I recently attended a meet-and-greet at Metrotown Library with mayoral and council candidates for Burnaby’s 2026 municipal election. Housing affordability was the central theme.
Conspicuously absent from the candidates' introductions was any mention of Burnaby’s Inclusionary Housing Policy. Just four years ago, Council touted this framework as an important step toward tackling affordability and countering gentrification in Burnaby's town centres.
Born out of the 2019 Mayor’s Task Force on Community Housing - which was itself a product of the 2016–2018 Metrotown demoviction protests - the policy required developers to provide permanent inclusionary housing equivalent to the greater of the number of rental units demolished or approximately 20% of the new market units, whether strata or market rental. Rents were capped at 20% below CMHC median market rents.
Supported by substantial density bonuses, the Inclusionary Housing Policy aimed to preserve affordability after years of losing low-cost housing to the bulldozer.
That was then.
Over the past two years, Council has substantially dismantled this policy. While they highlighted their consultations with the Urban Development Institute (UDI) and developers, renters were absent from the conversation. The detailed financial analyses cited in planning documents were not made public.
What remains is a shell of the social policy developed in 2019 with a diverse range of stakeholders to provide housing for Burnaby residents with lower incomes.
What Has Changed?
Since 2024, Council has rewritten the Inclusionary Housing Program. Among the most consequential changes:
- Eliminated the 20% rent discount. Inclusionary rents are now capped at the full city-wide CMHC median market rent.
- Raised income eligibility thresholds. The new income criteria effectively exclude the lower half in Burnaby’s renter income distribution - the demographic the original policy was intended to serve.
- Slashed inclusionary housing requirements. Permanent inclusionary housing targets have been reduced to 0% for market rental redevelopments and developments in R1–R4 districts. For strata developments in high-density R5–R8 districts, requirements have dropped to 5% in eastern Burnaby and 10% in western Burnaby. Under these rules, a 50-unit lower-cost rental building in Metrotown can now be demolished and replaced by a luxury market rental tower without the developer having to provide a single permanent inclusionary unit.
- Weakened affordability in rental replacement buildings. Replacement units for displaced tenants beyond the reduced inclusionary requirement - which for rental redevelopments is now 0% - revert to market rents when tenants decline their Right of First Refusal to return or later vacate their replacement unit.
- Applied policy rollbacks retroactively. Council allowed developers to resubmit active rezoning applications under the new regulations. City staff estimate that 23 projects involving approximately 1,100 units could see committed affordability reduced or eliminated entirely. Critics rightly labelled this a “bait-and-switch”: density grants remain while affordability commitments disappear.
These changes affect affordability in two ways: they raise the rents eligible tenants will be charged, and they change who qualifies in the first place. Even a unit rented below market rates offers no relief to a lower-income household if the eligibility rules demand an income far higher than what they earn.
The Income Test Turned Upside Down
Under the former Rental Use Zoning Policy, eligibility was based on BC Housing’s Housing Income Limits (HILs). For a one-bedroom unit, annual household income could not exceed $58,000. The policy was designed to help lower-income renters.
The 2026 Zoning Bylaw fundamentally changed that approach. With the 20% rent discount eliminated, inclusionary rents are now capped at the full CMHC median market rent. (While providers could charge less, that has yet to be seen in the real world.)
Under the new eligibility rules, a household must earn enough for the rent to represent between 20% and 30% of gross household income. For a one-bedroom apartment, that translates to a required income range of $64,520 to $96,780.
Using the CMHC median rents cited by the City:
| Unit type |
2025 CMHC median market rent |
Former BC Housing HIL maximum gross income |
New qualifying gross income range |
|
|
| Studio |
$1,325 |
<= $58,000 |
$53,000 – $79,500 |
| 1-BR |
$1,613 |
<= $58,000 |
$64,520 – $96,780 |
| 2-BR |
$1,950 |
<= $72,500 |
$78,000 – $117,000 |
| 3-BR |
$2,400 |
<= $86,000 |
$96,000 – $144,000 |
| 4-BR+ |
$2,400 |
<= $107,500 |
$96,000 – $144,000 |
The result for future applicants is striking: Households that previously qualified for one-, two-, and three-bedroom units are now turned away for earning too little. (While the policy accounts for four-bedroom inclusionary units, none have actually been built to date.)
The income test has effectively been turned upside down. Where the former policy set a ceiling to prevent high earners from taking affordable housing (earn too much and you do not qualify), the new rules add a floor (earn too little and you are excluded).
The Median Rent Trap
As Burnaby demolishes older, lower-rent housing and replaces it with more expensive buildings, overall market rates rise - pulling the city’s median market rent up with it.
If newer developments eventually account for more than half of Burnaby’s purpose-built rental stock, the median rent for a one-bedroom unit could easily exceed $2,100 per month (even without factoring in inflation), reflecting rates at the lower end of newer market rental buildings.
Under the new policy's 20%–30% income test, a $2,100 monthly rent will require an annual household income between $84,000 and $126,000 just to qualify for an inclusionary one-bedroom unit of approximately net 500 square feet.
This creates a troubling feedback loop: as older, more affordable housing disappears, the income required to access "inclusionary" housing scales further out of reach for lower-income renters.
Affordable for Whom?
The campaign rhetoric about affordability is significantly out of step with the reality of Burnaby’s housing policies.
The Inclusionary Housing Policy has lost its former 20% rent discount, drastically scaled back its housing requirements, and raised income eligibility to levels that effectively shut out the lower half in Burnaby’s renter distribution. For these households, the issue is not simply that the rents are unaffordable; it is that the rules prevent them from applying in the first place.
Inclusionary housing labelled "affordable" is now tailored to households far better off than those the 2019 Housing Task Force's social policy initiatives were intended to help.
Up next: We take a closer look at Council’s campaign for family housing under the Burnaby Housing Authority, where a familiar pattern is emerging: affordability benchmarks that sound generous in press releases, but fail lower-income families on the ground.
