B.C.’s Eby compares condo plan to ‘liquidation’ at below construction costs

British Columbia Premier David Eby says a joint federal-provincial plan to convert unsold condominiums into affordable housing would be like buying something “on liquidation.”

Eby and Prime Minister Mark Carney were in Vancouver Thursday announcing a multibillion-dollar agreement on energy, resources and transportation investments, but they also defended their plan to buy empty condos that has been roundly criticized.

The premier says he would like the opportunity to launch the program so people can see the plan in action, which would address the criticism of a bailout for developers who can’t sell their units.

Eby notes that buying on liquidation from a store isn’t viewed as a bailout and there are no plans to purchase the units in Vancouver because “the numbers just don’t work” to convert them to affordable housing.

Carney says it is taking advantage of distress in some developers for the purposes of securing affordable housing for families.

Carney and Eby announced the plan last month to fund the purchase of more than 2,000 unsold condos with the intention of converting them to rentals or affordable housing under a rent-to-buy scheme.

Opponents have described it as a bailout for developers, a description Eby says doesn’t fit.

“You’re hearing directly from developers that this is not what they asked for and it is not from their perspective a bailout,” he says. “When you buy something that’s on liquidation, you don’t say to yourself, ‘I’m supporting a bailout for the store.’

“This is an opportunity for us to recognize the reality that people can’t wait for housing. We can buy housing at below our construction cost and make it available affordably, and if we don’t do it, someone else will do it.”

Carney says buying unsold condos under the plan will only take place if it makes sense.

“If those opportunities present themselves — we’ve created the flexibility in order to get affordable housing to people at a cheaper price than could be built — we’ll do it.

“If the market shifts, if the opportunity doesn’t present itself, then it won’t happen.”

The plan on conversion of unsold condos in B.C. was part of $5-billion infrastructure spending announcement the federal and provincial governments announced last month that will be implemented over the next decade.