Condo buildings in downtown Vancouver.
Friday June 19, 2026 | VANCOUVER, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
As many as 2,200 vacant condos in Vancouver will quickly be made available as affordable new homes for British Columbians.
The announcement was made by Prime Minister Mark Carney and BC Premier David Eby on Thursday June 18 in Vancouver, just ahead of Carney being featured as attending the FIFA World Cup 2026 Canada-Qatar match at BC Place.
Condos-into-affordable homes announcement on June 18, 2026 in Vancouver (from left): BC Premier David Eby; BC Housing Minister Christine Boyle; and Prime Minister Mark Carney. [livestream]
BC Minister of Housing and Municipal Afairs Christine Boyle was with Carney and Eby at the condo conversion announcement in Vancouver yesterday, as was federal Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson (a former mayor of Vancouver).
Condos-into-affordable homes announcement on June 18, 2026 in Vancouver (from left): BC Premier David Eby; BC Housing Minister Christine Boyle; federal Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson; and Prime Minister Mark Carney. [livestream]
Innovative financing tools:
The new Canada-British Columbia Partnership on Condo Conversion (see federal news release / BC news release) through Build Canada Homes and BC Housing will provide innovative financing tools to leverage the conversion of more than 2,200 vacant condo units into affordable homes.
Those homes will primarily if not entirely be in Vancouver, in what the federal government has called “priority growth areas”.
“This is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to increase housing supply – welcoming British Columbians to new, affordable homes as quickly as possible,” according to the federal government.
This innovative action will produce a similar result (but with an entirely different mechanism) to what the BC NDP government did in 2024 under then Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon to essentially overnight provide ready-to-buy/move-in housing by disallowing the use of family-livable condos, townhomes and houses for short-term rentals (which overnight freed up about 20,000 homes).
For the current condo owners (corporations and real estate investors) this is also probably good news, to free up their capital investment in over-supply condos that were never purchased.
According to Realtor.ca there are about 3,100 condos for sale in Vancouver at this time (that would include used/resale).
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