It sounds like the developer wants BC Housing or some other government agency to fund the project and make it profitable for him.

“We got to the point where we just had to look at some options, which we are doing right now,” said Shannon Kowalko, director of marketing and community relations for Mike Geric Construction. “Part of the process of looking at transitioning this to a rental project is that we would have to communicate to our ­buyers.”

Kowalko said the company has been working over the last week to contact all buyers with contracts to purchase in the building. She said there are about 90 of them, after 30 per cent of buyers rescinded contracts earlier this year when the company changed the terms of sale due to rising costs.

A combination of rising labour and material costs, delays, supply chain issues and high interest rates driving up carrying costs contributed to the need to re-evaluate the project, Kowalko said.

She stressed no firm decision has been made on what will happen, but they are in the process of making the transition from condominium to rental and the first part of that is speaking with each of the buyers first.

Letters confirming termination of sales agreements are also being sent to purchasers once they have been contacted by the company.

https://www.timescolonist.com/business/condo-project-near-mayfair-likely-to-become-179-unit-rental-building-as-construction-costs-rise-9556383

She stressed no firm decision has been made on what will happen

No decision, but letters of termination?

No decision, but letters of termination?

I guess technically, they have made no firm decision on what things look like moving forward, but terminating all the contracts is a certain.

I suppose if interest rates go down to 1.75% by completion, they can start selling again, maybe even at higher prices. Not sure if the original buyers would have legal recourse in that event.

I'm no expert by my understanding is that IF a developer builds a development and designates it as a strata then rents those strata units out CRA deems that as a sale of said units. This being the case the Developer then has to pay the appropriate sales taxes (GST & Property Purchase Tax) on each unit.. So ..... if this is the case it is highly doubtful that the Developer will keep the strata in place.

That’s interesting info. I had never heard that before.

Langford encourages all of their rental buildings to be strata titled (or at least it did, during the Young era). I had never heard of a developer having to pay taxes on each unit at completion, but I will look into this.