May 7th, 2024

As noted in previous newsletters, the Province launched the BC Builds initiative in February 2024 with the intent to deliver 8,000 to 10,000 homes for middle income earners over the next five years. The Government has committed $950 million to the program and there will be $4 billion in low-cost financing ($2 billion each from the both the Federal and Provincial governments).  

As part of the initiative, on April 29th, the Province announced a new Housing Development Opportunities online platform to connect private and non-profit residential developers and housing operators to First Nation, government, non-profit and community landowners that have pre-zoned sites. For each site, the platform “… includes details about the property, evaluation criteria for housing proposals and proposal submission deadlines.” The new platform launched with eight development opportunities: 

• City of Kamloops, 377 Tranquille Rd. 
• City of Kelowna, 1428 St. Paul St. 
• District of Elkford, 421 Boivin Rd. 
• District of Sooke, 6671 Wadams Way 
• Municipality of North Cowichan, 9800 Willow St. (Chemainus) 
• Township of Langley, 20230-72B Ave. 
• Township of Langley, 27200 Block of Fraser Hwy. 
• Township of Langley, 7883-199 St. 

There are information sessions for these projects that are occurring this week. You can sign up for them on the platform.  

Under BC Builds, the landowners must maintain their “… fee simple interest on the development sites and may enter into long-term leases with project partners, where appropriate …”. In other cases, landowners may be seeking “… a developer/builder to provide a turn-key building to an operator …”. The projects are also supposed to “… be financially sustainable without the need of operating subsidy from BC Housing.” 

In addition, rents for projects will be targeted to middle income households for a minimum of ten years as follows: 

• “Units with two or more bedrooms: Middle income households are those whose gross household income does not exceed the 75th income percentile for families with children, as determined by BC Housing from time to time; and  
• Units with less than two bedrooms: Middle income households are those whose gross household income does not exceed the 75th income percentile for families without children, as determined by BC Housing from time to time.” 

In addition to access to pre-zoned sites, local governments must commit to expedite approvals, so projects can move “… from concept to construction in 12-18 months …”. BC Builds can also provide low-cost construction and take-out financing for eligible project partners; although longer-term rent requirements will apply for projects receiving take-out financing. Grant funding is also available for non-profits, but they would need to agree to longer-term rent requirements and even lower rents for 20% of the units in the projects.   

For more details on the BC Builds Rental Supply Program, please see their Program Framework.  

February 27th, 2024

On February 13th, 2024, the Government unveiled its BC Builds program, a cornerstone of its Homes for People housing plan. BC Builds will create partnership opportunities for private sector builders, non-profits, governments and First Nations to deliver below-market rental homes. With the addition of Federal funding announced the following week, the program will include $4 billion in low-cost financing and $950 million in grants. Budget 2024 also announced an additional $198 million in operating and capital funding.

Run through BC Housing, the program will initially focus on rental housing and is intended to be scaled to local markets with rents not to exceed 30% of Middle Income Limits. The full details on how these will be calculated have not yet been released.

A program framework document is available on the Ministry’s website which provides a more detailed explanation of the program eligibility criteria and process.