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Leader points to report alleging thousands of unsold, empty units in the Lower Mainland
Published 2:32 pm Friday, September 25, 2026NDP Leader David Eby, centre, speaks during a press conference in Burnaby on Sept. 25, 2026. He was joined Burnaby East incumbent Rohini Arora, New Westminster-Coquitlam incumbent Jennifer Whiteside, Burnaby-Edmonds incumbent Raj Chouhan and Burnaby North incumbent Janet Routledge.
NDP Leader David Eby promised voters his government would not only increase the province’s speculation tax, but also create a new tax for unsold, empty units. This new “unsold condo tax” would charge a levy equal to two per cent of a condo’s assessed value if it is left vacant for more than one year, with an additional one per cent added each year it remains empty.
If re-elected, Eby says an NDP government would also increase the speculation and vacancy tax by one per cent, bringing it to two per cent for domestic buyers and five per cent for foreign purchasers. Eby announced the plan standing in front of a Burnaby building he said is filled with unsold, empty condo units.
He referenced a report from earlier this month that says these are just some of the 5,000 units sitting vacant in the Lower Mainland, with a combined estimated value of $4.5 billion.
“That’s more than 250 homes in that building alone that somebody wants to buy, somebody wants to move into and start their lives,” he said. “But instead, a deep-pocketed developer is saying, ‘No, I’m going to keep those at an artificially high price because I’m in no rush to sell. Those families aren’t my priority.
’” Real Property Data, which operates a live database on multifamily builds, posted on social media on Sept. 13 that Metro Vancouver has 5,000 unsold condos that “compete, keys ready,” but “nobody has bought them. ” Eby hopes the new taxes would push developers to sell finished homes at prices people can afford, saying one of his goverment’s “biggest priorities” is making sure British Columbians have access to housing.
This plan comes in addition to a joint federal-provincial initiative announced in June to provide government-backed financing to help turn 2,200 vacant condos into affordable rent-to-own housing. The federal and provincial governments each committed $145 million to the program. B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson said that four weeks before an election, Eby’s answer is still more taxes.
“He’s had nine years and a majority to bring down the cost of a home, and he has failed,” Doerkson said in a news release. “NDP taxes and red tape are the reason homes are too expensive, and every new tax on housing ends up in the price a family pays.
” Doerkson said a Conservative government would bring down the cost of building and buying a home so more homes get built and families can afford to live in them. The release did not specify how.
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