Should B.C.’s condo buyout be an opportunity to grow housing through non-profits?

Advocates say non-profits are in the best position to help the B.C. and federal governments ensure their plan to buy empty condos for affordable housing helps the most people. 

“No one wants a flash in the pan,” said Carolina Ibarra, CEO of Pacifica Housing, one of the largest supportive and affordable housing non-profits on Vancouver Island.

“They want something to make a dent, and that I think is where the non-profit sector excels and can play a really big role,” she said.

Thousands of unsold condos will be purchased to increase home ownership in one of Canada’s most expensive housing markets, the two governments announced last month.

The government later specified that the condos would not be purchased in Vancouver, noting that the numbers don’t add up.

Ibarra said the program should be structured to preserve long-term affordability in the selected communities, making sure the public investment continues to benefit future homebuyers.

“The non-profit sector is the government’s best option as an implementation arm,” she said. 

“We’re really well-positioned to play a role to make sure that whatever the program looks like can have the intended consequences and long-term impact.”

The concept has been announced, however the details won’t be shared until October, including whether it will involve entire condo buildings or individual units.

The idea is “typically workable if entire buildings are purchased and the program relies on a shared equity model that sees these public investments recycled to more people over time, rather than a small number of recipients being the beneficiaries of public investment and walking away with the equity gains,”  said Jilly Atkey, CEO of the BC Non-profit Housing Association.

Non-profits operate more than 60,000 affordable homes in B.C., represented through the BC Non-Profit Housing Association.

Without non-profit housing provider partnerships, the government’s purchase of empty condos may have a limited impact on long-term affordability, said Carolyn Whitzman, a senior housing researcher and adjunct professor at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities.

“We need a lot more non-market housing. But, there’s nothing in this announcement that says this is going to be handed over to non-market providers,” Whitzman said.

While Whitzman noted there are still few details, the average discount being discussed is $160,000, she said, which means many condos would still cost around $660,000, requiring a large down payment and monthly costs.

“There’s no way that this will help middle-income people, particularly people who are looking for a family home. And there’s absolutely no way that it will assist lower-income families,” Whitzman said.

Non-profit housing providers could offer a better pathway, she said.

“Non-market providers tend to stay affordable over time because they’re a mission-oriented organization,  the rents tend to be lower because there isn’t profit involved,” she said. 

”For all of those reasons, it makes sense to support non-market providers.”

“Irony” in housing spending

Using non-profit ownership to preserve affordability is already being put into practice through B.C.’s Rental Protection Fund.

It was created in 2023 to help non-profit housing providers buy rental buildings and prevent the loss of affordable homes, with more than 4,000 homes acquired since then.

The federal government announced the launch of its own $1.47 billion fund to protect affordable rental housing last spring; however, details of when it will officially roll out have not been shared yet.

“That’s a tried and true solution that’s working right now in B.C.,” said Tom Armstrong, CEO of the Cooperative Housing Federation of BC.

“Ironically the numbers match up.”

“In the three years the fund has been operating, we’ve bought about 2,200 homes, really out of the private market, but they are deeply affordable and they will be affordable for forever because they’re now in the hands of non-market house housing providers,” he said.

“But if you offered me two units in this building and four units in another building and then on and on, as a community land trust steward I I don’t know how I would make that work,” he said.

The B.C. condo buyout comes just months after the provincial government paused funding for its Community Housing Fund, a program introduced in 2018 to build and operate mixed-income rental housing through subsidies and capital funding for non-profits, co-ops, and municipalities to create affordable homes.

“That program was going to be building thousands of low-cost homes,” said Whitzman.

“There’s a particular irony, especially given that the provincial governments involved in this cutting of a successful affordable housing program in order to fund this proposal that’s full of question marks,” said Whitzman. 

The province said the two programs serve different purposes.

“The funding provided by the federal government is one-time funding, while the Community Housing Fund requires ongoing operating funding for up to 30 years, which is why this particular funding doesn’t align with the CHF,” the provincial Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs said in a statement.

“The Federal government has been clear through Bill C-26 that provinces and territories can decide how best to use Federal funds to accelerate housing supply,” said Atkey. 

“On the heels of B.C.’s Budget 2026, which saw a dramatic slowdown of investment into community housing, it’s clear that there has been a shift in provincial housing priorities.  It has the non-profit housing sector wondering what the plan in BC is now,” Atkey said.

Community concerns mounting

Some housing experts question whether the condo buyout will have a meaningful impact on affordability.

“It’s fine to add piecemeal and boutique pieces to your housing policy if you’re addressing the fundamentals as well. But we’re not,” said Alex Hemingway, senior economist with BC Policy Solutions.

Despite limited details, he said the proposal’s biggest limitation is that it does not create new housing.

Public money would have a greater impact if directed toward building new non-market housing and policies that enable more housing construction, he argued.

“It’s not a scalable solution to the housing crisis, it’s sort of a reaction to a particular moment in the marketplace.”

It’s something Ibarra agrees with. 

“The question for me is, is this the right prioritization for the use of those funds?” said Ibarra.

She argued that purchasing existing units is a short-term measure that does little to address the underlying barriers to building more affordable housing, such as development costs and regulatory hurdles.

“The most important thing is how funding that’s available is prioritized and how initiatives are incorporated into the bigger strategy that really makes an impact,” Ibarra said.

B.C. is not the first province to explore purchasing unsold condos.

“I know that in Ontario, where there was a similar scheme announced, non-market providers felt it wasn’t a good use of their limited resources,” Whitzman.

With Canada’s 10-year National Housing Strategy set to expire next year, housing advocates say the debate over where governments invest public dollars is likely to intensify.