Eby says condo buy-up is not a bailout, and won't aid City of Vancouver developers

Premier David Eby said a plan being slammed as a bailout for corporate developers will actually benefit people priced out of the housing market.

British Columbia Premier David Eby said a joint federal-B.C. plan to buy unsold condominiums won’t be a bailout for Vancouver developers, but there was an opportunity for the government to purchase empty homes in other places for less than it would cost to build them.

The plan has been under fire from critics for a week since Eby and Prime Minister Mark Carney jointly announced the plan to potentially help finance the purchase of 2,200 empty B.C. condos and then make them available to the public under a rent-to-buy scheme.

Opponents including both the federal and provincial oppositions have called the plan a bailout for developers.

Eby said Thursday that the Vancouver condo market and its glut of unsold units would ultimately correct itself and the proposed program won’t assist developers in that city because “the numbers don’t work there.”

He said the federal government had been “enthusiastic” about announcing the plan before all details had been finalized, and in their absence, the “plot has been lost” over the past week.

“I think in hindsight, we should have waited and made sure that all the details were available,” he said. “But regardless, it creates the opportunity for people to get into housing that wouldn’t otherwise.”

He said purchasing opportunities under the plan exist south of the Fraser River, as well as on Vancouver Island, and the Okanagan.

Asked how the government could argue it was buying at below-market prices when the condos would otherwise be unsold, Eby said bulk purchasing and buying entire buildings in bankruptcy proceedings presented opportunities unavailable to individual buyers.

But he suggested the plan might not go ahead if it proved unpopular.

“If people hate it, that’s OK,” he said. “We don’t have to do it, but I actually think that ultimately, we will be buying below the cost of construction.”

He said developers won’t profit from the proposal, which will instead help people get into the housing market at no cost to taxpayers, because their mortgages would be public assets.

“In fact, we expect developers to be taking losses on many of these initiatives, and ultimately it’s just another way for us to give people a chance to get into housing that wouldn’t otherwise have the chance,” he said.

Eby sad the proposed program is not the preferred solution of developers, pointing to an open letter from the Urban Development Institute calling for the elimination of the GST on new homes.

He said that would be a bailout, because “it would be giving a tax cut to developers in order to avoid them having to take a cut to their profits.”

Carney revealed other details about the plan during a press conference in Ottawa.

He said the federal government would put up 10 per cent of roughly $1.45 billion, or $145 million, in total potential spending on the units.

Eby confirmed those numbers.

“The prime minister is correct,” he said. “The federal government has put in 10 per cent of $1.4 billion. We put in the second half, which brings it to just short of $300 million. The rest would be financing.”

B.C.’s Housing Ministry said in a statement that discussions between the provincial government, the federal government and stakeholders about the plan continue.

It promised more information when the details are finalized.

This report by Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press, was first published June 25, 2026.

With files from Craig Lord in Ottawa