Several condo owners are being taken to court by BC Housing, accused of lying to qualify for a below market priced condo tower here in Victoria.
The Vivid development downtown, straddling the block between Yates and Johnson Streets just up from Blanshard, was constructed with a $53-million low-interest loan from the province. That way the developer could sell the condo units at below market rates.
To qualify, buyers had to agree that the unit would be their primary residence and that they made under a certain amount of yearly income.
"What we discovered in one of our audits was that many of the people that bought those units were in fact investors who bought them, not to live in, but to in some cases rent out and in some cases use AirBNB," BC Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon told CFAX. "It's infuriating to know that investors would take an opportunity that was created for people to get homeownership and exploit it in this way."
Kahlon says since discovering this issue, they've changed the application process for future projects to make sure it doesn't happen again. In the meantime, BC Housing is taking some of the Vivid owners to court.
"Five of the owners of these units did the right thing and handed the properties back to BC Housing. But there's still five them that remain, so we have no choice but to ensure these homes come back to the public. And so they're going to be seeing BC Housing in court in the coming month."
The owners who returned the units did so by selling them back at the original purchase price.