney, Eby promised additional details in the fall, but that was before this week’s election call. Andy Yan, the director of the city program at Simon Fraser University, said he is still trying to understand the actual announcement. “It’s almost an extension of what they tried doing in the summer,” he said. Yan added it is not clear yet what this tax actually aims to accomplish. “Is this tax meant to change behaviour or is this tax meant as a route of revenue?” Brendon Ogmundson, chief economist with the BritishColumbia Real Estate Association, also doesn’t understand the announcement either, but said it has disastrous potential. Ogmundson said developers would really like to sell their units, but market conditions are quite poor and many developers are struggling financially. “Apparently the government believes that developers should be forced to sell, even if it means impairing their ability to build in the future, and therefore our ability to improve long-run affordability,” he said in a written statement. Eby also said his government would increase the existing speculation and vacancy tax to two per cent for domestic owners and to five per cent for foreign owners. The former NDP government brought in the tax in an effort to turn more vacant homes into housing and to ensure foreign owners or those with foreign income contributed fairly to B.C.’s tax system. The tax applies to municipalities in Metro Vancouver, the Capital Regional District in Greater Victoria and 26 other municipalities. Eby said Conservatives would repeal that tax. When asked about opinion polls that shows his party trailing the Conservatives under the interim leader, Eby said it was early days into the campaign. “There are going to be a lot of polls.” This report by Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press, was first published Sept. 25, 2026.
