Below-market housing maintained in Hastings-Sunrise

The Capri and Cove apartment buildings sit a few blocks away from each other, tucked in a corner near the north-western edge of Hastings-Sunrise. Despite being surrounded by the daily bustle of nearby streets like Dundas, Nanaimo and McGill, and the train tracks that connect to the nearby port, the area is a quiet, tranquil neighbourhood, filled with green spaces and traffic-calmed streets that lie nestled between the routes of commute and trade. 

For tenants of the Capri and Cove, there’s now more certainty that they’ll be able to stay in their homes after New Chelsea Society, a non-profit housing provider, acquired the two East Van apartment buildings with support from provincial and federal government programs.

These three-storey apartment buildings, which boast a modest 20 units each, are deeply affordable, with current tenants paying about half the market rental rate. The buildings had been up for sale, but with New Chelsea’s purchase, the homes will be kept at below-market rates for the next 20 years. 

New Chelsea Society has 23 properties across the Lower Mainland, accounting for about 1,500 units. The society was formed in 1952 in association with the Royal Canadian Legion to provide housing for military veterans returning from World War II.   

“It grew over the years and eventually transitioned from housing vets only to housing the general public,” Ahmed Omran, CEO of New Chelsea Society, told Vancity Lookout. Now, the society mainly houses seniors, families and people with disabilities. 

Funded through the province’s Rental Protection Fund (RPF), a program that partners with non-profits to buy rental buildings at risk of being lost to the private market, New Chelsea received $6.8 million toward the building purchases. 

“Protecting homes people already rely on is one of the most impactful tools we have to ease pressures on renters,” Christine Boyle, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs, said of the program.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) also provided the society with a mortgage at a favourable rate. The provincial funding accounted for about half of the buildings' total purchase price, with the society covering the other half through its CMHC mortgage, according to Omran. 

The society looked at numerous properties around the Lower Mainland, but ultimately the Hastings-Sunrise apartments stood out for their reasonable sale price, good condition for their age, and affordable rents paid by current tenants, Omran said.

A stipulation of the government funding and financing is that the society must keep at least 16 of the 40 units at those current low rates – which range from around $1,100 for a studio to $1,500 for a two-bedroom – for the next 20 years, regardless of tenant turnover. That’s different from the status quo for rental homes in B.C., where a lack of vacancy control means landlords can increase rents as much as they want between tenancies. New Chelsea will only be able to bump rents on these units by a few per cent each year, in line with provincial limits for ongoing tenancies. 

The other 24 units don’t have the same affordability restrictions, meaning the society can raise rents for new tenants. However, the society plans to keep those asking rates between 20 to 30 per cent below market.

“Because our mandate is to provide affordable housing, we're going to turn them over at a rent that is not way up to the market. We're going to try to keep it as affordable as we can,” Omran said. 

Asking rents in Vancouver have been falling since summer 2024, but still remain the highest in Canada. For a 2-bedroom, asking prices have fallen from around $3,850 in June 2024 to about $3,250 in early 2026, according to Zumper.

Given the relatively low rents and policy incentives for long-time renters to stay put, there’s very little turnover at the two buildings. For example, the Capri on North Nanaimo has had no tenant turnover for the past three years, and tenants live there for more than 20 years on average, according to a press release from the province about the building purchases.

At the purchase announcement earlier this week, Betty, a longtime resident in one of the buildings, said she was anxious when she first heard the place was up for sale, but was able to breathe a sigh of relief when she learned about the arrangement with New Chelsea, according to the Vancouver Sun. 

When a rental building is sold in Vancouver, tenants are often confronted with questions and fears about the new owner’s intentions. Questions like: “Are they going to renovict us? Are they going to tear it down and build something new? What's going to happen to us?” Omran explained. 

“That fear was gone immediately when [tenants] found out [the new owner is] a non-profit that is focused on housing,” Omran said, after meeting with many of the Capri and Cove tenants at an open house the society hosted after the purchase went through.

The province also provided $800,000 to New Chelsea for building improvements. The late 1960s-era buildings are still in quite good shape considering their age, but they do need a few major repairs. The building on North Nanaimo Street, in particular, needs some tender loving care in the form of a new roof and a repair to the membrane over the underground parkade. Omran said those repairs will happen over the next few years.

Omran sees the Rental Protection Fund as a “great, innovative” way to preserve affordable housing supply without building new developments. “We can no longer just rely on the government funding to build new buildings … that's the old formula, and it's not enough to address the affordability issue,” he said. 

Overall, the RPF has been a success story. Established in 2023, the $500 million fund was expected to provide relatively affordable rents for 2,000 households. The province said the program has already surpassed that goal, having funded non-profit acquisitions of nearly 2,200 units while still having $150 million remaining in the fund. So far, the funding has worked out to about $160,000 in provincial contributions per home on average. 

In response to questions from Vancity Lookout, a spokesperson for the RPF said the program’s fiscal success has been driven “by working closely with our non-profit partners to support careful deal-making and thorough due diligence. This helps ensure properties are purchased at fair market value.”

There’s no specific deadline for spending the remaining funds, but the RPF will continue to help non-profits purchase existing rental buildings in Vancouver and across the province.

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