About one-third of British Columbians live in rental housing. On Tuesday, September 29, 2026, the BC Green Party announced a major housing plan intended to protect renters and improve housing affordability.

The first significant proposal in the plan involved restarting the Community Housing Fund, which was established by the BC NDP in 2018 to support affordable rental housing. BC Budget 2026 cancelled the fund’s active intake and indefinitely postponed future intakes, putting a number of proposed affordable-housing projects on hold.

The second consequential proposal involved province-wide vacancy control. Currently, rental increases are allowed once every 12 months during a tenancy, subject to the province’s maximum allowable rent increase. When a tenancy ends, landlords may generally set the initial rent for the next tenancy based on market value. What the BC Greens are proposing is to tie rent increases to a unit, rather than a tenant. Annual increases would continue to be determined by the Residential Tenancy Branch.

As with most economic policy, there are trade-offs, with some groups benefiting and other groups bearing the costs, whether intended or unintended.

Who would benefit from vacancy control?

The clearest beneficiaries would be existing renters as well as renters moving into previously occupied homes. Vacancy control could moderate rent increases between tenancies and reduce the financial incentive for landlords to end existing tenancies in order to charge a higher rent for the next tenant. Rent control generally is seen to lower rents for households living in controlled units and can provide greater stability and predictability.

What are the trade-offs?

The central concern with vacancy controls is that it can reduce the availability of rental housing supply. This can be particularly impactful when the maximum allowable rent increases are below the rate of inflation, or do not account for increases in housing taxes at various levels of government. Some rental housing providers may convert their properties to other uses, while other potential new rental property owners may decide against creating new rental housing.

We have seen this dynamic play out in the past. When rent controls and restrictive regulations were first introduced to the BC rental market in 1974, investors came to view condominium development as more attractive as it was free of price controls. As a result, purpose-built rental construction declined in comparison to condominiums. Rent control provisions were formally repealed and eliminated in 1984.

In addition, housing quality of rent-controlled units is found to be lower compared to uncontrolled units. This is likely because rental housing providers are less able to increase rents to cover increasing maintenance and renovation costs.

Conclusion

Overall, and as outlined above, using rent controls to improve affordability comes with significant trade-offs. They may protect today’s tenants from immediate rent increases, but they do little to address the underlying shortage of homes. Worse, by discouraging investment, new construction, and property maintenance, vacancy control risks making rental housing scarcer and of lower quality over time.

A policy that helps those fortunate enough to secure a controlled unit now, while making it harder for everyone else to find a unit in the future, is not a substitute for building the rental housing BC needs.

BCREA is an independent and non-partisan source of housing information. During the provincial election campaign, BCREA will publish a series of blog posts examining significant housing announcements from the major political parties and assessing their potential effectiveness in improving market-housing affordability.

Authorized by British Columbia Real Estate Association, registered sponsor under the Election Act, 604-683-7702.

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