Foreign buyers should be welcomed to help finance homebuilding with conditions, says Townline Homes CEO Rick Ilich.  Many projects aren't even going forward now as a result of the steep increases to municipal development fees, levies, and tax increases, compounded with new building regulations.
 

These regulations include: energy, emissions and climate action for both provincial and municipal governments plus new provincial accessibility/adaptability and seismic building codes. Together, this has all increased construction costs by nearly 50 per cent,  especially in the City of Vancouver. If the project is even built, these added costs or passed down to renters and buyers.
- Daily Hive, August 2025

While unrestricted foreign buying was a "contributing factor to skyrocketing home prices," Rick Ilich, CEO of Townline Homes Inc. says foreign capital could be a boon for rental housing. 
 

“We propose allowing foreign buyers back into the market but under regulated conditions that require their units be rented out through a professionally managed rental program for the first five years of ownership or the first five years after project completion."
 

“A regulated rental program would help cities … meet provincially mandated housing targets, increase rental supply for locals, prevent empty homes and discourage quick resale for profit."
- BIV News Aug/25.

“I think the net benefit will be better than what the fearmongers are saying, that it’s going to cause unaffordability. It’s already unaffordable,” said Mark Goodman, principal of Goodman Commercial Inc. who specializes in multi-family apartments and development sites. 
 

“We need (housing) supply. In order to get supply, we need money. In order to get money, let it come from a different country and they can rent out the suites and we’ll go back to some type of equilibrium.”

"A statement by B.C. Housing Minister Christine Boyle suggested openness to reform.
 

 “We are … mindful of the federal government’s ban on foreign homeownership, but we are willing to listen to industry experts and find a balance where we can leverage investments and deliver more purpose-built rental homes for people,” she said.

Foreign capital restrictions don’t necessarily make sense in B.C. where there is already an empty homes tax, said Thomas Davidoff, a real estate finance professor with the UBC Sauder School of Business.
 

Davidoff said buyers of existing apartment buildings are investing in rental housing no matter the country they come from.
 

“They are just financing development and they should be greeted as affordability liberators, not attacked and certainly not banned,” he said.
 

“As long as they’re occupied, it’s great. If you want a half million units a year” – a doubling of the current rate of construction that the Prime Minister has said is a goal – “you need all the financing you can get.”

Andrey Pavlov, finance professor with Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business, said B.C.’s original 15-per-cent property transfer tax on foreign buyers was targeted and necessary.
 

But the federal ban on foreign buyers he called "absurd" and
"ideological.” 
 

“Our economy can greatly benefit from foreign capital.”
 

“Projects are becoming insolvent and not going to get built. “This does not help affordability for anyone... in B.C. and Canada.”

Whether we invite foreign investors to help fund housing may be a moot point.
 

Prominent BC economist Jock Finlayson says investors are fleeing Canada, per new National Bank research.
 

"Canada's capital flow picture remains sobering and potentially problematic." Non-residents have cooled on Canada. Canadians too have increased investments in the U.S. since the start of the year.  "Canadians have accumulated a rather stunning $124 billion of American securities" over the same period."

The Liberal government launched Build Canada Housing, a $13-billion investment spread over multiple years with results yet to be seen. 

University of Alberta professor and real estate expert Dr. Murtaza Haider writes: "A $13 billion investment will not solve the housing crisis.  Overcoming a shortfall of millions of homes requires trillions of dollars, an investment so large that it rivals Canada’s GDP."