Prime Minister Mark Carney and Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Gregor Robertson, right, tour a home manufacturing facility in Ottawa on June 1.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
On Sept. 22, the Government of Canada announced the launch of the Canada Rental Protection Fund, the latest – and now largest – program in the push to preserve existing affordable housing.
Various other governments have launched similar programs in recent years, including Toronto’s Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition Program in 2021, British Columbia’s Rental Protection Fund in 2023, Nova Scotia’s Community Housing Capital Fund in 2024 and the Edmonton Rental Protection Program this summer.
The Canada Rental Protection Fund was announced in Budget 2024 and is an initiative under Build Canada Homes, the new Crown corporation. Seeded with $1.5-billion, it will disburse grants or loans to non-profits, housing societies and co-ops, among other mission-driven groups, to allow them to buy existing affordable rental buildings, shielding them from redevelopment.
“This is one of the gaps in the National Housing Strategy,” said Ray Sullivan, Board Chair of the Canadian Housing Acquisition Fund (CHAF), which will administer the program. “The underlying principles seem to be supply, supply, supply, and we will build our way out of this problem, but we know from research we’re actually losing more affordable housing in the private market than what we’re building through programs in the National Housing Strategy.”
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According to Mr. Sullivan, the national ratio is 1 to 11, meaning that for every home being built with government assistance, 11 existing affordable homes in the private market are being lost. The ratio varies by market. Ottawa, for example, is 1 to 30, according to Mr. Sullivan, who calls the growing momentum of such programs a “welcome shift.”
The federal program is modelled on B.C.’s program. Non-profits become prequalified, scour the market for potential buildings to acquire, and bring proposals to the CRPF, which then vets the proposal to ensure it meets the directives of the program.
The general guideline is that buildings have at least 40 per cent of their units at 30 per cent of the median renter household income. From that starting point, the building will then be assessed in a more local context, with factors including how existing rents compare to the market, the depth of affordability within the building, and local housing needs.
“We know that when non-profits – instead of a REIT, speculator, or private owner – buy these buildings, they will stabilize those rents and those tenancies are more protected,” said Mr. Sullivan. “Far too often we see that when that ‘for sale’ sign goes up on the front lawn, too many tenants end up on the street.”
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Similar to the B.C. Rental Protection Fund, which has disbursed more than half of the $500-million it launched with so far, the federal program will hope to achieve equitable geographical results, meaning the goal is to spread the money around.
The federal government says the $1.5-billion program has the potential to protect 7,000 affordable rental units, which implies an average price of $214,000 per unit. According to commercial real estate firm Colliers, the average price per unit for buildings that transacted in the second quarter of 2026 was $308,000 per unit in the Greater Toronto Area and $325,355 in Metro Vancouver, meaning the funding will have to be spread out across different markets if they want to get to 7,000 units.
The Canada Housing Acquisition Fund (CHAF) is led by a nine-person board of directors, while the Canada Rental Protection Fund (CRPF) will be led by a seven-person investment committee that will review the acquisition proposals. Similar to the B.C. Rental Protection Fund, the federal government is not directly involved in the operations of the CRPF, which operates like an arm’s-length organization.
To help get the CRPF up and running, CHAF has brought in several members of the B.C. RPF, including T’Brenn Kelly-McKinnon, who is serving as interim-CEO of the B.C. RPF and also chief investment officer of CHAF. The entities remain separate, although they are well co-ordinated due to their shared mission, and could also potentially co-invest together.
Where the federal program differs from other existing programs is that funding can be provided as a grant, but also a repayable loan, the latter of which would have a 10-year term and allow the CRPF’s purse to be replenished over time.
Mr. Sullivan says that around $1-billion of the $1.5-billion for the program will be distributed as low-interest loans while around $480-million will be distributed as grants. Mr. Kelly-McKinnon says the CRPF is envisioned as a 30-year program, but the intent is to deploy the vast majority of the $1.5-billion within the first five years, so capital can be redeployed in later years.
Groups that receive funding for acquisitions will have to remain in compliance – with affordability, financials and more – through regular reporting.
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One recurring criticism of B.C.’s program is that taxpayer money is going toward “protecting” old buildings that may need to be redeveloped down the line regardless and that the funding would be better used to subsidize new affordable housing.
Asked to address that critique, Mr. Sullivan said both of those things are needed, the latter continues to happen, and that programs like this are doing more of the former.
“What we’re doing is taking an asset and moving it into the non-market column. That not only stabilizes those tenancies and those rents, but then becomes an asset that is removed from the speculative private market,” he said. “If that means 30 or even 25 years from now that non-profit redevelops that property, that’s an opportunity. But the people who live there right now would otherwise be displaced, and that’s a lot of what’s driving homelessness and other issues across the country.”
Mr. Sullivan says they’re actively trying to fill the seven-person investment committee, they’ve already received dozens of applications since the program was announced, and they’re aiming to help groups close on acquisitions in early 2027. The hope is that if the program is successful, other governments will create similar programs and the federal government will make another contribution in the future.