A total of 17 applications to the province’s new home partnership program have been approved for first-time buyers in North and West Vancouver. Fifteen out of 19 applications submitted to the program in North Vancouver were approved and two out of two applications from West Vancouver buyers were approved.
That’s out of a total of 432 applications approved in Metro Vancouver, out of 523 submitted. In the province as a whole, 831 applications were approved out of 1,008 submitted.
The new provincial program aims to help first-time homebuyers by matching the amount they have saved towards a down payment, up to five per cent of the purchase price, to a maximum of $37,500. The mortgage help is essentially provided as a second mortgage on the property, and is payment and interest free for the first five years.
To qualify for the program, all owners on the property title must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents, have lived in B.C. for the past 12 months, have never owned a home anywhere in the world, have a household income of less than $150,000 and plan to make the home their permanent residence for five years after buying.
The maximum price of a home that qualifies for the program is $750,000.
To buy a North Vancouver townhouse or condo worth $750,000 under the program, potential home buyers would have to save up $52,500, which combined with the province’s $37,500 would bring the down payment to the required 12 per cent of the purchase price.
Critics of the plan have suggested the program serves to drive up home prices even higher.
