Homes for People to Boost Rental Supply
New plan released with the aim of increasing housing development in our province.
The provincial government of British Columbia has recently announced a new housing plan aimed at addressing the ongoing housing challenges in the region. The "Homes for People" plan focuses on four key priorities: unlocking more homes faster, delivering better and more affordable homes, supporting those with the greatest housing needs, and creating a housing market that prioritizes people over speculators.
The plan includes delivering more small-scale, multi-unit housing that is affordable for middle-income earners, such as townhomes, duplexes, and triplexes. This will be achieved through zoning changes and partnerships between various stakeholders. The plan also offers forgivable loans for homeowners to build and rent secondary suites below market rates, providing a quick solution to increase affordable rental supply. Additionally, the plan includes building thousands of affordable homes for renters, Indigenous Peoples on and off reserve, women and children leaving violent situations, and building thousands more on-campus student housing units.
The Homes for People plan also introduces a flipping tax to discourage short-term speculation and provides an annual income-tested tax credit of up to $400 per year for renters. Furthermore, it provides more homes and supports for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, streamlines and modernizes permitting to reduce costs and speed up approvals to get homes built faster, and strengthens enforcement of short-term rentals.
The government of British Columbia has committed to investing $4 billion over three years and $12 billion over the next ten years to deliver more homes for people faster. The province is also on track to deliver a projected 108,000 homes completed or under active construction by 2027-28 with tens of thousands more homes to come through other avenues.
In addition to the Homes for People plan, the government is implementing Belonging in BC, a strategy aimed at preventing and reducing homelessness. This plan includes adding 3,900 new supportive housing units and 240 complex-care spaces province-wide, as well as creating multidisciplinary regional response teams designed to rapidly respond to encampments to better support people sheltering outdoors to move inside.
The Homes for People plan has received support from various stakeholders, including developers and mayors across British Columbia. However, some critics have argued that the plan does not go far enough to address the housing crisis in the province.
Learn more at the Government of British Columbia website.
Multifamily Real Estate Services will be attending several information sessions with Housing Minister the Honourable Ravi Kahlon. Legislation is expected to be released in the fall of 2023. We will release new information as it becomes available.