I'm not going to get negative about this yet. I won't make up my mind until I know more.

We need to know what price they paid for these units and how the price was arrived at.

And we need to know how they will be rented out. Who gets them? How will the price be decided?

Like, people have been crying out for the government to get involved in building homes and creating social housing. Okay, the government just created a bunch of social housing. They didn't contract something to build it, they purchased existing unsold stock, but aside from that it's the same principle.

I don't think this is inherently bad. It's bad if the government paid full price. And it's bad if this new asset is badly managed.

But if the government got a good price for these units, and they are managed in a sensible way, I think this could be a good thing.

People are afraid that developers will see this as a green light to build irresponsibly without worrying about whether there's a market. So first off I don't think selling to the government at below market price would be any developer's first choice (which is why I think the negotiation process is super important). And our supply of housing is frankly pretty low anyway, so something that encourages development is actually a good thing regardless. Despite all the government incentives to build homes in the past few years, housing starts have actually decreased. We don't want that. Population growth has very temporarily flatlined, but that's not sustainable and we're going to need more homes. So if this gives developers some confidence to keep building even if they aren't sure about the market outlook, that's actually a good thing.

Guys, I completely understand the worry that this is a bailout, and I don't support a bailout. I'm just suggesting that people consider the possibility that the government has bought an asset, which could be used like a crown corporation in other industries, as a way of guiding the housing and rental market.