City of Vancouver ponders foray into market rental housing with new corporation

VANCOUVER — Vancouver City Council is contemplating plans to create a new corporation specifically tasked with developing an estimated 4,000 units of market rental housing on six city properties.

Brad Foster, the director of the Vancouver Housing Development Office, told council in a presentation Tuesday that the units would provide very significant revenues to the city on an annual basis once they are built.

“The key way of doing that is to actually get into the development game. To develop long-term financial proceeds,” he said.

“Nothing that we’re talking about today is going to happen tomorrow. This is about the next set of council, the next set of city managers. Down the road, 25, 30 years down the road, what is the financial picture for the City of Vancouver going to look like, and where is that money going to flow?”

Foster estimated that if all six sites were to be developed in the next three decades, the properties could eventually bring in roughly $250 million a year in net dividends to the city.

A report to council says the six city properties have an assessed value of more than $411 million and the plan would need $8 million in startup costs.

Vancouver would be the sole shareholder of the corporation that would operate as a separate legal entity from the city.

Foster said development agreements would involve the private sector.

“Specially for large projects, we would enter into joint venture deals trying to achieve a 50 per cent equity position. That’s all this (corporation) is trying to do, is boost the city’s equity position in the development deal,” he said.

“The complexity of the development management, the construction management, would be left to the private sector, because that’s what they’re good at. And of course, they would take their 50 per cent share of the revenue and capital appreciation in the project as well.”

The first project that would be tackled by the corporation would be a 100-unit building along Vancouver’s Main Street.

The report to council warns that there is risk involved in rental housing development and operation, “ranging from subpar returns on investment to actual financial loss,” but says those risks can be reduced with proper safeguards.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2025