Converting British Columbia's glut of unsold condos into affordable housing is about supporting Canadians, not distressed developers, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday as he defended his government's proposal.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Ottawa, Carney acknowledged the Liberal government had done a poor job of explaining the program laid out in Vancouver a week earlier.
A press release issued by the Prime Minister's Office on June 18 said Ottawa and the B.C. government plan to "leverage innovative financing tools to convert more than 2,200 vacant condo units in priority growth areas into affordable homes."
Carney said Thursday the federal government would put up 10 per cent of roughly $1.45 billion in total potential spending to convert the units, with the B.C. government footing the rest of the bill.
These vacant units would be offered to Canadians under a rent-to-own framework.
Carney used the word "potentially" multiple times to describe the proposal and stressed that no specific transaction is on the table yet.
Critics, including Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, have accused the Liberal government of offering a bailout to developers who built too many condos and are now facing the prospect of steep losses if they're forced to sell in a slow market.
Carney said no developer asked him for the proposal, which he said was "initiated" by the B.C. government.
He said the idea is meant to support aspiring homebuyers who struggle to save for a down payment in one of Canada's most expensive housing markets.
"We don't care about the developer. We care about the person, the family that can potentially move in to the home," Carney said.
Figures from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation show 5,849 unabsorbed apartments across B.C. in May 2026, with 4,376 unabsorbed apartments in Metro Vancouver, accounting for 75 per cent of all unsold units.
Carney said at last week's news conference that with higher interest rates and weaker demand, developers "are stuck" and don't want to sell at a loss.
That could create an opportunity for the federal government to buy "distressed condos" at a reduced price, Carney argued Thursday.
"Buying them at a discount at the right time, financing, terming that out, setting up a rent-to-own structure for truly affordable housing — that's an opportunity. We will look at any opportunity across the country that gets more affordable housing to Canadians," he said.
Critics have pointed out that buying at a discount would mean prices that are below market value, and anything above that would represent a premium on the prices where condos aren't already selling.
B.C. Conservative housing critic Linda Hepner said earlier this week that the housing crisis won't be solved by "wasting taxpayer dollars on artificially propping up developers."
“If prices are set too high for condo units to be sold, market forces will cause the prices to lower until people can afford them," she said in a statement. "But if developers know that the government will simply bail them out if the condos sit vacant long enough, they will never drop their prices, making the housing crisis even worse.”
The condo conversion proposal was announced alongside a plan for the federal government to invest more than $5 billion in B.C. infrastructure over the next 10 years, a portion of which is contingent on municipalities slashing development charges.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
