Affordable housing actions

The Province is committed to making life more affordable for British Columbians and affordable housing in a key focus.

The Province released a comprehensive affordable housing plan on February 20, 2018: "Homes for B.C.: A 30-point Plan for Housing Affordability in British Columbia" (pdf). 

The 30-point plan addresses both housing supply and demand to ensure a stable housing market that works for British Columbians:

• The government’s strategy creates a new role for BC Housing to work with a range of housing partners to build the right supply of housing for British Columbians including  moderate income households.
•  BC Housing’s new HousingHub, will deliver affordable housing working with a broad range of partners  including:  the non-profit sector, faith organizations, the private sector, for-profit builders, all levels of government, post-secondary institutions and Indigenous Peoples.
• First steps to curb speculation, tax fraud and money laundering in B.C. real estate include: adopting a speculation tax in fall 2018; increasing the foreign buyers’ tax and expanding it to more areas; increasing the property purchase tax and school tax rate on homes over $3 million; and increasing transparency in assignment of pre-sale condo purchases.
• The Province is also taking action to end hidden ownership by collecting more information and ensuring greater transparency and information sharing with law enforcement, tax and other authorities.
• Through partnerships with local governments, the federal government, and the private and not-for-profit sectors, the Province will begin to build 114,000 units of affordable market rental, non-profit, co-op, supported social housing, student housing and owner-purchase housing.
• The government has also deepened affordability in social housing units coming on line.

Other affordable housing actions include:

• In September 2017 the Province took concrete action to improve services for renters and landlords by providing $7 million over three years to increase resources in the Residential Tenancy Branch in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
  A new compliance unit will allow the branch to take meaningful action against landlords and tenants who are repeat or serious offenders.
• The Province has closed the unfair fixed-tern lease loophole and eliminated the geographic rent increase clause from the Residential Tenancy regulation and the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy regulations.

The content on this website is periodically reviewed and updated by the Province of British Columbia as per the date noted on each page: April 6, 2018.