Eby says condo plan is not a bailout but a ‘rent-to-own' opportunity

VANCOUVER — BC NDP Premier David Eby spent much of his Thursday press conference defending the federal-provincial plan to convert vacant condos into “affordable housing” saying the program is “not a bailout” for developers, but instead, a “rent-to-own opportunity” to renters who could otherwise “never enter ownership.”.“If you are a condo developer that took a bet on the high end of a market, and you’re facing significant potential loss of profits, what we are proposing will not assist you,” Eby said at a Thursday news conference. “It will not give profits to developers who are in over their head. In fact, we expect to be buying buildings that (are) below the cost of construction,” the premier continued.Eby then blamed Ottawa for rushing out the announcement “in the absence of details,” and sought to clarify that rather than a “developer bailout,” the program was actually intended to provide “rent-to-own” opportunities to prospective homeowners..“Rent-to-own” is a vague and frankly nebulous term in the world of Canadian finance.The practice is incredibly uncommon across Canada but generally refers to an “arrangement” in which renters theoretically pay toward eventual ownership of the property, often with a portion of monthly payments building equity or counting toward a future purchase.In reality, such arrangements in Canada have proven largely unsuccessful, with so little uptake on rent-to-own opportunities no comprehensive national statistics on participation even exists. In Prince Edward Island’s recent rent-to-own pilot, only around a dozen of 283 applicants had completed a purchase as of late 2024. The CMHC had previously operated a dedicated rent-to-own innovation stream to test such models but has since discontinued the program altogether, likely due to low uptake.

Eby says condo plan is not a bailout but a ‘rent-to-own' opportunity

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